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African foods and medicines are brought to the Americas through the slave trade.

1580

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Enslaved Africans hide seeds and other forms of food and medicine to bring with them as they are forced across the Atlantic. These are then planted and established in the Americas. Slaveholders also often fill their ships with food purchased at African ports because they believe that familiar food increases the likelihood of Africans surviving the Atlantic passage. Millet, rice, black-eyed peas, and other food staples soon take root in the Americas. Animals brought for fresh meat, such as the guinea fowl, also soon find a home, as do medicinal plants, such as the castor bean plant.