Research compiled by: Ky'Aira R., Jordan J., Marquis C., Jade R., & Burke B.
Crops commonly grown in a black settler family included beans, corn,
pumpkins, squash, melons, sunflower seeds, chokecherries, wild grapes,
and plums. Some foods that were made with the crops listed above are
things like corn soup, dried beef, cow stomach, dried fruits and
vegetables, and buttermilk. Dinner was the large meal of the day and
most days, corn was served. Families raised pigs, and cows were used for
their milk, not meat. Lunch was smaller than what we eat today. A
common lunch for settlers included cornbread and syrup. Early settlers
didn't have many advanced things like we have today. There weren't lunch
pails, boxes, containers, or any plastic items in the past. When kids
carried their lunches, they carried them in big tin cans.
In almost every household, settlers made much of their clothing except
for shoes, stockings, coats, and underwear. Most of their clothing were
made from flour sacks or burlap material. They also wore many hand-
me-downs from oldest child to the youngest. Clothes were passed down
from many generations, and patched up if they got worn down. In our
culture today, many people view homemade clothes as a downer.
Chores played a major part for the children of early black settlers.
Some of the chores children did were milking cows, hoarding coal,
banking the fire, picking up cow chips, fighting tumbleweeds, pulled
hogweed, paisley, and young thistles, feeding chickens, picking potato
bugs, and scrubbing clothes. Materials used to do these chores were
things like washboards, pails, knives, and “mowing machines” (tractor).
Some children spent there whole day doing chores around the homestead.
These chores are very rare for today's youth unless you live on a farm