YSK: there was a time when pumpkin pie was comparitively niche as fall holiday foods go. People would make sweet potatoe pie. However, it was essentially impossible to source sweet potatoes in the USA that were not made via slave labor, and so abolitionists pushed for an alternative: pumpkin pie. It’s interesting what boycotts and politics are baked into culture (and ovens), and how we forget about their origins.
On that note.
“Black people can’t swim.”
The masters used to beat all the slaves if they saw any of the kids swimming. Going across a river was the best way to throw off the blood hounds, so it was a good idea for the owners to keep the property out of the water.
Diving With a Purpose. Black scuba divers searching sunken slave ships.
https://divingwithapurpose.org/