Jaega Wise and Dan Saladino investigate the hidden story of slavery in our food. Between the 17th century and into the 19th, twelve million enslaved Africans were transported to the Caribbean and into the rest of the Americas. Their work transformed industries, including tobacco and cotton, but it was their agricultural labour that made the biggest impact on the world. The modern food system as we know it would not exist without the centuries of the brutal slavery put in place by European powers. The food we eat today, our palates and even the shapes of our bodies, are all a part of the legacy of slavery.
Jaega and Dan tell this story with the help of James Walvin, a writer and academic who has spent fifty years researching the role of slavery in making the modern world. Walvin argues that we still haven't acknowledged this fact, and to move forward we will need to come to terms with this history.
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