Wild Game Cook Out in Kentwood, Louisiana

David Spencer

Wild game cooking is deep rooted in the African American  communities in the deep South. This was the first wild game cooking event that I ever attend. Sweet Home Folk Life Museum hosted the first wild game cook out. I have never tasted coon, possums and wild hogs. Vension (deer roast) is about as far as  I think I want take eating wild game.. Most people who hear about wild game kind of shy away from it. Okay! lets think about it--who wants to think about eating possums?

When we think about wild game we often think about meat with a strong flavor and can be difficulty to prepare and cook. I think I would have to become a vegetarian! Talking with men like Charlie Thompson and David Spencer have been hunting and trapping wild game since they were young boys.

Mr. Spencer said that he was twelve years old when he started coon hunting. He was taught how to train the dogs for coon hunting season. He told us that he used to eat possums until he saw the possums eating the carcass of a cow and that was the end of his possum eating days. He compared the possum to a scavengers, a possums reminds me of a vulture that can be seen on the side of the road eating dead animals.

One thing that all the men pointed out to me, they all said that they wouldn't go hungry. They know how to trap, hunt and plant their own food. I asked if they think that today's  young people would know how to survive and the reply from all of them was no they wouldn't know what to do.

Charlie Thompson-Grilled Wild Hog

One elderly white lady named Ferrie Blackmon joined in on the conversation and share with us how she use to go wild game hunting with her father as a child. She would go duck hunting and coon hunting with him. Marcia Wilson, the museum curator, quickly said that her taste buds haven't yet acquired a taste for wild game.

In the mean time, Charlie Thompson and Joel Ramsey get up and check the meat on the grill. It's time to take the wild boar off the grill and put the venison on. Mr. Spencer gazed the meat with and eye to see if it looks like it is ready. He appeared to be the master chef in charged.

I thought like so many others people that this type of food was a slave diet, I learned that both black and white people in the deep south ate this kind of food because that what they had to eat if you couldn't afford beef and chicken.

I could have sit there all day and talk with these men about hunting and planting food. This oral history should be recorded and preserved. It is oral history like this that can help us understand the way of life before fast food restaurants and precooked food. Like Ferrie Blackmon said, " everything had to me made by hand, planted by hand and grind by hand."

Our Family Fought and Served in the United States Military

Henry Harrell-World War I-1914-1918

As I went about my daily tasks today my mind drifted,  back to the beginning of the first Africans that were kidnapped off the continent of Africa West Coast and the inland. Many of them went into battle to protect their families, wives, and children. Hundreds of thousands died in that battle for freedom. They fought their enemies who had come to change their lives forever by forcing them into slavery in a new world unknown to them.

They were warriors and military men in their own country. One of the chiefs who organized an armed rebellion against British colonial authority was Zulu Chief Bambatha. He was not happy with the loss of land and his people suffered and the poll tax of one pound that they were forced to pay. His demand was that his people's land be returned and the poll tax lifted. The armed rebellion was finally crushed after lasting a year. Chief Bambatha together with his 3000 followers was killed. http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/fight-against-colonialism-and-imperialism-africa-grade-11

Before the Civil War in 1861, there were an estimated almost four million slaves in the United States. Approximately 180,000 African-Americans comprising of 163 units served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and many more African-Americans served in the  Navy. Both slaves and free African-American eagerly joined the Union to fight for their freedom. It was on July 17, 1862, Congress passed two acts allowing the enlistment of African Americans, but official enrollment occurred after September 1862. 

Edgar Harrell Honorable Discharge

When I started researching my family history I wanted to know which one of my ancestors fought in the Civil War. I found several Harrell men who fought in the United States Colored Troop Enlistment (Louisiana), but no direct link to me. At the battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, May 27, 1863, the African American soldiers bravely faced the deadly artillery fire to gain their freedom.

My genealogy research revealed several Harrell family members fought in World War I. Times were extremely difficult for Black Southerners, most of them were farmers and sharecroppers who couldn't work their way out of debt. At this time many African-American men or women had no rights to vote. At the same time, some African-Americans were making the great migration up North and some found their way to New York.

It was my great uncles Edgar, Alec and Henry Harrell who bravely fought for change in World War I. They knew that in Amite, Louisiana, black people were segregated by the ugly force and faces of Jim Crow. They wanted to stand up for change or die trying. In their minds, they had seen the sharecroppers working hard all week and still couldn't afford to feed, clothed and provide shelter for their families. They were the direct children and the first generation of grandchildren born to slaves.

The three brothers who fought in World War I had to protest the racial injustice at home in Tangipahoa, Louisiana. When they returned home they found that they still had to sit on the back of the bus, they were waited on last in the local stores. They still had to say yes sir to white men and women and sometimes too little white children. They returned home after the war and found that black people where still sharecropping and living in extreme poverty.

Letter from Clarence to parents

Edgar's son, Clarence E. Harrell, Jr. fought in WWII, this war last from 1939-1945.  My genealogy research revealed that Dan, Johnnie, and Willie Harrell also fought in World War II and they each received an Honorable Discharge. I was happy to find a letter from my second cousin Clarence Harrell, Sr. to his parents Edgar and Minnie Nolan Harrell.

Letter Transcribed:

Hello mom:

Just a few lines to inform that I am doing great and that I am in the best of health. I wish that you, dad and Juanita are doing grand, also that you are in the best of health.

Mom I received your letter yesterday and was very glad to hear from you. Tell cousin Randy hello for me and that I will be home the next time she comes. Tell Juanita and all the relatives and friends hello for me. This is all for now, closing with much love and kisses. Your Son Clarence

Clarence E. Harrell, Jr. 

This letter wasn't dated and I didn't find the envelope.  His mother kept this letter all those years until she passed away. After her daughter, Juanita Harrell Stewart kept this letter in her collection. I have donated this letter to the Antoinette Harrell collection at the Amistad Research Center. It gives me great pleasure to blog and write about the men and women who fought in the battle for change. These courageous and brave men and women should be honored by their family members. We may never know what they endured for our freedom, that many of us take for granted. Although the brave men that I am writing about have long passed away. But the honors, dignity, and pride they left as a legacy will forever remain.

I learned a lot about the men and women in my family who served in the Military and today I want to say thank you. From WWI until now, men and women in my family have served in the military. Your names may not appear on the pages of the history books. There are times that members of your own family may not recognize the services you rendered for your freedom. But in the end, we couldn't have obtained it without you.

Thank You!

Henry Harrell, Frank, Harrell, Sr., Herbert Harrell, Raymond Harrell, Sr. Adam Gordon, Robert Gordon, Oliver Jackson, Emmitt N. Richardson, Nathaniel Richardson, Thomas Richardson, Sr., Alvin Lewis, Darren Lewis, Deddrick Washington, Mykeal Cook, Roosevelt Harrell, Sr., Willie K. Gordon, Jr. Willie Harrell, Johnnie Harrell, Edgar Harrell, Sr. Clarence Harrell, Jr. Dan Harrell, Henry Harrell, Edgar Harrell, Alec Harrell,Frank Gordon, Sr., Lance Harrell, Milton Temple, Bruce Temple, Efrem Temple, Gerald Temple, Gary Temple, Johnell Temple, Josephine Richardson, Robert Temple, Sam Holden, Sr., Daryl Richardson

                                                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8z7ADI8KLw

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