The story of American food in the mid-to late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries involves changes in production, trade, cuisine, and consumption. During these years, American settlers witnessed not only the birth of a nation but also the emergence of a national economy based on the circulation of such foodstuffs as wheat, corn, livestock, and rice. Overall, the period was a time of increased prosperity for settlers able to take part in the most lucrative forms of agriculture and trade. This prosperity was reflected in the diet of the wealthy, who chose from an abundant and diverse selection of foodstuffs.
Growth throughout the original colonies and new territories was not uniform, however, and settlers did not profit equally from the changes. In particular, many Amerindians and African slaves, whose knowledge, labor, and land proved essential to the success of the new nation, were excluded from the benefits of economic progress. Poorer white Americans also did not necessarily see a significant change in their standard of living. Indeed, economies and ways of life, including culinary customs, varied widely by racial and socioeconomic status, as well as by region. White ethnic groups also practiced unique traditions that contributed to regional habits.
A few commonalities did exist among groups, however; for instance, corn (often called Indian corn or maize) and pork remained staples well into the nineteenth century for virtually all. Additionally, women largely were responsible for food preparation, and scholars at the turn of the twenty-first century are particularly interested in examining American-authored cookbooks, first published in the late eighteenth century and often written by women, for information about women's lives and beliefs. In spite of these similarities, regional variations in the ways people produced, obtained, prepared, and consumed food in the early years of the nation are significant enough to merit separate treatment here.
Much of the wealth in New England during the colonial era derived from the shipping trade, which carried goods to Britain, Continental Europe, and the Caribbean, a major market for American foodstuffs. In particular, New England settlers produced and sent large quantities of dried fish to southern Europe and the Caribbean, which also received livestock, salt beef and pork, butter, and cheese. Some cheese and foodstuffs went to the American South as well.
In the earlier part of the eighteenth century, New England farmers supplied the Caribbean and southern Europe with wheat, corn, and flour, too, but by the latter half of the century, Maryland, Virginia, and the middle colonies, which included New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, had surpassed New England in the production of bread-stuffs. Indeed, New England settlers as a whole came to depend on the middle colonies and the South for their own wheat as well. Inhabitants of the middle colonies also produced salted beef and pork for the Caribbean and southern Europe, which in the late eighteenth century experienced unusually bad harvests that drove up the price and demand for American wheat.
New England dietary habits have been studied in more detail than those of other regions, and research suggests that the seasonal diet of the early colonial period had given way by the late eighteenth century to a more diversified fare throughout the year. In colonial times, settlers subsisted mainly on breads made with corn, which Amerindians taught them how to grow and cook, as well as other corn-based dishes, such as hasty pudding and other cornmeal mushes or porridges. Colonists also made breads from a corn and rye mix. By the early nineteenth century, however, wealthier inhabitants were using wheat grain and flour.
Salt pork and beef were the most popular meats in New England, and New England settlers in general adhered to the English dietary preference for meat by consuming it in increasing quantities. Early colonists depended on wild game, but later inhabitants used it only as a supplement. The consumption of butter and cheese also increased, and by the nineteenth century, families of moderate means could eat it year-round.
The production of garden vegetables, such as pumpkins, squashes, beans, and peas—many of which also had Amerindian origins—had increased by the nineteenth century, too, and could be eaten year-round by the more wealthy. Peas and beans often were boiled with salt pork to form a kind of porridge or stew; baked beans also were a popular dish. These one-pot meals were mainstays for poorer families, who also consumed turnips and, by the late eighteenth century, potatoes. On the other hand, well-to-do residents could partake of such imported luxuries as oranges, limes, coffee, and chocolate.
Archaeological research into the trash sites of homes shows further disparity between the foods consumed by wealthy and poor families. Although chickens were prevalent in New England, they were eaten more frequently by the wealthy. The wealthy also seem to have eaten more expensive cuts of meat, while poorer families depended more on fish and shellfish, which, however, were consumed by all classes. Settlers also grew apples across New England and used them in pies and cider, which along with beer was a ubiquitous beverage.
Some New England settlers thus experienced a significant increase in their daily standards of consumption in the late eighteenth century. The middle colonies, endowed with richer soils, may have been the site of less noticeable changes. In large port cities, such as New York and Philadelphia, the wealthy continued to eat better foods. However, the French Revolution, which began in 1789, had a profound impact on upper-class cuisine, which incorporated the ragouts, soups, and ice cream introduced by exiled cooks. These cooks also founded the first restaurants, a French invention, up and down the eastern seaboard and in New Orleans.
Among farmers, a simple if ample diet still reigned. The Dutch in New York and the Germans in Pennsylvania were especially known for eating a wide variety of dairy products, fruits, and vegetables, including cottage cheese, coleslaw, and sauerkraut. Among German immigrants, pork was popular and was turned into sausages, filled pig's stomachs, and scrapple, a boiled pudding of pork and buckwheat.
Less fortunate than the white settlers were the region's Amerindian inhabitants, who were gradually forced west, especially after the Louisiana Purchase (1803), in which the United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France. Although many Amerindians by the mid-to late eighteenth century were raising livestock and crops for consumption and trade, the United States government preferred strategies of removal to those of assimilation. Amerindians also faced food shortages by the late eighteenth century because of the depletion of game and other forest resources. Some Amerindians experienced shortages because of their increased focus on producing goods for trade. Although much American culinary culture can trace its roots to Amerindian practice, Amerindians themselves were not incorporated wholeheartedly into the United States.
Colonial-era planters depended on tobacco for their livelihood, but those in Maryland and Virginia increasingly began to grow corn, and more so wheat, by the late eighteenth century to supply the Caribbean and southern Europe, as well as New England. In the Carolinas, Georgia, and other parts of the South, rice became a major export crop during the eighteenth century and continued to be produced into the nineteenth. Some slaves, familiar with rice cultivation in Africa, contributed greatly to the rise of rice as a staple commodity by providing both technical knowledge and labor. Slaves also worked on sugar plantations established in the Lower Mississippi Valley during the late eighteenth century. By the early nineteenth century, other American markets were importing sugar from the lower Mississippi in significant quantities.
Slaves also transformed Southern cuisine by preparing most of the food on the plantations, as well as by using ingredients unfamiliar to white settlers. Barbecuing became a favorite method of food preparation adopted from Caribbean Indians by slaves. Okra, too, was a popular ingredient after arriving either directly from Africa or from Africa via the Caribbean. The wealthiest planters lived lavishly on elaborate breakfasts, dinners, and suppers of eggs, ham, fish, fowl, seafood, cheese, apples, cakes, pickles, marmalades, creams, sweetmeats, jellies, rum, and Madeira. The less moneyed planters may not have lived as luxuriously, but the wealthy did set a standard for lavish eating that others emulated.
Slaves and poorer whites lived on less exalted fare, depending on the staples of pork and corn. Corn was used to make breads, cakes, mush, hominy, and grits, all of which wealthier settlers ate, too. Sweet potatoes also occupied a paramount place in a less affluent diet, and for many, turkeys, rabbits, partridges, squirrels, opossums, and other wild animals provided an important supplement to pork. Some slaves were allowed to cultivate gardens, raise livestock, and hunt, but others did not receive adequate provisions or have the opportunity to produce their own food. Standard slave rations included corn and, in some areas, salted herring or, occasionally, meat. Those who had gardens produced cabbages, collard greens, turnips, and other vegetables. Some slaves also raised hogs and chickens, while others sold surplus goods to their masters and in markets.
Slaves around New Orleans, too, had opportunities to grow produce for the market, and Amerindians also grew and sold crops in what was perhaps the most cosmopolitan region of the time. There, French, Spanish, African, Amerindian, and, later, English influences mixed to produce a unique culture and cuisine that became known as Creole. Indeed, for most of the eighteenth century, European settlers in the area depended heavily on trade with Amerindians for basic foodstuffs, including cornmeal, bear oil, poultry, vegetables, fish, and game. Colonists also emulated Amerindians in using a mix of agriculture, hunting, gathering, fishing, livestock raising, and trading to supply their daily needs.
Lower Mississippi cookery had a similarly multiethnic provenance, and many settlers adopted Amerindian foods and methods of food preparation. Sa-gamité, or corn boiled in water with butter or bacon fat, was a popular dish among many settlers. African slaves also had an impact on the diet and incorporated rice into many of the region's dishes, including rice with red beans. Various types of fish and shellfish also formed the basis of bisques, gumbos, and jambalayas. The latter two dishes have names that could be of African, Choctaw, and French origin and represent the diversity that characterized the region overall.
The western territories, which included western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, the land around the Appalachians, and much of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, were for most of the eighteenth century and beyond largely isolated from major centers of commerce. Significant routes of trade had opened up, however, by the early nineteenth century, so that corn, flour, and salted pork from the Upper Mississippi Valley, for example, were being sent downriver to New Orleans and thence to the Caribbean. Settlers in the Ohio Valley, Kentucky, and Tennessee had also begun transporting cattle and hogs to the east by the late 1820s. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 facilitated the shipment of grain and other provisions out of the Ohio Valley and presaged the important role the region would assume later in the production of wheat.
Although those participating in these profitable trades enjoyed a high standard of living, less wealthy, Backcountry settlers maintained a more subsistence-oriented diet and depended heavily on game, including bear, venison, rabbit, squirrel, opossum, woodchuck, and turkey. Settlers also consumed nuts, wild fruits, and wild honey. Bear's grease comprised one of the principal flavorings and was often added to various dishes as shortening. Cornmeal made into bread or pone, mush, and porridge was a staple, as were pork and bacon. Whiskey, too, was a popular drink that allowed settlers to trade grain in portable form. A large number of Scots-Irish settlers populated the Backcountry as well and brought the use of potatoes with them. They also made a dish called clabber, which contained sour milk, curds, and whey, and partook of the basic fare that characterized much of the region as a whole.
Food in early America thus was a varied and complex affair. Although some feasted on elaborate preparations, many adhered to a simpler cuisine. A widespread plenty may have been emerging, but the terms also were set for distinctions in wealth and consumption that have continued into the twenty-first century.