Black
Eyed Peas
May We Never Forget Our Roots & Traditions!!!
by Ron Perrin, Fort Worth Texas
The Real
Story is much more interesting and has gone untold in fear that
feelings would be hurt. It’s a story of war, the most
brutal and bloody war, military might and power pushed upon
civilians, women, children and elderly. Never seen as a war
crime, this was the policy of the greatest nation on earth trying
to maintain that status at all costs. An unhealed wound remains
in the hearts of some people of the southern states even today.
The story
of THE BLACK EYED PEA being considered good luck relates directly
back to Sherman's Bloody March to the Sea in late 1864. It was
called The Savannah Campaign and was lead by Major General William
T. Sherman. The Civil War campaign began on 11/15/64 when Sherman
's troops marched from the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia,
and ended at the port of Savannah on 12/22/1864.
When the
smoke cleared, the Southerners who had survived the onslaught
came out of hiding. They found that the blue belly aggressors
that had looted and stolen everything of value and everything
you could eat including all livestock, death and destruction
were everywhere. While in hiding, few had enough to eat, and
starvation was now upon the survivors.
There was
no international aid, no Red Cross meal trucks. The Northern
army had taken everything they could carry and eaten everything
they could eat. But they couldn’t take it all. The devastated
people of the south found for some unknown reason that Sherman
’s bloodthirsty troops had left silos full of black eyed
peas.
At the
time in the north, the lowly black eyed pea was only used to
feed stock. The Northern troops saw it as the thing of least
value. Taking grain for their horses and livestock and other
crops to feed themselves, they just couldn’t take everything.
So they left the black eyed peas in great quantities assuming
it would be of no use to the survivors, since all the livestock
it could feed had either been taken or eaten.
Southerners
awoke to face a new year in this devastation and were facing
massive starvation if not for the good luck of having the black
eyed peas to eat. From New Years Day 1866 forward, the tradition
grew to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good
luck."
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