Feeding the Revolution: Food and the Continental Army

Photo: Succotash his dish that southern colonist incorporated from Native American cookery



After spending last week writing about food and the civil rights movement, I wondered what I would find out about food and other revolutions. In particular I wanted to know about food in the American revolution, Cuban Independence movement 1868-1898, Mexican Revolution 1910-1920, and revolutionary movements in Africa and Central America in the 1960s and thereafter. Today I’ll start out with the American Revolution. The Continental Army provided rations of flour or bread, beef, vegetables, and rum to the soldiers. Soldiers also obtained food in trade with country folks and “camp traders” who followed the army. Most companies had a designated baker who collected flour and money in exchange for producing regularly allotments of soft bread and hefty profits in the process. Bread distributed as rations came most often in the form of hardtack or ship biscuits. In addition women, freemen who did not go to war, and enslaved Africans feed the ranks of the Continental Army. In addition to producing food for themselves and their customers, women, freemen, and enslaved Africans feed the American Revolution cooking for tens of thousands of soldiers. Succotash his dish that Americans incorporated from Native American cookery. Here’s a recipe http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/2328/