ABSTRACT
The nutritional status and food procurement activities of slaves are of growing interest to historians and anthropologists. Until recently, most of the information about slave diets came from accounts written by planters and travelers as well as from recollections and testimony of former slaves. While these sources are valuable, recent archaeological research provides data on slave foodways missing from them. Ethnobotanists have provided some data on the plant remains recovered from archaeological sites, zooarchaeologists have provided information on the relative numbers and types of animals used by slaves, and biological anthropologists have begun to examine slave and planter skeletal remains for evidence of diseases that are nutritionally related. Archaeological research has demonstrated the variety of wild foods in the slave and master diets. Resources of the sea, rivers, forest, and marsh were used by both slave and master for food. These resources constituted a major supplement to foods from domesticated sources. While unequivocal evidence of specific nutritional diseases is rare, there are signs of health problems that might have been exacerbated by poor nutrition.
