Fire and Freedom: Food and Enslavement in Early America Exhibit

On view at the Library of the Health Sciences-Chicago from May 6 to June 15, the traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine entitled “Fire and Freedom: Food and Enslavement in Early America” highlights the role power played in food and agriculture in the early colonial times.

European settlers used indentured servants and slave labor to produce their food then took advantage of various trade routes to build their wealth. Those working the land had knowledge the landowners lacked, and they used this to negotiate for better working conditions.

Those better conditions did not necessarily extend to those who worked indoors. Life in the kitchen was always busy, and there was a strict hierarchy for domestic servants and slaves.

Several images of the exhibit feature the plantation on Mount Vernon. Without the skill and knowledge of his slaves, Washington could not have amassed such wealth. For more on life at Mount Vernon and other information about the oppression played in early colonial trade, check out the exhibit near the first floor lobby.

For more information, contact Nicky Nickum at anicku@uic.edu.