African-American slaves prepared food from the meat scraps of their owner’s butchered livestock. One such piece of offal was chitlins, or pig intestines. But chitlins came to represent more than sustenance. During the era of Jim Crow laws, they were a code. African-American performers knew that venues serving hog intestines were safe. This collection of restaurants and music venues became known as the “Chitlin Circuit.” Why were chitlins designated “slave food”? Since one’s social status dictated which part of the animal they ate, slaves mostly dined on the trotters (feet),…
