Turtle Feasts and the Commensal Politics of Food: Teasing Out the Flavors of African-American Foodways in New England

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on four sites in Massachusetts: the eighteenth-century Isaac Royall House in Medford; the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century Boston-Higginbotham House on Nantucket; the early nineteenth-century Joy Street tenement house in Boston; and the early nineteenth-century African Meeting House in Boston. These are domestic contexts, with the exception of the African Meeting House, which also includes remains from community and catered events. The Royall House site was home to enslaved Africans and African Americans, but free blacks occupied the other three sites. Analysis of these sites suggests that in New England other factors besides African heritage influenced the types of meat and plants people consumed, including urban or rural locations, economic status of individuals, and home-raising of animals. Minor and idiosyncratic items in assemblages help identify features of African-American foodways in New England. Close contextual analysis of such items highlights their cultural importance and role in the region’s commensal politics.