Generally speaking, Reconstruction left a bad taste in the mouth of Southerners; but on the other hand, a wonderful flavor remains on the palate that keeps us crying, “More, more!” That rough period left Southerners with a culinary delight that has become synonymous with good eating and the South. Those wonderfully fluffy, white biscuits we grew up on, resulted from the South’s war-torn economy and a federal program to relieve hunger. The biscuit became so important to the Southern breakfast that no self-respecting restaurant in the South would be without piping-hot biscuits atop their menus. Eventually they gained entrance into fast food markets where millions a day are sold to families on the move. Up until the beginning of Reconstruction the Southerner’s main breadstuff had been cornbread, but the aftermath of the Civil War with its lack of money and near starvation created a bread revolution that changed a way of life. This, however, was not the first of it kind experienced by Americans. Two centuries earlier, when their Scottish and Irish forefathers arrived on the North American continent, they shifted from oats to corn. From the Fourteenth Century to their arrival in America, the main bread grain of the Scotch-Irish was oats. James G. Leyburn, in his The Scotch-Irish: A Social History writes, “Under the flap of his saddle each man carries a broad plate of metal, behind the saddle is a little bag of oatmeal . . . they place this plate over the fire, mix with water their oatmeal, and when the plate is heated, they put a little of the paste upon it and make a thin cake.” Upon their arrival in America these Europeans soon became acquainted with the native corn and as they migrated southward, their diet became inextricably bound to that grain’s cultivation. Corn became the staple of life of man and beast in the South and even changed the landscape with raised, square corncribs adopted from American Indians. Throughout the South, creeks and branches worth their waters were dammed to support grist mills and the constant demand for cornmeal. Ground corn was the base of a variety of breads: spoon bread, corn cakes, hoe cakes, hush puppies and of course, the ever-present cornbread that was the favorite bread of every antebellum Southerner. It was, however, the Civil War and near starvation that brought a new grain to the Southern table. When the war ended, the South was in financial ruin and most of it people were suffering from a lack of cash. By the spring of 1867 many South Carolinians were facing starvation and the Southern Famine Relief Commission in New York had received numbers of letters from residents describing the scarcity of food and provisions. The poorer classes were in the greatest need, but even the planters and larger farmers feared a lack of seed corn for the next crop. Governor James Orr estimated that the state needed 500,000 bushels of corn over and above any amount that could be locally raised. While some prominent men in Lancaster County willingly offered to mortgage their land for corn and bacon to supply the people until the next harvest, Mr. Grist, editor of the Yorkville Enquirer, thought that was unnecessary in York County. There were no reported cases of starvation in the county, but he knew that “many families are stinted for bread.” He further believed that it was possible that more may be struggling than was being reported since “poverty will struggle long with want, before it will make known its sufferings.” On April 30, Governor Orr sent a letter to the Editor of the New York Herald citing conditions across the state. Chester County had 340 families or 1,250 people who were unable to provide for themselves; an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 bushels of corn was needed in that county alone. Lancaster County reported 1,000 white women and children and 500 blacks who were on the verge of starvation—some had already died. Spartanburg County had several thousand suffering and Union County had eleven families in great suffering. From the town of Fort Mill a man wrote the governor: “I am destitute, and have a large family, and have no way to get corn. I would be obliged to you, if possible, if you could send me some relief immediately. I have a large family, ten in number, and nothing to eat. I sold all my bacon to buy corn and am now without either.” During this time, large shipments of hard winter wheat, grown in the West, were shipped into the South to relieve its hunger. The first shipment began a revolution. From that time on, the South was hooked on biscuits and the ensuing revolution effected everyone in ol’ Dixie. Eatin’ high on the hog had a new definition as ham and redeye gravy united with fluffy, white biscuits-a marriage made in culinary heaven. By the turn of the twentieth century the biscuit reigned supremely over the breakfast and dinner table while cornbread and milk was the preferred supper of both rich and poor. In 1908, James L. Strain of the Hickory Grove area argued cornbread was more healthy than the preferred biscuit: “People ought to eat more cornbread than they do. It is a brain and muscle, as well as a nerve food, and will promote better digestion. Old people who were in good circumstances so far as this world’s goods are concerned, can remember when it was a rarity to get a biscuit even on Sunday morning for breakfast, and where do we find such evidences of strong, healthy and robust people as those of their day? Some of them are still amongst us and nearing their nineties and some have even passed that. At least four-fifths of the cases of sickness are brought about by violating in some way the laws of health.” While Strain complained people were eating too many biscuits, marriages continued to be made or broken in the dough tray. Although the young bride may have thought she and her groom could live on love, many tender hearts were crushed with despair when he complained, “These biscuits ain’t as good as mama’s!” Even with years of practice the finest of meals could be ruined when someone muttered, “too much soda,” “too done,” “not brown enough,” “too short,” or “not short enough.” The biscuit still remains the South’s all-time favorite for breakfast. But today, things are different. The young wife doesn’t have to know the difference between a bread pan and a honey bucket. And if the groom has any complaints, she’ll tell him exactly where he can go-straight to Bojangle’s or McDonald’s.
J.L. West – Author
This article and many others found on the pages of Roots and Recall, were written by author J.L. West, for the YC Magazine and have been reprinted on R&R, with full permission – not for distribution or reprint!
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