Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas

Not long ago, it was common belief that rice was domesticated in Asia and brought to other parts of the world either by Muslims or European traders. Thus, if rice were cultivated in the Carolinas from the late 17th century on, the presence of that crop was due to some European intervention. Carney explodes this myth. Showing the existence of rice cultivation in West Africa for at least two thousand years and proving that a) the variety of rice plant is not the same as the one in Asia and b) that a vast body of knowledge about rice growing existed in West Africa when the Portuguese first arrived there, she lays firm groundwork on which to build her idea that it was African slaves who taught the English planters in the Carolinas how to grow rice, built all the waterworks and field irrigation systems, passed on knowledge about milling the crop, and cooking the rice as well. She concludes that a whole system of knowledge was transferred from West Africa to North America's southeast coastal swamps (and to Brazil and Suriname too). This knowledge belonged especially to women of certain peoples who lived in the coastal rice growing zones of the area between Senegal and the Ivory Coast (and also in the interior [...] delta area of Mali). It was appropriated, just like the bodies of the slaves, and falsely said to originate with the white planters. How a bunch of ship captains and slave traders would have time to master the art of rice cultivation and bring it to the Americas was never explained by traditional historians. And the rice paddies of England somehow do not loom large in British legend. Africans---again---were erased from history. Carney has re-written them into the record in a very interesting book. The transfer of rice from Africa resulted in South Carolina being the richest of the colonies; it resulted in a black majority population for some time with the concommitant fear of rebellion among the white slave owners; and just for a short time, it allowed slaves to bargain with their owners to get some free time to attend small gardens of their own. Husking the rice by pounding it, a daily task for West African women, became a day-long, exhausting job for slaves in the Carolinas, part of the reason for the high death rate. In terms of breadth of research and the very topic of research, this is a five star book.There is one fly in the ointment. I think this book could have been cut, or at least, more carefully edited. There is a very large amount of repetition. The same ideas, even the same phrases, appear many times and it becomes tiresome to be told the same thing yet again. Many times I felt like exclaiming, "OK, OK ! I get it." This aside, BLACK RICE is a fine book. If you are interested in American history or African/American connections, if the tranfer of agricultural knowledge systems intrigue you, you can't afford to miss it.

If you want to know about the history of rice cultivation in the Americas, then I highly recommend this book. You have to give enslaved Africans credit for introducing rice and the knowledge how to cultivate and grow the crop in the New World. Another book that I highly recommend when it comes to the history of West African knowledge and history with growing and cultivating rice is "Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora." Get these two books to learn about West Africans and their history with growing and cultivating rice.

Planning to buy another copy of this book to a friend of mine whose family worked on rice plantations. I think he will appreciate the history of how Africans from certain regions were captured and brought here for the sole purpose of cultivating the rice fields. It puts the lie to rest that Africans had no skills when they were enslaved in the Americas.

Story of rice in Africa and America and the people who grew it. Very readable.

An eye-opening history revealing that the roots of American liberty are to be found in the skills of West African rice farmers. to say they were unappreciated understates it hugely. Professor Carney has done a great service in bringing this story to light.

Good read

I got this book as reference for a class. After reading it, I have to say..."I love it." Recommended it to my professor at college too.

Great Read

Fascinating history, outstanding scholarship.The writing is very lucid for an academic text. Very readable for most people.This work brings together Environmental History and the history of slavery in the Americas (especially South Carolina). It is a fascinating consideration of the intertwined histories of technology, ecology, gender, race, power, and economy.Highly recommended.

This is one of the best books written on the growth of rice. It allows you to understand the economical and cultural impact of rice on the world stage. An informative and well written volume. It brings to life the world of rice in Africa and the grate nation behind it. Well worth the read. Fantastic book!

Very informative book.