The Southern Tradition Of Black Eyed Pea's For New Year

[Thumper]

For over 20 yrs now, my Texas born wife has insisted on having black eyed peas and ham for New Years Eve dinner, no reason, just tradition....I finally discovered the reason, WHY, it's a Southern tradition. In 1864, when General Sherman made his infamous "march to the sea", which ended at Savanna Georgia, his army had "procured" everything that there was to eat, both  vegetable and animal. However, they left huge silo's of black eyed peas undisturbed, because that was merely animal feed and the army thought it wasn't fit for human consumption. Out of the need to survive, the people of the vanquished South ate the black eyed peas simmered with pork bones for survival on New Years 1865, thus started the tradition that still holds true.

[Oregon Bill]

Thumper, thank you for that intel. Just by coincidence, I made New Year's black-eyed peas for my wife and I yesterday afternoon, using Craig Claiborne's fine Mississippi Delta recipe and salt pork. Served up with some fresh scratch cornbread, I felt like I was eating mighty high on the hog. Definitely a tradition I need to honor on behalf of the "Secesh" side of my family.

[Tsalagidave]

Thanks for sharing Thumper. My family is Southern on my mom's side and I was completely unaware of the story. I guess its true that you know you're in good company when you are always learning new and interesting things.

Thanks for expanding my knowledge of Americana.

-Dave

[Delmonico]

Sorry it goes back further than that, they were eaten for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year long before whites settled in the south.  There were a group Sherpa Jews settled in northern Georgia in the early 18th Century.  Tweak it a little with some cured pork and change it to the Gregorian New Year instead of the Jewish and guess what, same tradition different date. 

[Delmonico]

Read it again, take the Jewish tradition, of cooking cow peas (of which black-eyed are one of several types)  add some cured pork and change it to our New Year,(Gregorian) from the Jewish (Rosh Hashana)  basically the same tradition that dates back to before Christ and was brought to this country from the Iberian Peninsula aka Spain and Portugal long before Sherman was born. 

Few traditions are as cut and dried as the Sherman story.   

[ChuckBurrows]

Del - can tell you tain't from the south - the fact that the use of black eyed/cow peas for celebrating the New Year by others earlier does not make it the source of the tradition for those of us from the South. Rule #1 when doing research as my old history profs beat into my head lo those many years ago - correlation is not necessarily causation. For Southerners the main reason for this tradition s as noted and what I've known for the last 60 years. Traditions can be localized - and adding pork to it makes it NOT Jewish - the original use of black eyed peas in the South came via the black slaves who brought them from Africa along with ocra and other foods. As noted back then black eye peas was used as food only for slaves and animals - not for "regular" folk...

Wonder how many folks know that red beans and rice - my favorite - originated as a Monday meal - the ham bone from Sunday dinner was re-purposed to make a second dish to feed many and Voila! red beans and rice....

BTW - I was born in Biloxi, MS and spent a lot of my early life up until age 18 in the South - Alabama, Mississippi,  and so Louisiana where my Ma Ma's family is from think Duck Dynasty type folks albeit my family is more Spanish/Cajun aka coonass than redneck....
born January 8th - same day as The Battle of New Orleans and birth date of another Mississippi boy - Elvis (albeit not the same years! as them - I'm not that old - just smell that way!)

[Delmonico]

I still bet it has some of those roots from before.

[Blair]

I don't, off hand know where and when the Black Eyed Pea originates as a food source. I am sure there is a search engine that may help identify that little tidbit of information.
Pork, however, would not have been a meat substitution/solution for the Semitic Peoples of the Middle East.
That part may need to be rethought?
Blair

[St8LineLeatherSmith]

I was Northwest Georgia born,Bred and black eyed pea fed all my life observe the new years day tradition of eating black eyed peas  cooked with a ham bone and still live a stones throw away from Chickamauga battle field and I have never heard either tale until just now I just thought it was one of those superstitious rituals that some crack pot made up for bringing good luck.
as Paul harvy used to say Now I know the rest of the story.