Is Chitterlings Slave Food?

Enslaved people had to sustain themselves using meat scraps—which they transformed into savory, satisfying dishes—from their enslavers' butchered livestock. One such piece of offal was chitlins, or pig intestines. But chitlins came to represent more than sustenance. ... Why were chitlins designated “slave food”?

What kind of food did the slaves eat?

Weekly food rations -- usually corn meal, lard, some meat, molasses, peas, greens, and flour -- were distributed every Saturday. Vegetable patches or gardens, if permitted by the owner, supplied fresh produce to add to the rations. Morning meals were prepared and consumed at daybreak in the slaves' cabins.

Why did slaves eat chitlins?

Hungry slaves had no choice but to eat chitterlings

She told the class that the chitterlings were the part of the body that excrement went through. ... Resourceful slaves learned how to further clean the hog intestines and cook them so their families would have sustenance.