The Secret Flag: Cookbook

By Sharon Hunt

In this cookbook, the author combines her experiences of learning about many things GEORGIA GROWN - slavery, slaves gifts and endurance,
Negro education, freedom and food preferences. There are many recipes that are generational and made popular throughout the world.
Overall, the cookbook is historical and a collection of Peach Countys favorite recipes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503522183

Sharon Hunt

Sharon Hunt, a freelance writer and a retiree from a Historically Black College and Universities(HBCU), writes cookbooks and children books. In her books, she includes learning scenarios for children as well as adults. For her cookbooks, most of her work is about Georgia And African-American history. The recipes represent different regions of Georgia and the ‘honor’ of the 200 years of the plantations cooks in preparing foods for the plantation owners and their slaves. Her most famous cookbook-Bread from Heaven- has sold thousands of copies. Ms. Hunt sold her Bread from Heaven cookbook a record three times on QVC Home Shopping Network. Ms. Hunt graduated with B.S. and M.S. degrees from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She majored in food and nutrition and is a registered dietitian. She did further study at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Ms. Hunt served as the charter president of the Warner Robins Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a life member od Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Ms. Hunt co-founded the undergraduate chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Chapter at Oklahoma State University. Ms. Hunt received three grants from the Georgia Endowment of Humanities, Atlanta, Georgia. She is a Kellogg Enhancement Recipient from the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Ms. Hunt is a charter member of the National Museum of AFRICAN AMERICAN History and Culture.

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Copyright © 2015 by Sharon Hunt.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5035-2219-0

                eBook          978-1-5035-2218-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/19/2015

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 2 FV Appetizers

Chapter 3 FV Banana Puddings and Other Puddings

Chapter 4 FV Beef

Chapter 5 FV Beverages

Chapter 6 Black Pot Cooking and One Pot Meals

Chapter 7 FV Cakes

Chapter 8 FV Casseroles

Chapter 9 FV Collards (Gospel Greens) and Other Green Cooking

Chapter 10 Corn Bread and Other Breads

Chapter 11 FV Fish and Other Sea Foods

Chapter- 12 FV Fried Chicken and Additional Poultry Dishes

Chapter 13 FV Grits and Rice Dishes

Chapter 14 FV Macaroni and Cheese Dishes

Chapter 15 FV Peach Cobblers and Other Cobblers

Chapter 16 FV Pecans and Peanut Dishes

Chapter 17 FV Potato Salad and Other Salads

Chapter 18 FV Pork

Chapter 19 FV Preservation Vegetables and Fruits

Chapter 20 FV Sides

Chapter 21 FV Soups

Chapter 22 FV Sweet Potato Dishes

Chapter 23 FV Thanksgiving/Homecoming Feast

Chapter 24 FV Wines

Chapter 25 FV Wings

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank the people of Georgia for their assistance. My father, Dewey Hunt, Sr. and his mother, Ida Frazier Hunt were very instrumental in making my research legendary.

Declaimer

The contents of this cookbook are my experiences at work. I do not want to offend the residents of Fort Valley. This work is to show their accomplishments. I do not know if the Union flag remains at the school. When I came to the school in 1974, I was introduced to the flag in the library. I saw the flag many times and there was a card in the case that told the history of the flag. However, I never read the note card. Later on, when I started to do research on the flag the note card was misplaced and the earlier librarians had either retired or died.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this research to all the former slaves who gave interviews and to the interviewers of the Works Progress Administration. Also,I dedicate the work to the residents of Fort Valley, Georgia.

FOREWORD

Three of my good friends got jobs at Fort Valley State College in Georgia in 1974.They convinced me to apply and get a job with them. I knew about Fort Valley because my dad always told me some if his people started a college in Georgia. I applied in May of 1974 to the then Department of Home Economics and came for the interview and was later hired. I drove myself to Georgia and to Fort Valley. It took me three days. I took the long route. I drove from Oklahoma through Texas to Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama and then to Georgia. I was truly tired. Happily, I lived with my friends Drs. Calvin and Mary White and Mikki for about a month before I go to my apartment. However, we had the time of our lives living in a new state. We didn’t go to work until late that September. During that September, we had Faculty Institute, the first big meeting of the year. This was a huge meeting, what an introduction to my new world!

After about two months into my new job as an instructor in the Department of Home Economics at Fort Valley State College, I got acquainted with my colleagues and got quite comfortable with my new environment. The campus was beautiful. The community and the students were friendly as well as everyone else in the community. I was quite astounded about living in Georgia, the home of my father-Dewey Hunt, Sr. Even though I studied very hard to teach food and nutrition to the students and to practice Dietetics at my new job, I tried to learn all I could about my new surroundings, my new home and colleagues.

Working at Fort Valley was a born again experience, I thought I had learned about history from my upbringing and on my own. However, coming to Fort Valley made me realize that I was in the company of some of the people who recently come through the Middle Passage. I had heard about plantations or large farms, slave quarters, church revivals or people working hard on large pecan groves or peach orchards. I sought out to learn more.

My office next door neighbor, the late Mrs. Gladys Grace would tell me everyday something new about the history of Fort Valley State. She truly had a love for her alma mater. Several times a week she would tell me to go to the library and see the flag that once draped the coffin of Abraham Lincoln. I would go to the library and see the flag and see the flag just to appease her. All that time, I never thought to ask her where the flag came from or who donated the flag. However, each time I wanted to ask her about it and what my dad always told us that Abraham Lincoln’s mother had black blood, the idea slipped my mind.

Mrs. Grace was very informative about the black family life in Georgia. The late Mrs. Gladyce Sampson taught me about the Black bourgeois and class in Georgia and how Tuskegee Institute and Fort Valley State were related.

THE FLAG IN THE LIBRARY

I was told that the flag that was donated to the library may have been one of the flags that had been used in one of the 20 draping ceremonies for President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin in one of the various cities during the 1,662 mile train ride during the funeral processional from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Missouri. At each draping ceremony, selected individuals were allowed to exchange personal Union flags with the flag that was draped on the coffin. The funeral processional train took the same route as was used during President Lincoln’s campaign route.

MY RESEARCH ON WHO DONATED THE FLAG

I learned about the flag in 1974. I would visit the library, but I never took time to research who donated the flag. Many years later, my students challenged me to see if the flag was still there and how did it get there. The flag was still in the library, however, there was not a written record of who donated the flag. I sat out to interview all who may have known about the flag. Most of the people who had the knowledge had either died or had Alzheimer’s’ disease, however, I did interview former librarians, retired college officials, graduates older than 80 years and a grandson of the founder of the College and the second Principal of Fort Valley High and Industrial School. I spoke with Henry Alexander Hunt, III,(Hal), he told me that his grandfather said that his grandfather told him the flag was at Fort Valley before he came to the school. I proposed twenty reasons why the school deserved the flag.

INTRODUCTION

In the cookbook entitled ‘The Secret Flag Cookbook’, I will present my personal experiences of recipes from my friends, church members, students and others who introduced me to Their good food selections and foods preparation techniques when I came to work at a Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) in Fort Valley, Georgia. Among the many secrets, I found on campus was that there was a 1860 US flag in the library that all the librarians working there at the time told me that it was one of the flags that draped President Abraham Lincoln’s coffin during his funeral processional from Washington, DC to Springfield, Missouri. I was told that the flag had been donated to the college before 1895, however, no one knew who donated the flag. Years later, I did some research on who possibly could have donated the flag and why. I will present my views on the possibilities of who may have donated the flag and reasons possible, in my opinion, why the college deserved the flag. Fort Valley residents know a lot about the antebellum years and reconstruction.

WHY THE SECRET FLAG COOKBOOK – There are many secrets in Fort Valley, however, I found that the favorite recipes and foods of Fort Valley residents have been basic recipes that fed many famous people and leaders from all over the world. I met a lot of men who cooked on ships and maids who traveled with rich people all over the world. I spoke with a man who was the personal chef for three presidents and five generals. I spoke with some people who were relatives of the personal cook for President Franklin Roosevelt when he made many visits to Warm Spring, Georgia. I read about the people who provided food for the Gregg Allman band when they came to Macon, Georgia. I heard the legend about the how the original recipe for Coca Cola was develop by a slave woman who was a slave to a pharmacist who lived in Knoxville, Crawford County, Georgia, a neighboring county to Peach County where Fort Valley is located. Even though many of these cooks, inherited secret recipes from Africa and the plantations, these recipes help to provide delicious foods so that the Union Flag was representative of the end of the Civil War so that all African-Americans could go free. Many of the ancestors of the Fort Valley residents either cooked for the units representing the Confederate Army and the soldiers of the Union Army.

Organization of the Cookbook

The organization of the cookbook has been divided into chapters so that each chapter will have five parts: (1) Recipes from Fort Valley, which are labeled FV, (This means all of the recipes were prepared in Fort Valley) ; (2) Personal Views on Who or Why the Secret Flag was donated ;(3) Recollections from Georgia Ex-Slaves, (Twenty questions were asked each slaves. Therefore, each section will contain a question and answers given by selected ex-slaves.) (4) Education of former slaves and early education in Georgia, and (5) Bible Verses.explanation of each section:

Recipes from Fort Valley, which are labeled FV. When I moved to Fort Valley, Georgia, I learned many recipes for soul food or comfort foods that were originated on Georgia plantations and on the Coast of Georgia in the many Sea Islands. I had heard about this information from my father who was raised to the age of fourteen in Georgia, the last of the thirteen colonies and the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. My father’s roots ran deep in all sections of Georgia from the Atlantic Ocean through Macon county.

(2) My personal views on who and why the Union flag was donated to our campus. I will include in each section my thoughts –the section is called Personal Views.

About Fort Valley:

In 1836, Fort Valley was formed as a town. There were several dates given and some historians say it was originally named Fox Valley. However, some problems with the penmanship caused the Fox to become Fort. However, Fort Valley is not known for a fort. Due to the fact that Fort Valley was discovered before the Civil War, the town is an antebellum town. There are plenty of antebellum homes and culture that still exist in the city. However, Fort Valley is in Peach County, named in 1924 and named for the peach, is also the Peach Capital of Georgia.according to the 2010 census, the population was 9,815 with 22.0 per cent white; 74.65 African-Americans and the remaining percentages made up of Hispanic, Chinese and others. The major employers in Fort Valley are Blue Bird Bus Cooperation and Fort Valley State University, a Land-Grant Institution and a Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs).Fort Valley and Peach County are located in Central Georgia, some say, Middle Georgia, counties and cities in the area are Bibb (known for Little Richard, James Brown and Otis Redding), Crawford County (known for the birthplace of Coke Cola), Houston County(known for Robins Air Force Base and Warner Robins Alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.), Monroe County, Jones County, Twiggs County, Wilkinson County, Baldwin County, Bleckley County, Putnam County(home of Uncle Remus stories and Alice Walker), Dodge County, Dooly County, Taylor County (Malcom X roots), Hancock County(Hunts roots), Washington County, (home of Elijah Muhammed and Berry Gordy), Johnson County, Laurens County, Macon County(Frazier roots), Sumter County(Home of Andersonville Confederate Prison –where 83 Colored soldiers were prisoners of war who were captured during the Civil War), and Upson county. Popular cities in the area- Macon, Milledgeville, Warner Robins,Montezuma, Marshallville, Eatonton, and Sandersville.

Personal Employment:

When I was hired in Fort Valley in 1974, I did not know that I would come in contact and work with grandsons and granddaughters of slaves and be familiar with grandsons and Granddaughters of slave owners and Confederate soldiers. I wish to celebrate my friends many ways of preparing the same food dishes. Even though, they all had different preparations methods, all were delicious. Foods in Fort Valley are meant for love, happiness, sadness, special blessings or just trying to out cook each other. Of course, the foods had to please the white folks for acceptance.

(3) Georgia Ex-Slaves Recollections

Slave Trade in Georgia and the Middle Passage the slave trade in the Caribbean and Africa to Georgia has begun as early as 1755 to 1757. The slaves purchased by the Savannah merchants, traders and farmers was known as the Savannah, Georgia trade through the Atlantic trade to the middle Passage to Savannah, Georgia. There were slave forts on the West African Coast popularly known as St. James on the Gambia River, St. Louis in Senegal and Goree Island off the coast of Senegal.

Middle Passage was known as the trip from Africa to America. There are three thousands miles across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to North America. For more than 300 years of slave trade, millions of Africans were brought Across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold in slavery. Africa-Americans were brought to America against their wills and denied rights before the birth of America in 1776 until the passing of the 13th and 14th Amendments, slavery was known as legal by the United States Government. The end of the U.S. Civil War, officially ended all slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln held office of the presidency.

(4) Recollections were taken from the Slave Narratives-

A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. These were labeled as – (TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT 1936-1938-ASSEMBLED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA-SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF