My name is Hannah Griffith, I am a master’s student of history at the University at Buffalo and I created this website as my thesis project. I was born and raised in a tiny town in rural New York, then moved to Buffalo for college and have been here ever since. I had never heard of the words Gullah or Geechee before finding Vertamae Smart Grosvenor’s cookbook Vertamae Cooks in the Americas’ Family Kitchen. I stumbled upon it while researching a paper I was planning to call “Transnational History as Told by Peanuts,” and I still maintain that peanuts would be a fascinating lens for transnational history.
I really love public history, that is, history intended for and accessible to broader audiences. I think that making knowledge more available and showcasing it in an engaging way is critically important, which is why I fell in love with Grosvenor’s cookbook. Vertamae Smart Grosvenor shared delicious food and hilarious stories alongside the ancestral knowledge of the Gullah Geechee people and harrowing stories of racial injustice. I’ll never forget the chills I got the first time I read this story accompanying the mouthwatering dish “Crown Pork Roast with Sage-Apple Cornbread Stuffing”:
“The last time I made this pork roast was in February of 1965. I was having a dinner party and my dear friend Larry Neal was one of the invited guests. Everyone on the list was special to me, so I splurged for this expensive cut of meat. When the roast came out of the oven it was beautiful, but Larry had still not arrived. Then the phone rang. It was Larry, and he spoke only three words: “Malcolm’s been shot.””1
Vertamae Smart Grosvenor
I chose to come back to graduate school in the summer of 2020, about a month after George Floyd was killed. I chose to come back for history because in the weeks following his death, I realized how little I knew about the historical experiences of Black Americans. I wanted to dig deeper into the past, in the hopes of figuring out how to work towards a better future, not just for social justice, but for the maelstrom of different issues facing the world right now. While I still have no definitive direction, I think that understanding how the past is still very much a part of the present is an important and powerful place to start from.
The Buffalo, NY Mass Shooting
Less than 24 hours after completing this website, ten people here in Buffalo lost their lives when a white supremacist gunman opened fire at a Tops Market. The victims’ names were Roberta A. Drury, Margus D. Morrison, Andre Mackneil, Aaron Salter Jr., Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney, Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, and Ruth Whitfield.
Now more than ever, we need historians to think critically about their role in creating and perpetuating white supremacist narratives: how historians of the United States have downplayed and appropriated the historical achievements of non-white citizens, centralizing the stories of Americans of European descent. Only by facing this correlation can historians begin the true work of dismantling white supremacy within the historical academy.
There are many wonderful historians and scholars already creating works that show the intersectionality of history and the amazing contributions of every race, ethnicity, religion and gender. These works needs to become the norm in the academy, not the radical outliers. More than that, historians need to figure out how to share these works with people outside of the academy. White supremacists who are espousing “the great replacement” theory are not reading monographs and academic journal articles. They are reading easily-sharable online content filled with misinformation. By putting real historical narratives into digital spaces, in easily-sharable mediums, perhaps this will help to combat some of the stewing hate and misguided ideals that are festering in our country.
Thank you, thank you, thank you…
This is a living thank you page, because it will (hopefully) continue to grow as more people are involved in this website!
To Vertamae Smart Grosvenor and Cornelia Walker Bailey, while you may both be with your ancestors now, you are still making big changes here on this earth. My life will never be the same having known the two of you through your words, dishes and actions.
To Sallie Ann Robinson and Matthew Raiford, you don’t know me, but I respect you both to the high heavens. One of these days, I’m determined to shake hands with both of you. Thank you!
To the UB History Department and specifically to: Dr. Sarah Handley-Cousins for believing in me even when I didn’t have anything accomplished and for supporting me whenever I freaked out. Dr. Ndubueze Mbah for teaching me more about the history of slavery in three months than I had learned in my entire life. Dr. Camilo Trumper for putting up with my mercurial shifts in topic during the research seminar that ultimately led me to this thesis. And Jenna Labbie, soon-to-be-PhD, just for existing. UB is lucky to have you guys!
To my parents: words can’t do justice to how much I appreciate your love, support and humor. Also, you’re part of the reason this website exists. You’re the ones who made me fall in love with food in the first place! Love you both!
To my brother: thank you for being such a tech wiz, for hosting this site, for always answering my SOS messages and for loving “nifty” history things as much as I do.
To my sister: for commiserating about graduate school with me, even though you’re definitely more entitled to it than I am, because you’re saving the world at the same time.
To Pa: you and Gram are the real storytellers and historians in our family. I’m so grateful to you for taking the time to make a book about our family and our heritage. I hope this project would make Gram proud. Love you!
To Hunter and Maddie: thank you for coming over for dinners so I could cook these recipes and tell you all about them. And for cooking me delicious dinners in return!
To Hannah Brenner: thank you for coming over and doing a food photoshoot, even though I forgot you’re allergic to shrimp.
To Meg Stewart: for being a literal saint and being the most supportive boss I’ve ever had. You’re a rockstar!
To Allie Vuich: for being the best beta reader and GA buddy a girl could ask for.
To ALL of my friends: thank you for your moral support while I was a basket case for the last year and a half (or maybe longer?)… Very excited to be able to hang out with you again and cause mayhem (in the best of ways)!
To you, dear reader: If you made it all the way to here, thank you so much! If you didn’t make it all the way to here, thank you all the same!
Next Page:
Footnotes
- Vertamae Grosvenor, Vertamae Cooks in The Americas’ Family Kitchen (San Francisco: KQED Books, 1996), 95. Available here.