Travel accounts and ship diaries inform us that ships carrying slaves from Africa to Cuba regularly served their cargo and crew rice in addition to yams and beans. From the beginning of the slave trade, European rationed both yams and sweet potatoes to white and Indian servants and black slaves viewing the tubers as fit only for the baser sort. Slaves and servants ate them boiled or roasted throughout the day. When they had the ingredients, Africans continued the Old World practice of frying yams and sweet potatoes and making puddings and baked goods out of them.
