July circa 1850: Barbecue, Beverages, and Temperance

Banana-peach buttermilk smoothie, recipe below

Still delving into former slave Louis Hughes’s July circa 1850 description of a barbecue in near Charlottesville, Virginia. His description of the beverages served at this July plantation barbecue provide rich details on antebellum religion and politics. “The drinks were strictly temperance drinks - buttermilk and water.” Between 1825 and 1835 the Presbyterian minister Charles Grandison Finney led a spiritual revival and preached social reform sermons in Central and Western New York which became known as the burned over district. The temperance movement came out of the revival calling Christians to be filled with the Spirit of God and not with strong drink. Nineteenth century elites also latched on to this theme as way of encouraging their workers to say sober and thus more productive on the job. From Hughes we learn that the Second Great Awakening and the temperance message had its influence on his Virginia master. By the start of the Civil War, the joint Southern and Northern Presbyterian Church association split not over the issue of temperance but over the issue of slavery. Here’s a cold southern buttermilk drink recipe

Banana-peach buttermilk smoothie recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=566466