The woman on the train platform in Gordonsville, Virginia, moved with practiced speed. Around her, steam hissed from the locomotives, and passengers leaned out of windows, calling orders. She lifted a basket of fried chicken, biscuits, and pies toward them, and hands reached down to take the food, coins exchanged in the half-minute the train was stopped. The year was the late 1870s, and this was how thousands of travelers fed themselves on the Southern railways.
The women who did this work were known as waiter carriers, and the chicken they sold would help carry a food born of two continents and a system of slavery into the very heart of American identity. The story of fried chicken begins long before those railroad platforms, in the kitchens of ancient Rome. A Roman cookbook called the Apicius was the first known text to suggest the recipe for fried chicken. But it was the Moors, in the Mediterranean, who truly developed and refined the art of frying poultry.
Traditional fried chicken as we know it, however, traces its origins to two distinct cultures: Scottish and West African. The Scots introduced the idea of frying chicken in fat, a technique that stood apart from the usual European methods of baking and boiling. Evidence shows that Scots had been deep-frying poultry since the Middle Ages. A telling record comes from the 1773 diary of the writer James Boswell, who described a dinner he had on the Isle of Skye that included fried chicken.
One of the very first known written recipes for fried chicken appears in a British cookbook, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse, published in 1747. The recipe was loved on both sides of the Atlantic. It called for cutting the chicken into quarters and laying the pieces in vinegar for two to four hours with salt, pepper, a bay leaf, and cloves of garlic. Then came a thick batter made with half a pint of wine and flour, two egg yolks, a little melted butter, grated nutmeg, and chopped parsley, beaten very well.
The cook was to dip the fowl in the batter and fry it in a good deal of hog’s lard. It was Scottish immigrants who first introduced fried chicken to the United States. But they were not the ones who popularized it. That was the work of West Africans.
In West Africa, cooks were deeply familiar with preparing chicken, most often through braising. Once in America, enslaved Africans brought their culinary traditions to the dish, introducing the concepts of seasoning and spices that imbued an otherwise plain meal with flavor and zest. At the time, the Scots were putting no seasoning in their fried chicken at all. Upon arrival, enslaved people found themselves in an alien landscape, surrounded by unfamiliar food and culinary norms.
The ingredients available to them were limited, yet they were expected to use them while drawing on their own deep culinary heritage. African cooking traditions centered heavily on poultry, and chicken played a significant role, making it an easily adaptable ingredient when they reached the New World. Their skill and ingenious improvisation played a huge role in the growth and popularity of fried chicken. They combined their African cooking techniques with the ingredients available in America to create something entirely new.
West African cultures, for instance, most often used palm oil for frying. In America, enslaved Africans had to switch to lard, pig fat, or the fat of other animals, because those ingredients were more readily available and less expensive. Chickens themselves played a significant part in the lives of enslaved people. They were among the few animals enslaved people were permitted to keep and care for, and they became a key part of their meals.
Raising chickens was manageable and gave enslaved people the opportunity to express some level of independence. The birds also had economic importance: sometimes enslaved people were allowed to trade or sell their surplus eggs and meat for other goods. But if a chicken fell sick or died, enslaved people were forced to eat it to avoid wasting the food. So they developed the practice of cleaning and seasoning the meat, then frying it in hot oil to make it palatable.
During slavery, fried chicken was a luxury reserved for special occasions. Although the recipe was extremely simple, preparing it took a great deal of time and effort, and not everyone had access to the right kitchen tools or even to poultry. Still, as more and more people tasted it, fried chicken began to spread across the South. By the end of the Civil War, the connection between African-Americans and fried chicken was already firmly established.
In the period following the war, mass-produced fried chicken and inexpensive oils became readily available. Yet at the same time, racial laws restricted employment opportunities for African-Americans, particularly women. They resorted to selling their homemade fried chicken, often a Sunday meal, to travelers. This economic strategy helped propagate fried chicken along the Southern railways and solidified it as both a Southern staple and a nationwide symbol.
The best example of this took place in Gordonsville, Virginia. Despite being a small town of only 900 residents, Gordonsville was an important stop for two major railroad lines during that period. Trains did not have dining cars, so passengers had to figure out how to feed themselves. Some packed their own food; others chose to purchase meals during the trip.
Spotting a business opportunity, African-American women sold their homemade food to passing travelers. They served fried chicken, pies, and biscuits, delivering them into the hands of passengers through the train windows while standing on the platform. These women were known as waiter carriers. But by the turn of the century, most trains began to be equipped with dining cars, and government regulations became more stringent for platform food vendors.
As a result, this innovative business tradition came to an end. During the Great Migration, many African-Americans moved from the South to Northern industrial cities, taking their food traditions with them, including their beloved fried chicken that reminded them of their former homes. Over time, African-Americans began to eat fried chicken as a staple meal after church. They would serve the best part of the chicken, typically the breast, to the pastor when he visited the home.
During this time, the bird became known as the gospel bird or the Sunday cluck. This continued until around World War II, when fried chicken was still enjoyed only on special occasions and remained a relatively labor-intensive process. By the 1950s, the popularity of fried chicken exploded with the rise of fast food chains. Many entrepreneurs in the fast-food industry saw America’s passion for fried chicken and decided to capitalize on it.
Companies brainstormed ways to quickly cook massive amounts of fried chicken and serve it fresh to customers. It was during this period that fried chicken went from being a national American dish to an international one. But it was also during this period, in the Jim Crow era, that racial stereotypes tying African-Americans to fried chicken became entrenched. These stereotypes asserted that Black people were poultry thieves and ravenous eaters of fried chicken.
The portrayal cast African-Americans as inherently savage and unintelligent, as predatory, lustful beings who exhibited a primal, uncontrollable affection for food, particularly fried chicken. In 1915, the film The Birth of a Nation popularized the trope of African-Americans as chicken thieves, painting them as dimwitted and lazy. In one scene, elected Black officials were shown swigging from whiskey bottles and putting their bare feet on tables, while another man was seen rabidly gnawing on a chicken bone. Such imagery permeated deep into the twentieth century, and these stereotypes continuously showed up in various types of movies, media, TV shows, and advertisements.
They often depicted African-Americans indulging in specific foods like fried chicken and watermelon. This was propagated to the point of insinuating that African-Americans were less intelligent, and it highlighted white society’s perceived cultural and racial superiority. The stereotype was often intertwined with social hierarchies to belittle Black people, underscoring their subjugated status. In the modern world, the stereotype persists, and the media plays a significant role in establishing, perpetuating, and amplifying it.
From racist depictions in minstrel shows to negative portrayals in modern advertisements, the media has contributed significantly to the racial mythmaking of fried chicken. Even as attempts are made to counter these negative stereotypes in contemporary media, the old tropes occasionally resurface, underscoring the persistence and cultural baggage that fried chicken seems to carry. In 2010, a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial in Australia depicted a white person calming down a rowdy crowd of Black people with fried chicken. The ad was labeled as racist and was seen as an example of how these stereotypes continue to spread.
KFC was forced to apologize publicly and pull the ad. Despite these stereotypes being propagated in the media, many African-American chefs and food writers have made efforts to reclaim the narrative and highlight the historical and cultural significance of fried chicken. They have continued to elevate Southern traditional meals, including fried chicken, to the realm of gourmet cuisine. The success of Black-owned businesses shows that African-American entrepreneurs can succeed despite these stereotypes.
Strides are being taken to dismantle them, but the work is ongoing. As historian Michael Twitty points out, fried chicken is a soulful classic, but it is not the whole of African-American culinary heritage. Nonetheless, fried chicken continues to remain a staple in many African-American gatherings and celebrations, a food that embodies resilience, resourcefulness, and culinary creativity in a history fraught with hardship and repression.
