GOD BLESS BLACK-EYED PEAS

Here's a history lesson that I never knew ... until now.
Black-eyed Peas and Southern "Luck"
"The Real Story is much more interesting, and has gone untold in fear that feelings would be hurt.
It's a story of war, the most brutal and bloody war. Military might and power pushed upon civilians -- women, children and the elderly.
Never seen as a war crime, this was the policy of the greatest nation on earth trying to maintain that status at all cost.
An unhealed wound remains in some peoples of the Southern States even today. On the other hand, the policy of slavery has been an open wound that has also been slow to heal; but, OK to talk about.

The story of THE BLACK-EYED PEA being considered good luck relates directly back to Sherman's Bloody March to the Sea.

In late 1864, it was called The Savannah Campaign and was lead by Major General William T. Sherman. The Civil War campaign began on 11/15/1864 when Sherman's troops marched from the captured city of Atlanta and ended at the port of Savannah on December 22nd.
When the smoke cleared, the Southerners who had survived the onslaught came out of hiding. They found that the Blue Belly aggressors that had looted and stolen everything of value and everything anyone could eat, including all livestock. Death and destruction were everywhere.
While in hiding, few had enough to eat. Starvation was now upon the survivors.
There was no International Aid, no Red Cross meal trucks. The Northern army had taken everything they could carry and eaten everything they could eat.
But, they couldn't take it all. The devastated people of the South found, for some unknown reason, Sherman's bloodthirsty troops had left silos full of black-eyed peas.
You see, at the time, in the North, the lowly black-eyed pea was only used to feed livestock. The Northern troops saw it as the thing of least value, after taking grain for their horses, livestock, and other crops to feed themselves they just couldn't take everything.
So, they left the black-eyed peas in great quantities, assuming it would be of no use to the survivors, because all the stock that it could feed had either been taken or eaten.
Southerners awoke to face a New Year in this devastation. Facing massive starvation, if not for the good luck of having the black-eyed peas to eat.
From New Years Day 1865 forward, the tradition grew to eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day for good luck."
And now, you know, too.