Juneteenth: The Taste of Freedom

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June 19, 2001 -- Today the nation marks Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery. Though Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier, it wasn't until June 19, 1865, that Union soldiers brought word to Galveston, Texas, that the war was over and the slaves were free. Ever since, Juneteenth has been a day for savoring freedom - and, if you're Vertamae Grosvenor, for savoring good food as well.

Commentator and culinary anthropologist Vertamae Grosvenor Photo: 'The Americas' Family Kitchen'

In a commentary on All Things Considered, culinary anthropologist Grosvenor recalls how food -- or lack of it -- figured in slave life. "Imagine planting, harvesting, cooking, curing, canning, smelling, serving foods that were not for you," says Grosvenor. And then, thanks to Juneteenth, "Imagine freedom -- after centuries of stirring the pot for others, you could do it for yourself."

In his autobiography Up From Slavery, educator Booker T. Washington recalls how, as a young slave, he had watched "two of my young mistresses and some lady visitors eating ginger-cakes…. Those cakes seemed to me to be absolutely the most tempting and desirable things that I had ever seen; and I then and there resolved that, if I ever got free, the height of my ambition" would be to eat such cakes.

Grosvenor published a recipe for "ginger-cake" in her 1996 cookbook Vertamae Cooks in The Americas' Family Kitchen (KQED Books, San Francisco). She originally called the recipe Martha Washington's Gingerbread, because America's first lady "is reported to have been partial" to the sweet. But in honor of Juneteenth, Grosvenor is rededicating the recipe to Booker T. Washington.

"I like gingerbread, but I really like the smell of it baking better than I like the taste," Grosvenor says. "Some people serve it with a dollop of whipped cream, but I think it's best with a spoonful of homemade applesauce. It's your choice."



Vertamae Grosvenor's recipe for
Booker T. Washington Gingerbread

One-half cup butter, room temperature
One-half cup sugar
One-half cup molasses
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup buttermilk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13 baking dish with butter.

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat together until creamy. Stir in the molasses. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Shift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger into a medium bowl. Divide the flour mixture into 3 batches. Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares.

Makes one 9-by-13 inch cake; serves 10.