A New Years Tradition, Union Attrocities & God's Blessing on the Southern People

Many know of the New Years tradition that eating black-eyed peas on the first of January will bring good luck and/or prosperity for the new year, some even saying that 365 of these legumes must be eaten - one to bring blessings for each day of the year. For all of us who know about the tradition, however, it's unlikely that half of us could explain the roots of it beyond being a family tradition that Grandmaw always insisted upon observing. The origins of this practice, however, go back more than one-hundred and fifty years, to days & weeks around New Years of 1865...

It was the waning months of the War Between the States, and the United States government was inflicting total war upon the South using "scorched earth" tactics that literally included the Yankee invaders burning much of what was in their path. Total war was not limited to the field of battle between troops; it was a Northern war policy that included committing atrocities upon the Confederacy's civilian population. The North fought not to bring equal suffrage or rights for African Americans, but to bring a right of equal suffering & misery to Southerners - old men, women & children, without respect of color, race, or status.

The Union's 'Savannah Campaign' between Nov. 15 - Dec. 22 in 1864 was lead by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, and is known as "Sherman's March to the Sea." It was during this period of time that Sherman and his troops marched from the newly conquered city of Atlanta all the way to the port of Savannah, bringing equal suffering & destruction wherever their invading feet trod.

When the smoke cleared and the Southern people could come out of hiding, the level of death and destruction is nearly unimaginable. Homes, businesses, gardens, and fields all burned or looted. The Yankees had taken just about everything they could get their hands on, including almost anything you could eat. In these days before international aid & Red Cross food trucks, starvation was thrust upon the South.

While the blue-bellied Yanks had carried off as much as they could, they couldn't possibly take everything. The devastated people of the South were surprised to find that one of the few things left nearly untouched by the Federal terrorists were the silos filled with black-eyed peas.

Why had the black-eyed peas been left? It was certainly no gesture of goodwill. The simple reason is that the northern troops saw the large supplies of these lowly legume as the least valuable thing for use. The black-eyed pea was simply for feeding stock back north, and since they couldn't haul everything away, they took the best grain for their animals and the best food for themselves. Seeing it as mere feed for livestock, and considering that they were stealing all the livestock, they saw no need to destroy the large supplies of this tiny little bean, thinking it couldn't be of any use to the victims of their war crimes.

Now, at the end of the destruction, it would be the lowly black-eyed pea that would give sustenance to the otherwise destitute Southern population in the days of the coming New Year, when they would have to work to restore some semblance of the life they'd once had before it was all taken away in Abraham Lincoln's war of conquest.

Starting with New Years Day of 1866, in the newly "reunited" American nation, Southerners would remember both the horrors inflicted upon them by their Northern conquerors and the blessings of God upon them afterwards in eating black-eyed peas for good luck.

So as you "ring out the old and ring in the new" over a hearty helping of black-eyed peas in the next few days, know that you're continuing a great Southern tradition in memory of the evils thrust upon your ancestors by Lincoln's troops & God's grace to spare them from intended destruction.

Happy New Year!

DEO VINDICE!
- Jonathan McCleese
Sergeant-at-Arms, SCV Camp #1321

[Note: I have to give a hat-tip to the 'Robert E. Lee Camp 1640, Sons of Confederate Veterans' Facebook page for teaching me about this story in their post today. I did a little reading afterward to confirm it, and then proceeded to retell it in my own words. Still, credit is due my compatriots in Camp #1640 out of Memphis & Germantown, TN, and those of us working for The Cause up here in Michigan are grateful for all you do!]