In the 2026 Black History Month blog series public programmer and culinary historian Abbey Stansfield examines the important intersections between food and the daily experiences of Freedom Seekers in mid-19th century St. Catharines.

Catch part one No Hogs, No Cows, and All Such Stuff, released February 7.
Catch part two That’s How it Came to Grow There, released February 14

Part 3: Everything They Had There Was Imported

In the first two parts of this series, I investigated the misrepresentation of Canada in the American South by enslavers intended to discourage enslaved peoples from escaping to Canada by spreading misinformation about pork and corn. In part three I will be focusing on sweet potatoes.

Why focus on sweet potatoes? The popularization of sweet potatoes as part of the African American diet is a result of the climate of the American South being ill suited for traditional foods like the West African the yam. Historian Jennifer Wallach explains that slave traders brought plant samples of traditional foods from Africa along with enslaved persons intending to grow those foods in the Western Hemisphere. Yams did very well in the Caribbean colonies but failed to be viable in the American South. Sweet potatoes slowly evolved as a substitute for yams in these regions. This substitution worked so well that even to this day there are many who believe that the yam and the sweet potato are the same ingredient. During the nineteenth century, sweet potatoes were a staple often found as part of rations for enslaved peoples. Historian Fredrick Douglass Opie explains that sweet potatoes were prepared very simply: they were roasted whole over a fire and that they were eaten daily in the same manner yams would have been prepared and eaten by their ancestors in Africa.

Knowing the importance to daily food preferences the sweet potato represented in African American diets, I was curious to see if this tradition continued when they reached St. Catharines. Searching the local papers, I found an article reporting on the Agricultural Society competition where Chauncey Beadle won a $1 prize for his sweet potato entry. Other than that, the only other mention of sweet potatoes was advice on how to grow them in home gardens. I could not find a reference to growing sweet potatoes in Canada by any of the Freedom Seekers in their firsthand testimonies either. To be certain that there weren’t commercial crops of sweet potatoes being grown in Canada at this time I reviewed 1863 The Canadian Agriculturalist and Journal and Transactions of The Board of Agriculture of Upper Canada. With no mention in the 800 pages of sweet potatoes, I am as certain as I can be that Canada West (Ontario) was not growing sweet potatoes in this period. Sounds like Chauncey Beadle had a novelty crop on his hands.

Knowing how important sweet potatoes were to traditional African American diet, I wondered if they were imported to St. Catharines. A St. Catharines Freedom Seeker, Dan Josiah, testified:

“I was told before I left Virginia, – that everything they had there was imported.”

– Testimony of Dan Josiah as it appears in The Refugee, 1856.

Rather than dismiss this statement as misinformation (because we already know from parts one and two of the series that not everything needed to be imported) I was interested in knowing why the thought of imported foods might deter anyone journeying on the Underground Railroad? While it’s clearly part of the myriads of myths spread by enslavers, I tried to tease out any clue as to why the need to import goods would have been daunting for Freedom Seekers.

That clue arrived in the form of testimony of another Freedom Seeker, J.W. Lindsay:

“The slaveholders sometimes tell the slaves stories about Canada to prevent their running away. I understood that Canada was 9,000 miles off and that it was so there that couldn’t do anything.”

– Testimony of J. W. Lindsay as it appears in the Freedman’s Inquiry Commission report by Samuel Gridley Howe, 1863.

The weight of the lie isn’t in one thread but in the entire web of lies. In this case, the consideration that they would have to purchase all their food (rather than grow it themselves) and that it had to be brought into the country, and that it had to be imported at such a distance contributed to the fear that any available food would not be affordable, or even edible. The version of Canada depicted through the tales of enslavers would be a Canada where their favoured food stuff after travelling 9,000 miles would be astronomically expensive.

What was importing like in Canada and more specifically St. Catharines at this time? It was a bustling hub where imports arrived daily. St. Catharines was in its golden age of sail and the import of many items that can’t grow here like lemons, sugar, and coffee were common.

As if directly addressing these lies, Drew writes of St. Catharines in The Refugee:

“I might mention here it’s pleasant situation it’s commercial advantages the Welland Canal, it’s telegraphic wires, it’s railroads it’s famous mineral springs and other matters interesting to the tourist.”

– Benjamin Drew in The Refugee, 1856.

In this way, St. Catharines naturally became a hub for Freedom Seekers and abolitionists because the city was well resourced and positioned along important transportation networks. Rare, imported foods were long available (when they arrived anyway) in St. Catharines.

I discovered sweet potatoes and other specialty Southern foods were available in this way. The first ad I came across was in an 1856 edition of the St. Catharines Constitutional posted by S. Tillotson. The advertisement lists the prices of oysters by the gallon keg ($1.50) and other American seafood available including clams, cod, and halibut. Sweet potatoes are also listed as a “delicacy of the season, now available.” The depot was located at the American Hotel (Queenston Street near Church Street) and the oysters came with a warranty of freshness or your money back.

Another vendor selling sweet potatoes (in addition to oysters and canned seafood) was James Lee. His advertisements were very similar in nature to the first, so it seems he had purchased the operation. I kept digging to be sure and came across a seemingly unrelated article about a Freedom Seeker looking downtown for his cow, who had strayed. One of the people mentioned in passing in the article is a Mr. Lee who is listed as being a friend of the gentlemen searching for the cow and was a confectioner. I began to wonder if this Mr. Lee was the same James Lee who was advertising sweet potatoes.

The 1871 census lists an African American man named James Lee living in St. Catharines and lists his profession as “huckster.” Further investigation of the newspapers and the Police Board convictions lists, shows the same Mr. Lee, huckster, being brought in front of Police Board for selling his goods at market without holding a market license. He was fined $2 on the first occurrence and $4 on the second.

It was typical of vendors like Lee to source seasonal foodstuffs throughout the year so as to ensure income. The broad range of activities reveal an entrepreneurial spirit (importing traditional foods to sell to a specific market, of which he is a member) and, to use modern corporate speak, “the hustle” required to make ends meet. Huckster, confectioner, importer of sweet potatoes.

The sources provided much more than I had hoped when I began researching the importing of ingredients. Clearly there was enough demand in the community for specific American seafood and sweet potatoes that James Lee was able to import these items and advertise their availability on a weekly basis. The fact that James was a Freedom Seeker himself suggested to me that these items were important and popular enough to continue food traditions in a commercially viable way.

If they were such a staple, in what dishes did sweet potatoes appear? Roasting was likely the most straight forward day-to-day option for cooking them. However, Malinda Russell does have other specialty recipes that feature sweet potatoes including sweet potato pie and sweet potato baked pudding. I ended up choosing the sweet potato pudding for trial, and it ended up being a sweet potato souffle!

Sweet Potato Baked Pudding

Boil six or eight large sweet potatoes, peel them, strain through a colander, separate six eggs and one cup of sugar, beat the yelks and sugar together until light, mix the potato and one cup butter while the potato is warm; beat the whites to a stiff froth, and add them last; flavor with nutmeg, a cup sweet cream three tablespoons flour.

– Malinda Russell’s A Domestic Cookbook, 1866.

This recipe did require background knowledge to successfully recreate, the most glaring omission being the missing of any indication that it gets cooked other than in the title!

1. I used seven medium sweet potatoes (and I think I would reduce that to five next time). The potatoes were peeled, boiled and mashed and left to cool to room temperature.
2. In a large mixing bowl, I mixed the egg yolks and sugar whisking until the mixture became a pale yellow.
3. To the egg mixture add the mashed sweet potatoes and a cup of butter and mix until incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl mix the egg whites (I added ¼ tsp cream of tartar) until they form a stiff peak.
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the sweet potato mixture. Take care not to over mix as this will take the air out of the egg whites.
6. Transfer the mixture to two large cake tins and cook in a 350-degree F oven for 45-55 minutes.
7. The sweet cream portion I took to mean whipped cream and made a nutmeg flavoured whipped cream for the top.

This recipe was very decadent, and I was originally surprised at discovering that it was a souffle. After spending so much time in the sources reading up on the simple yet hearty food traditions, I hadn’t anticipated a recipe calling for a cup of sugar and butter and flavoured whipped cream garnishes. I think my original expectations come from my own food experiences. I am well versed in using pumpkin in both sweet and savory dishes yet have never personally used sweet potato for a sweet dish.

My experience recreating this dish had me pondering the use by Freedom Seekers of a dish like this. Would they use (imported) sweet potatoes in this way? I believe they would have. I think historian Jennifer Wallach explains it best:

“Instead, they [enslaved persons] hoped that after freedom they would be able to eat a more substantial, diverse, and luxurious diet. For example, when Booker T. Washington was a child, he recalled watching his young mistress consuming ginger cakes and decided, ‘If I ever got free, the height of my ambition would be reached if I could get to the point where I could secure and eat ginger cakes in the way I saw those ladies doing.’”

– Jennifer Wallach in Getting What We Need Ourselves, 2019.

To me, the sweet potato pudding recipe represented what Booker T. Washington wanted. Getting to a place where their diet was substantial enough that there can be a dessert course and luxurious enough that they could turn an ingredient that was once perceived as humdrum into something as grand as a souffle.

Many Freedom Seekers testified about the hard work it took to become established. That their wages were small and often it required two jobs to “land on one’s feet” when they arrived. I assumed that the food Freedom Seekers ate would be simple but hearty foods, like what they ate while they were enslaved. However, while investigating the availability of all these ingredients something that has struck me is that whether it is pork, corn or cornmeal, sweet potatoes, or garden-fresh vegetables Freedom Seekers in St. Catharines experienced a greater food security than they had while enslaved. 

This increased food security over formerly enslaved people in the South continued even after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Wallach explains that during the Civil War there was a blockade and confiscation of Southern food stuffs by the Union Army. These measures taken against the Confederate forces ended up having a large impact on enslaved persons, and malnutrition of formerly enslaved peoples in the South was noted by the Freedman’s Inquiry Commission.

These stories reveal the irony in the lies told to Freedom Seekers. According to the testimony of Freedom Seekers who were living in St. Catharines those lies about food insecurity, expensive imported food, the unavailability of preferred ingredients, and many other lies were all laughable, at least at this end of the Underground Railroad. As James Lee showed, importing food and finding preferred ingredients aren’t a barrier to anyone who wants freedom.

Stay tuned for the next installment of this series “But they have gardens and raise a great deal of stuff” for a look at vegetables that grew in the kitchen garden and how they were prepared, released February 28.

Abbey Stansfield is a culinary historian and a public programmer at the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre.

Selected Sources

Board of Agriculture. 1863. The Canadian Agriculturalist and Journal and Transactions of The Board of Agriculture of Upper Canada. Toronto: The Board of Agriculture.

Drew, Benjamin. 1856. A North-Side View of Slavery. New York: Sheldon, Lamport and Blakeman.

Opie, Frederick Douglass. 2008. Hog & Hominy : Soul Food from Africa to America. New York: Columbia University Press.

Russell, Malinda. 1866. A Domestic Cookbook. PawPaw: University of Michigan Press.

Still, William. 1872. The Underground Railroad. Philadelphia: People’s Publishing Company.

Wallach, Jennifer Jensen. 2019. Getting What We Need Ourselves : How Food Has Shaped African American Life. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.