When I was a little girl, Thanksgiving was my favorite time of year. It usually signaled the first significant snow fall in southern Ohio, and it was the season of my Aunt Gail’s sweet potato pie, a moist pastry shell filled with a rich, spicy, mahogany custard. It was a pie that proudly sat on the dessert table next to its watery, pale, pumpkin cousin. I’m obviously Team Sweet Potato.
I wondered why Aunt Gail arrived at Grandma’s house every Thanksgiving with those pies packed in brown paper boxes, still cold after the drive from Cleveland. No one in my family cared for those pies. Mincemeat and pumpkin were the stars of the holidays. But I could eat an entire pie on my own over the course of the holiday week. The others were eaten by Aunt Gail’s husband and daughters.
I was much older before I understood that those sweet, spicy pies were Aunt Gail’s way of embracing the Southern heritage that is embedded in the fabric of the big Northern cities – courtesy of the six million African Americans who migrated north between 1916 and 1970. There is no question that the sweet potato pie has roots in the Southern tradition, but I have often wondered why.
Sweet potatoes originated in Central America and spread northward during the Spanish Conquest of the 1500s. When enslaved people of the Southern states encountered the orange, soft fleshed potato, they immediately connected the sweet potato to the yam, a West African staple. As a result, Americans often refer to sweet potatoes and yams interchangeably, although they are quite different.
As most African preparations of yams are savory and not sweet, it is reasonable to question how the sweet potato became a pie. And although I imagined sweet potato pies as food to salve my enslaved ancestors’ souls, the truth is the sweet potato pie was a product of European influence.
In England, it was common to wrap various roots and veggies in pie crust. It is suggested that Henry VIII loved sweet potato tarts. There is, however, no additional historical record of the sweet potato pie in the European tradition until the 1700s when Hannah Glasse published The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. One recipe involved taking boiled and mashed root vegetables, combining them with butter, sugar, milk, and eggs, before baking in a single pie crust.
Subsequently, this dessert became popular in colonial America. In the Northern states, pumpkins were easier to grow, while in the South, sweet potatoes reigned supreme. And who was in those Southern kitchens? Americans of African descent. It was in those pre-Civil War kitchens that agricultural convenience, societal hierarchy, and culture converged.
Enslaved Africans in the South had neither the access to the ingredients nor the equipment necessary to perfect the sweet potato pie in their cramped quarters. The first sweet potato pies were requested by and perfected for the slave owners in the Big House as a way to imitate European traditions.
After the Civil War, Southerners continued to favor the sweet potato pie to thumb their noses at the Northern pumpkin pie. African Americans contributed to the narrative because the sweet potato was preferable to their palates. By 1881, a Black woman named Abby Fisher published a cookbook with a recipe for sweet potato pie, possibly the first recipe of its kind. Over time, the sweet potato pie became an integral part of the identity of the involuntary African immigrant.
Just as there is no definitive source for the origin of the sweet potato pie, there is no one definitive recipe for it. I have asked my Aunt Gail for her recipe, and she shares it, never fully quantifying how much spice to add, qualifying what kind of crust to use, or clarifying which type of milk to include. Apparently, baking a sweet potato pie doesn’t conform to an exact set of rules. The process is unique to the baker; a fact wholly supported by the recipe found in my mother’s 1965 edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which can be found in Fresh Family Recipes on page 6.
Maybe the unrestricted nature of sweet potato pie is the reason it is of importance in the Black family tradition. For many, it is a testament to the way their African ancestors took a new American cultural icon and reinvented it with slightly different substance and more vibrant flavor. For others, it is one of a few examples of something that is uniquely theirs. For me, it is a reminder of my “dual lens perspective” of the world and a testament to why that additional perspective should always be cherished and remembered. I understand Pumpkin. I identify Sweet Potato.
An educator, wife, and mother of three, Elisabeth Ivy shares her passion for social and racial justice with her students, family, and community.
After emancipation, when African American cooks gained more access to their own equipment and refined ingredients, they continued the tradition of baking with yams and sweet potatoes — especially the pie. These deep roots became the foundation of a strong tradition in African American food culture.
When I was a little girl, Thanksgiving was my favorite time of year. It usually signaled the first significant snow fall in southern Ohio, and it was the season of my Aunt Gail’s sweet potato pie, a moist pastry shell filled with a rich, spicy, mahogany custard. It was a pie that proudly sat on the dessert table next to its watery, pale, pumpkin cousin. I’m obviously Team Sweet Potato.
Enslaved Africans in the South had neither the access to the ingredients nor the equipment necessary to perfect the sweet potato pie in their cramped quarters. The first sweet potato pies were requested by and perfected for the slave owners in the Big House as a way to imitate European traditions.
After the Civil War, Southerners continued to favor the sweet potato pie to thumb their noses at the Northern pumpkin pie. African Americans contributed to the narrative because the sweet potato was preferable to their palates. By 1881, a Black woman named Abby Fisher published a cookbook with a recipe for sweet potato pie, possibly the first recipe of its kind. Over time, the sweet potato pie became an integral part of the identity of the involuntary African immigrant.
Sweet potatoes originated in Central America and spread northward during the Spanish Conquest of the 1500s. When enslaved people of the Southern states encountered the orange, soft fleshed potato, they immediately connected the sweet potato to the yam, a West African staple. As a result, Americans often refer to sweet potatoes and yams interchangeably, although they are quite different.
Maybe the unrestricted nature of sweet potato pie is the reason it is of importance in the Black family tradition. For many, it is a testament to the way their African ancestors took a new American cultural icon and reinvented it with slightly different substance and more vibrant flavor. For others, it is one of a few examples of something that is uniquely theirs. For me, it is a reminder of my “dual lens perspective” of the world and a testament to why that additional perspective should always be cherished and remembered. I understand Pumpkin. I identify Sweet Potato.
As with many other things in this country’s culinary history, it turns out that slavery was at the core of sweet potato’s introduction.
Who doesn’t love (or at least know someone who loves) biting into a forkful of sweet potato pie? The creamy mash, the decadent crust — few dishes are more integral to households across the country this time of year. Sure, the big bird typically gets the spotlight. But sweet potato pie is another dish that has stood as an American classic that spans regional differences, political divides, and generations.
Sweet potato pie is one tradition that lives on decades later to be passed on from generation to generation. Miller explains, “Sweet potato pie has been such a mainstay at African American celebrations that the nostalgia factor is huge. A great sweet potato pie reminds one of a beloved cook, family gatherings, and community events.”
Conversely, the pumpkin took favor in the Northern states and, due to its profitable yield in autumn, became widely associated with Thanksgiving by the late 19th century.
Over time, enslaved Black Americans began to use the words “yam” and “sweet potato” interchangeably, as the sweet potato was the closest thing they could get to a yam so far away from home. After the Great Migration, many Black Americans who fled the South came from an agricultural background and carried on their culinary traditions in the North and Midwest. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The UNTOLD Story of Black Folks Love for Sweet Potato Pie #blackhistory
FAQ
Is sweet potato pie black food?
What are black peoples favorite pie?
What nationality is sweet potato pie?
Are sweet potatoes African?
Is sweet potato pie a black thing?
Every Southern sweet potato pie is not a Black folks’ sweet potato pie. Unless made with a flawless blend of soul food sweet and savory spices and fresh sweet potatoes! Because Black folks are known for their unique sweet potato pie recipe. Creamy and decadent comfort food at its finest! Why
What are the spiky things in sweet potatoes?
They are the sprouts of the potato, if they are with these tips, you can bury the potato that sprouted in the garden of your backyard and that way, new potatoes will be born. But you can also just cut them out and cook them that are ok for consumption.
What is a sweet potato pie?
This dessert is almost sacred within the black community. Handed out at funerals, baptisms, weddings, barbecues and holiday get-togethers, the sweet potato pie is a dessert you’re sure to find at almost any family function. And there’s good reason why.
Is sweet potato pie history?
And the rest, as they say, is history. Sweet potato pie is one tradition that lives on decades later to be passed on from generation to generation. Miller explains, “Sweet potato pie has been such a mainstay at African American celebrations that the nostalgia factor is huge.