{"id":404,"date":"2026-06-11T17:17:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=404"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:17:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:17:24","slug":"pepper-pot-stew-was-survival-food-for-the-poor-and-a-path-to-freedom-for-black-women-in-early-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"Pepper pot stew was survival food for the poor and a path to freedom for Black women in early\u00a0Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Americans typically commemorate the nation\u2019s birthday with hot dogs and hamburgers.<\/p>\n

Read more How Pennsylvania towns are protecting themselves from the noise, heat and utility costs of massive data\u00a0centers<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, I think we should mark the 250th anniversary of the United States with a hearty bowl of pepper pot stew. <\/p>\n

In the 18th and 19th centuries, pepper pot stew was a popular street food. A dish of Afro-Caribbean origin, it was typically made with tripe and other cheap cuts of meat mixed with vegetables, hot peppers and other spices.<\/p>\n

Enslaved Africans likely brought the dish to Philadelphia from the Caribbean in the 18th century, when the two regions were tightly connected through trade.<\/p>\n

As a historian of women and labor in the early republic, I have learned how important impoverished and ordinary individuals were to the country\u2019s founding. Cooking and preparing food, spinning and weaving cloth, washing and mending clothes, and caring for the sick were just some of the kinds of labor that supported the fledgling nation. Much of this work was carried out by marginalized women who are often overlooked in national commemorations. <\/p>\n

One such woman I\u2019ve researched represents both the possibilities and sharp limitations of freedom in that era. She was a pepper pot seller in Philadelphia known to us only as Dina.<\/p>\n

Hiding in plain sight<\/h2>\n

Pennsylvania, like many northern states, responded to the Declaration of Independence\u2019s rhetorical commitment to liberty by enacting a gradual emancipation law. <\/p>\n

On the day the law went into effect in 1780, however, its provisions freed no one. <\/p>\n

Children born to enslaved mothers before March 1, 1780, would remain enslaved for the rest of their lives. Children born after that date remained in bondage until they were 28 years old. So-called \u201cslaves for life,\u201d the status Dina held, would have had no hope of gaining legal freedom.<\/p>\n

In the face of this grim reality, some, like Dina, seized freedom for themselves. <\/p>\n

She slipped away from her enslaver, Rev. James Anderson, in Middletown, Chester County, sometime in 1785 or 1786 and made her way to nearby Philadelphia. <\/p>\n

Almost all of the information we have about Dina comes from a notice Anderson placed in a local newspaper offering a reward for her return. Each detail is stained with his opinions about the woman he held as property. Anderson described Dina as \u201clusty,\u201d a word that can be interpreted in a number of ways. <\/p>\n

White people generally held insidious ideas about Black women\u2019s sexuality in this period. In the 18th century, lusty also meant insolent, which might have conveyed Anderson\u2019s frustrations with Dina\u2019s unwillingness to accept his authority over her. The word also could refer to health and vigor, so it\u2019s possible Anderson was describing Dina\u2019s physique and general affect. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s \u2018narco\u2011terrorism\u2019 war in Latin America evokes Reagan \u2013 then as now, it\u2019s more about fighting leftists than drug\u00a0runners<\/a><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the advertisement exemplifies the paradox of liberty and enslavement at the nation\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n

It is impossible to know how familiar Dina was with Philadelphia, or if she had friends or family there when she arrived. She might have simply decided that her best chance of avoiding recapture was in an urban area where she could blend in with the free Black community that was growing rapidly due to migration from neighboring states and people manumitted by their enslavers. Dina might have imagined she could tuck herself into the hustle and bustle of this incredibly dense city more easily than in a thinly populated rural area.<\/p>\n

After Dina got to Philadelphia, she made an interesting decision. Instead of finding more discrete employment, such as working as a domestic, she supported herself by selling pepper pot stew in one of the city\u2019s markets. According to Anderson, she had been seen \u201cnumerous times\u201d over the past 18 months. <\/p>\n

One of many Black women selling the dish, Dina could essentially hide in plain sight from Anderson and anyone who hoped to collect the US$4 reward he offered.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how long she was able to evade Anderson, but the fact that she maintained her freedom for at least a year and a half is remarkable. Philadelphia\u2019s vagrancy docket is full of examples of freedom seekers who were apprehended almost immediately. <\/p>\n

Dina\u2019s ultimate fate is unknown. After Anderson\u2019s three newspaper notices, she disappears from the archive. She may have been captured and returned to Anderson. Or it\u2019s possible that working as a pepper pot seller allowed her to gain her freedom permanently. <\/p>\n

Opportunity in Philly\u2019s informal economy<\/h2>\n

Spiraling war debt and inflation during the 1780s fell heavily on the neediest Americans. In Philadelphia, impoverished people often subsisted on bread. Affordable, hearty street food like pepper pot stew would have offered important nutrients and perhaps pleasure from a good meal. By providing cheap, nourishing food for working Philadelphians, pepper pot sellers could be seen as participating in a kind of informal mutual aid. <\/p>\n

However, city officials characterized some market activities during this period as \u201criotous and disorderly\u201d and imposed stricter regulations around when and where pepper pot sellers could operate. Boisterous gatherings of Black and white working-class people might have seemed potentially threatening or disruptive to city leaders.<\/p>\n

Dina\u2019s role as an informal trader echoed across the 19th century. Many Black women took up the pepper pot trade, and some earned decent incomes. These women, in turn, contributed to a range of charitable, religious and abolitionist organizations that formed the backbone of a vibrant Black Philadelphia. They also helped support their families, even in an economic order that devalued Black women\u2019s labor. <\/p>\n

As the United States celebrates its semiquincentennial this year, many Americans will be reminded of the stories of popular Revolution-era figures such as Paul Revere or George Washington. <\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll be thinking of Dina and the countless other Black women who sold pepper pot stew on the streets of Philadelphia, the nation\u2019s first capital. To me, they symbolize the fragile hope, terrible failures and tireless quest for true freedom that defined the founding era. <\/p>\n

Read more of our stories about Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, or sign up for our Philadelphia newsletter on Substack.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more How money exchanges between House members shape the balance of power in\u00a0Congress<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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