Music and Food in 1600 Metro New York
Image source unknown
By the early 1600s enslaved Africans influenced the popular culture of metropolitan New York. Large numbers of Africans gathered with the permission of their masters to attend church services and baptisms away from home on Sundays. These events also included Dutch and Native Americans spectators enjoying blacks playing fiddles, banjos, conga drums, dancing breakdowns, double shuffles, and “Guinea dances” which some scholars theorize had been precursors to contemporary hip hop dance moves. Africans also earned money making food they raised, foraged, and fished.
Chicken Oyster Gumbo Recipe
Ingredients
1 small stewing chicken
½ pound ground beef
1 cup diced okra
½ cup finely diced celery
3 pints water
3 dozen oysters
salt-and-pepper
1 onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 ½ teaspoons sassafras leaves
Instruction
Cut chicken for stewing. Place chicken, beef, okra, and celery in pot, add water and cook until meat is tender. Lift out pieces of chicken; let cool slightly; remove bones, dice meat and return meat to the broth. Add oysters and their liquor. Brown onions in butter in a frying pan; add to soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper; add sassafras leaves. Cook until edges of oysters curl. Serves six.
Pittsburgh Courier, January 25, 1941
