Southern Sayings and a Revolt with Brandon from the Southern Gothic Podcast

Brandon

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[00:00:00] Ashley: Hi, everybody, and welcome to Dine with the Divine. I'm Ashley, your host, and today we'll be exploring the magical, the mystical, and everything in between. So on today's episode, we're going to be talking about some Southern sayings and a rebellion. So I hope everyone's having a great week, and if you're not, I hope it gets really better soon.

[00:00:24] So we have a fantastic guest on today. We have Brandon from the Southern Gothic Podcast. So Brandon, he hosts the chart topping history podcast, Southern Gothic, a show that explores the dark history of the American South and sheds light on some of its most infamous legends, mysteries, true crime, and haunted places.

[00:00:44] Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He eventually moved to Franklin, Tennessee to work in the music industry as an audio engineer, and he experienced, sorry, his experience in recording studios working with some of [00:01:00] Country and Americana's best storytellers eventually drove him to dive deeper into his passion for good old fashioned trade and lies.

[00:01:08] I've never heard that. I love that. Today, you'll find Brandon traveling all over the South looking for tales. Leading ghost tours. Oh, I love a ghost tour through the old Civil war town of franklin or producing podcasts for the southern gothic media and several clients including southern fried true crime Oh, I've listened to that and one strange thing So hi brandon Hi, Ashley,

[00:01:35] Brandon: talk to you.

[00:01:35] Thank you for having me on. I, there's already been such a wonderful energy here. I'm really excited. good. Yeah, it's a good way. Good end of the day, for sure.

[00:01:44] Ashley: Yes. I'm so happy too. So the first thing I like saw about you, first of all, that you're from, you were born in New Orleans.

[00:01:51] Yeah. First of all, I love New Orleans. I went there once in my life and I was like, first of all, I love this place. I don't know how anybody actually gets anything done here.

[00:01:59] Brandon: I [00:02:00] left, I don't know if you saw

[00:02:04] that.

[00:02:04] Ashley: It's just I don't know the energy there is different and it was the first time that I ever saw like we were, and I don't know if this is probably like a gimmicky thing, but when we were like in like New Orleans walking around and seeing like signs that let's say haunted, not haunted on the different like apartments and houses.

[00:02:23] Oh yeah. Oh god, I loved

[00:02:26] Brandon: it. It's like realtor signs that's what some of their like realty signs, something's for sale and they'll put that I don't know if it's gimmicky or it's pretty good marketing You know whether they really believe it's haunted and if you're buying a house in new orleans you want it haunted You know yeah.

[00:02:41] Yeah, they definitely they definitely it's one of the one of the cities that will lean in To the vibe for sure, you

[00:02:48] Ashley: know, yeah, there's a Hoodoo shop or like metaphysical shop, like everywhere but also just like you feel like the energy just of New Orleans [00:03:00] is all there. It's not just like the Zydeco music that's playing in like the CBF.

[00:03:04] It's like everywhere. You just like really feel it. I love New Orleans. So you obviously really enjoy being from the South and we love it. So it's great for, the topics. It's on your podcast because there's so much of that. Every place has its different haunted stuff, but I feel like in the South because of wars and all these different things that happen there, there's a lot of that like energy all over.

[00:03:33] When did you even get into the paranormal and ghosts and stuff?

[00:03:37] Brandon: Yeah. So I, being from new Orleans, of course, like you said, it's just the vibe. You grew up, hearing a lot of stories and hearing all that sort of stuff and just, but in particular on a personal level is my parents were just.

[00:03:51] They were avid genealogists, amateur genealogists, and not to date myself, but I'm 40. So as a child, when [00:04:00] they're in the genealogy and really in the genealogy, they didn't have the internet, right? So they drug their kids to cemeteries on the weekend, like all genealogists, it's such a great idea.

[00:04:11] Let me take your kids. So I was. Constantly on the weekends, they're driving us up and down, the Mississippi River, going to these little small towns where we had ancestors and going through cemeteries and going to these old churches for looking for records. And so I, I developed that kind of.

[00:04:29] At that age, I hated it, but later on in life, it's what you hate as a child ends up feeling like home, right? I really enjoy a good cemetery now. I really, it cause I tell people cemeteries are wonderful when you go walk through them, not only do a lot of them feel like, you're walking through a park and there's a sense of peace, but as a storyteller, every couple feet, there's literally a lifetime of stories right there, right?

[00:04:53] And just a person, an individual that had a life and had stories and all. And so early on, just [00:05:00] that kind of added to that general vibe of being in New Orleans and all. And had an interest that way. Of course, at the same time aging myself, I grew up at that time period when, interview with the vampire came out, the Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

[00:05:12] So that really just is, I don't think I was even a teenager yet when it actually came out. But of course the product of that in the city, of course, took on a new level in my teenage years. And, you mix all that up together and came out the other side up here in Nashville.

[00:05:27] Where I, a lot of my wonderful friends here in Nashville are, bluegrass songwriters, Americana songwriters, and now you might turn on country radio and you might hear that whole, blue jeans and a short skirt with a beer truck, whatever. But. But in reality, those guys who were in the old country, old kind of hillbilly traditions, they're singing songs about murders and stuff.

[00:05:49] That old Appalachian stuff ain't nothing, and so it really just, it was the cherry on top and that's really how I really. Got into this and I come at it from a more of an [00:06:00] angle of the paranormal. I more of an angle from a storyteller and from somebody who really enjoys the community of it, the history of it the aspect of what it says about culturally and the context and just this kind of, almost like this is the, a way of.

[00:06:16] Promoting where we came from and talking about it from a different angle than the way that a textbook does and, in a place like the South where it has had so much conflict, it's had it's got so many awful stories and things that happen here that people will fight over whether or not we can talk about them well in this space, I can't.

[00:06:37] I get to tell those stories and and hopefully that at least will carry them on to the next, the next generation and do those things. So that's what I love. So even when you said, obviously you love. You love living in the South. And at first I was like do I was like, it's really hot today.

[00:06:52] I don't know, I'm here and I'm, really a part of it. And this is where my family is and everybody. So of course it's really come [00:07:00] through with and how I tell stories. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:03] Ashley: Yeah. I love that. And. You make such a good point. I think it's so we do have a lot of arguments about Oh, can we say this?

[00:07:11] Can we not tell this? But I think it's important to tell the whole story. And and tell everybody's story, because everyone has a story. And I also have to mention the fact that I always say I don't like country music, but I really like bluegrass, like country music. And for Folk country music.

[00:07:30] I don't really the whole like get in and pick up truck and that I don't like that but when it's like bluegrass oh brother where art thou music. I like that yeah, because they're telling stories And they have the time it's all I do laugh too when you listen to some of those old songs.

[00:07:45] It is and then I shot him in the head and you're like, what?

[00:07:49] Brandon: Some of their gospel songs like hit me behind me devil, like it's these old like hillbillies talking about the devil a lot, man. I really do. [00:08:00] It's

[00:08:00] true.

[00:08:01] Ashley: They really do love to talk about the devil. And death. Yeah. They love to talk about so and so died.

[00:08:09] Or I'm gonna die. Or then I laid down and died. And you're like, bro, why are you all but then you think about their lives, right? Especially... We talked about it in a different episode, but like settlers. And we talked about like granny women in Appalachia where it's like, they had it was rough.

[00:08:25] So it's were they talking about the devil game behind them? They're like, yeah, cause they were going through it. And they were, people were dying all the time from like the common cold probably. Cause it's like 17, 18 and everybody's not washing their hands cause they don't have clean water.

[00:08:38] So it makes sense when you think about it, you're like, yeah, that's why they were always talking about all this kind of stuff because it was just hard for

[00:08:45] Brandon: them. You heard that, you heard of murder ballads, right? So the, so like the Appalachian community, they, that was a genre of music. It was called murder ballads and it was these songs that were usually about unfortunately it was usually about the murders of young [00:09:00] women, right?

[00:09:00] But they were in a lot of ways. They were like these early The way to warn people about, this don't run around with a man like this. But yeah, a joke, but they were always about real murder. You have these stories like Pearl Brian's one there's a handful of them.

[00:09:14] And of these murder ballots that were stories about it. And I joke about it. This was a genre and this was a bluegrass and country music. We've done it. Wow. But they were like those early true crime podcasts, in like the early 19th century of we're going to sit around the campfire and tell you about this woman that done ran off with this guy and she's dead because of it, and so just like one of these, true crime podcasts now, don't go in the woods, right? It's the same thing, so it's fascinating. Yeah. It

[00:09:43] Ashley: really is. And yeah, now when you think about it, even when you watch movies, that they'll have people at a dance usually an outdoor festival or something.

[00:09:51] And the person on stage singing the song is always telling a s it's a story, and it's usually somebody ran away. Somebody died or [00:10:00] whatever like but it is a story and you're right. It's like it's and people like that's so dark It's entertaining, but it's like it's the exact same thing we do now.

[00:10:08] Like we're all listening to a true crime podcast You know, I listen to a few You know, so you're right that's just their version of the true crime Now

[00:10:24] You do research different paranormal things. So next question, have you experienced anything paranormal yourself?

[00:10:32] Brandon: I have, it's not. A big, wonderful story. It's not a big fun story. Most of what I've experienced over the time, I visit a lot of places, it's become a thing.

[00:10:42] And even a joke that like, I'm constantly going out there. I'm not a ghost hunter in that way that, you might see on TV. I don't I, I own a couple of the things just. Because, it's it's fun. But when I go to a place, I usually don't go with that intention of finding evidence the way, like you [00:11:00] would, one of, one of, and I have a lot of friends that do it and I 100% understand why they do it and I, I don't do it out of.

[00:11:07] I'm not believing in it. It's just not my cup of tea. And I do enjoy going to a lot of these places. And when I go, what I'm looking for is a personal experience and it is that. And usually the way that I have that is less. That I'm finding I'm interacting or something like that, but it's almost always, it's almost always been where you just feed off the energy that's there at some point and something happens.

[00:11:32] And, I've never had door shut or something, swoop in or something, may or may not have seen like an apparition once or twice at a place down here in Franklin. It kinda it was enough to. The experience I had in seeing an aberration was enough to like shake me a little and question deeper and feel like it could be, but it wasn't something that was so profound.

[00:11:53] But I do go to places looking, I joke, I was like I feel like I walk through a place sometimes and I'm like, Hey [00:12:00] guys, my entire career at this point is trying to tell people about y'all, if one of you could just show up and say hi, so that I could have my experience, I'm here right now.

[00:12:10] But I back in December, I went to Waverly Hill sanatorium, which is this just famous old tuberculosis hospital that ghost adventures is it's one of these, like one of the big main ones, right? And I've been a bunch of them but that one in particular was one of those cases where we went through and we stayed from 12 AM or from midnight to 6 AM.

[00:12:32] We went out there and and it was an abandoned place and they basically give you free reign to walk through the building. And we started the evening with probably about 40 people were in the building or so just people can all go in various places and all. And I went with my girlfriend and she was actually the one that really wanted to go.

[00:12:51] And so we went and there was ghost hunter groups in different spots and they're doing things like I told you, like the guys have the little light pieces here, maybe they're looking for [00:13:00] evidence here. And, we decided to just go. Just go, just, we're just going to go slowly through the building and take our time and maybe experience some energy or something like that.

[00:13:11] And it's world renowned for what they call shadow people. That's what they say here. And I was like, man, I like, I want to see a dang shadow person. If I'm staring at like an EMF reader, then I'm not going to see a shadow person. I'm going to go my eyes are going to be open the whole time.

[00:13:26] Anyway, so we spent about six hours there, we went through and it was interesting because. As these people are finding what they would call evidence and we're walking around and everything's fun and you're enjoying your time and seeing, we were on the third floor and as we got close to this one area of the room completely shifted.

[00:13:46] And 180 degrees where the energy wasn't weren't any other people around, but it was really clear at that moment that I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was a paranormal, I don't know if it was a ghost or anything like that, but something in that moment triggered us [00:14:00] on an energy level to where it was like, Get the hell out of here, and we hadn't felt that anywhere else in this building, all the places where there would have been massive trauma, we didn't feel it there, but at this one moment there was this thing that would overcome.

[00:14:15] And, most of my experiences. Are like those, it's it's the energy shift type thing. It's the power of place of being at a historic or maybe not even a historic, but at a place where, trauma has happened or things have it's has a deep past, you

[00:14:31] Ashley: know?

[00:14:31] Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I think a lot of people, you go to those places and the energy is definitely there. I feel that the energy of a lot of these places, even though it's hundreds of years later, it like never dies. Like it never, it's really interesting. I went to in Ghana, there is a old slave fortress and we went there.

[00:14:58] And, [00:15:00] It's they explain the different parts of it and where people went and there's a door, they call it like the door of no return. So this is the last, yeah, it's the last door that people went on to the ships and like now the sea has receded. So it's a little different, but the door is four feet tall and three feet less than three feet wide.

[00:15:19] And you feel panicked You yeah, it's like I'm just looking at a door and I'm panicking and my sister like was with me, too And I was like, do you feel that she's yeah, I feel like I don't even want to look at this anymore Like I'm yeah getting nervous like we're going somewhere, but it's like we're just on a tour.

[00:15:37] It is 2019 but yeah that energy it never Leaves those places It's interesting okay So we're gonna go to our next part, and our next part is the dine part of the Dine with Define. So we're gonna talk about food. Yes. I was like which foods can we talk about? I don't know, but [00:16:00] I was like, I found a very...

[00:16:02] Long list of different foods from Southern living. So I'm going to go down and we're going to talk about the ones I've never heard of. And we'll see if you've ever heard of them.

[00:16:12] Brandon: I have one vice left as a, and it is food. So bring it. I coffee and food. I don't know what it is.

[00:16:21] Ashley: Okay, so the first one I was like, what is this?

[00:16:25] I'm not sure. This is called egg pie. Okay. But it's like custard. So I was like, is it a quiche? That's what the first thing that came to my head was like eggs. But no, it's like a custard pie and it looks very delicious. It is literally just custard, and if you've never had custard, it's like a yogurt, it's like a smooth cream.

[00:16:45] It's more like a pudding, so that looks good, I'll eat that. Actually, I probably won't because I have a weird thing with pudding, but that's fine. I

[00:16:53] Brandon: don't, I don't know if I've ever had egg pie. Like I, I knew, yeah, I don't

[00:16:58] Ashley: know if I've ever had that. I know, I don't know, I've [00:17:00] never heard of it.

[00:17:00] Some of these are like real basic, it's like everybody's had. They have a lot of chilies here. Really? Yeah, and I would think Chile is more of a Texas thing. Yeah, you know because of the Mexico connection, but I don't know There is another one here called Mississippi mud cake, which sounds really good.

[00:17:19] Yeah Yes, it's a fudgy marshmallow Topped brownie, basically, and I'm into it.

[00:17:26] Brandon: Yeah we'd have that with pie. It would be like a Mississippi mud pie, more than a cake. Oh, okay. Sometimes you have a little coffee flavor in

[00:17:33] Ashley: it. Ooh, okay. Okay. , not me hungry. Sorry I'm interrupting you. No, it's, no, it's totally fine.

[00:17:42] I love that. Ooh, this one I really like because I've actually had German chocolate cake ums. At one job that I used to work at, this lady bought a German chocolate cake for my birthday. It was very exciting. I had never had it and I was like, I could actually eat this every day. It is [00:18:00] so good. It's topped with like caramel and I don't even know what else is on a German chocolate cake.

[00:18:08] Just, it's three layers. There's everything. There's a very heavy frosting. Oh, there's pecans on it. Southern people love pecans.

[00:18:19] Brandon: I call them pecans. Okay. I don't know if that's, I don't know, but I'm not trying to correct you. No, I know. It's like one of those things where it's I don't know, I don't even know what the correct way to say it is.

[00:18:29] I don't think anybody does. And podcasting, apparently like everyone has a different opinion about how to pronounce everything. Yes. Yeah, but totally. It's

[00:18:39] Ashley: the same thing with like Caribbean and caramel and caramel. Yeah. People get in arguments about that and I'm like, I don't think it matters, but

[00:18:49] Brandon: Okay.

[00:18:49] Alright. I gotta test you then. Okay. So they look like tiny. I'm gonna, I'm not gonna tell you what it is cause I want to hear what you call it. Okay. They look like tiny little lobsters about you know this big and you like, you peel the [00:19:00] tail off and you eat them. You know what that is?

[00:19:02] They got two little claws shrimp. No, not shrimp. Crawfish? Oh, you called him crawfish. Okay, all right. We can continue this interview. I won't hang up on you now. Okay. I, my child living in Tennessee, my child's Hey dad, I got a crawdad. I found a crawdad in the river and I was like, you're not my kid anymore.

[00:19:23] It is crawfish, child.

[00:19:26] Ashley: So I never, and I guess it was crawfish. I don't know. I've, I didn't really eat crawfish ever in my life. I live in New Jersey. We don't have those, but we don't have that up here. I was wondering what

[00:19:36] Brandon: weird slang you might come up with. Yeah,

[00:19:38] Ashley: I think. When I went to New Orleans, we like, me and my friend, me and my best friend went for a couple days and we were like, we're going to have one night where we eat at a fancy restaurant.

[00:19:49] The rest of the days we just ate like Popeye's. Which we were on a

[00:19:52] Brandon: budget. Shoot, I've missed Popeye's though. Popeye's!

[00:19:55] Ashley: Okay, another side note, Popeye's in New Orleans is much better [00:20:00] than the other than Northern Popeye's. Yeah.

[00:20:02] Brandon: Yes, it's different. They have real sides there. I know we have Popeye's here, but they don't have the New Orleans sides at the ones here.

[00:20:07] You can carry that complaint if Popeye's is listening right

[00:20:11] Ashley: now. Yeah, Popeye's, if you want to be a sponsor, I'll sponsor you, Bell. So you have to fix your recipes around the place. But I went. We, so we went to this nice restaurant and then First of all, I've never eaten like and again, I don't know if it was shrimp or crawfish But I've never eaten any seafood like this with the whole body is there so I was disturbed.

[00:20:34] I was like, what's happening? I was like, this thing is looking at me in the face. Yeah, and I don't like it and then they gave us like Lemon, and I guess you're supposed to put the lemon on like your hands. Huh And I put it in my water and the waiter just thought it was like the funniest thing that I had ever done.

[00:20:53] He like called over like the maitre d to also laugh at like how silly I was. They're like, where are you guys [00:21:00] from? And we're like, New Jersey. And they're like, no wonder, silly people. What do you do with that lemon? I was like, I thought it was for my water. Cause they put it on a napkin and I didn't know why, but I was just like.

[00:21:12] So I guess this is the lemon for the water.

[00:21:16] Brandon: I never use a lemon. Yeah, I just, let's just yeah.

[00:21:19] Ashley: I don't know. I guess it was a fancy restaurant. So I guess people who had gone there knew, but we were just like, I don't know what's going on. It's no problem. So then, we've... Oh god. So we also, we have this thing that keeps coming up here.

[00:21:34] Have you heard of Brunswick Stew?

[00:21:37] Brandon: Yeah, but I think it's more like Carolinas have that. Or at least my friends that are... I have a friend of mine who's from south Carolina, North Carolina. No, he's from Raleigh. He's the one that really introduced me to a good Brunswick stew. Oh, yeah, I've never heard of it.

[00:21:51] It's not something I grew up with though,

[00:21:52] Ashley: yeah. Okay, yeah, that's interesting, another one. And then we have here a smoked turkey in, I don't say this [00:22:00] word right, is it andou, andouli? Gumbo. Undoey. Undoey. Undoey. Okay. I can't say it. I buy it from ShopRite all the time, but I can't say it. Yes.

[00:22:10] Brandon: Again, it's, I can't say things right all the way either.

[00:22:13] Yeah. Yeah. That's some good

[00:22:16] Ashley: stuff right there. Yeah. That sounds really good. We have, oh, these are called orange rolls. That's, it looks like basically a I think it's an orange flavored like cinnamon roll. It looks nice. Let's see what else we got. We got an easy one like chicken and dumplings.

[00:22:31] I feel like that's pretty standard. Yeah. Yeah, you can get those at the Cracker Barrel. That's... Yeah! You're good. Yeah. Then we also have a regular, very standard sweet potato pie. Fun fact. I don't like sweet potato pie even though it tastes exactly like pumpkin pie and I love pumpkin pie. Really? Yeah, because the thought of eating sweet potatoes in a pie is weird to me.

[00:22:52] So we're like, we'll not eat it. Cause I'm so hungry. Yeah, if somebody tells me it's pumpkin pie, I'll be like, yeah, I'll eat that. But as soon as [00:23:00] you tell me it's sweet potato, I gotta stop. Really? Yeah. I have a weird food

[00:23:05] Brandon: issue. Do you eat like sweet potato fries? Yes. Okay. I love. So it's not the sweet potatoes problem.

[00:23:11] It's the sweet potatoes.

[00:23:12] Ashley: Yeah. Yeah. I actually love sweet potatoes. Actually. I'm going to be making that later on. Because as a side for what I'm going to eat for dinner tonight. But. If it's in a pie, I can't eat it. But if it's any other form, I will eat it. I know, I'm sorry. I'm so odd. Okay, then we have Candied Yams.

[00:23:29] Again, I'll eat Candied Yams, but I don't like the marshmallow thing. Oh, what is it?

[00:23:34] Brandon: We like marshmallows down there. Yeah, you guys love it. Yeah, it does go with a lot of stuff, now that you mention it. Yeah, I never thought of that. Yeah.

[00:23:43] Ashley: marshmallows on everything. We got black eyed peas, which is like a classic thing.

[00:23:48] Oh, biscuits. Let's talk about that for a second. Oh. Because if they weren't just pure carbs, I would just eat biscuits for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just biscuits, . Yeah. [00:24:00] I love. I love biscuits. And then for the first time, I think it was last year, I had biscuits with like sausage and gravy. That was the first time I ever had

[00:24:09] Brandon: sausage gravy?

[00:24:10] Yeah. Like little chunks were in the gravy? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Oh, my God. I thought I died. I have a problem with that, too. I we maybe about 20 minutes down the road from me, so where I live, it's on the, Where I live, I'm outside of Nashville, and we're at the top of what's called the Natchez Trace, which is this long historic parkway that was like a trail from Natchez, Mississippi all the way up to Nashville for traders back in the day, right?

[00:24:36] Before interstates and rail, before railroads even. Anyway, it's become this like cool travel road where, you know, motorcyclists and people in RVs and all, they go up and down and whatever. And at the very end is this, the most Southern food place ever. It's called the Loveless Cafe.

[00:24:54] And it is like the, it was a motel for the end of the trace. And It had the world [00:25:00] renowned biscuits. Like they had some, a lady there that was like the biscuit lady and and she like went on all those like big news shows back in the day and the morning show people how to make biscuits and all.

[00:25:10] Anyway, like it's right there and you go there, man. And oh my God. It is, everything is like cooked in Ard , and it's yes, like you, like they bring out biscuits just immediately as soon as you get there. And like you are just trying not to eat your weight in biscuits before your food comes because your food's so good.

[00:25:31] Yeah. , but yeah, those biscuits and that white sausage gravy is like, It's if, yeah, if you see my obituary in the near future, you just assume it's because my heart stopped from eating, cause I do have bits of biscuits and gravy once a week here. Am I gonna lie? I

[00:25:53] Ashley: would, too. I don't blame you, but it's look, we're here for a good time, not a long time.

[00:25:58] Okay, everybody. [00:26:00]

[00:26:02] Brandon: Yeah, it's yeah, it's either Loveless Cafe or there's a place called Puckett's Grocery down here in Franklin.

[00:26:07] Ashley: Those two places have a lot of

[00:26:09] Brandon: biscuits. I go to one a week, I go to one of them.

[00:26:14] Ashley: We gotta have biscuits if we're gonna be happy. This is just part of, it's part of your self care.

[00:26:19] I have to have some biscuits. We have some other standards here. We got some collard greens. We have some cornbread. We have some just everything. There's a lot of food that I didn't realize that people consider southern. Watch this. It's oh chicken pot pie. I didn't, I don't really know where chicken pot pie was from at all.

[00:26:39] But yeah, pecan pie. Speaking again of pecans or pecans, whichever one you want to say. New Orleans. Again, referencing. When I went there, I had never had a praline. And me and my friend ended up doing this thing every day where we just would start the day and go to every shop that was giving out pralines [00:27:00] and then like we would round again.

[00:27:01] We both probably got diabetes temporarily while we were there.

[00:27:06] Brandon: I actually another one we call them pralines there. Oh, okay. And but no, don't, because everybody over here says, like praline ice cream and stuff, I hear it a lot, but I actually don't eat them.

[00:27:17] I actually they are a little too much sugar for me. So I never really got, I never got into it to the pralines, but it's a, that's a really good example though of our accent down there, the pralines, because everybody's got this drawl down there. Yeah. Like it's so you eat the praline doll and yeah, eat the praline.

[00:27:41] Ashley: It's so weird. I, I'm from up here, so people will say, oh people from North Jersey and people from New York sound similar, people, if you didn't know. But I feel the same thing about certain parts of the South. I've seen a lot of TikTok videos where people are explaining like the different accents.

[00:27:55] Yeah. But I feel like when it comes to Louisiana and I [00:28:00] guess it may be New Orleans specific it's such a different accent to me than anywhere else. And it's probably because of the French and the Cajun and all that, all these different cultures. But also, I used to watch this show, and I don't know the name of it, I can't remember.

[00:28:17] But this guy, he was in like, somewhere in the bayou, and he was like, He would find like tree stumps and somehow this, like the tree stumps were like in the swamp and they're like very valuable or something. I'm

[00:28:32] Brandon: not sure. This sounds authentic. I know like some people might think, what is what you're making this up?

[00:28:39] No, this really does sound like there are probably people who make their living doing this. And yes. This guy

[00:28:45] Ashley: made like mad money doing this. And he would just like, first of all, I was nervous for him every time because he was a little older. He was maybe in his sixties. As

[00:28:52] Brandon: you were in overalls and no shirt underneath.

[00:28:54] Because

[00:28:55] Ashley: That's so lukewarm. And he had no shoes. And I'm nervous. He's going to step on an [00:29:00] alligator's mouth and die. But he's and I couldn't. God bless this man. Couldn't understand a word he said. Give us everything.

[00:29:08] Brandon: Oh, it's a Cajun thing. Yeah. There's like a city accent and then there's like the Cajun accent

[00:29:13] Ashley: there.

[00:29:13] Yes. I couldn't. And thank God for your subtitles, because I never knew what this man was saying. But then one time he got a hernia from picking up a big log and I was worried. I was like, this poor guy, he's just

[00:29:29] Brandon: crazy. This wasn't the Oh God, the gator show. Was it? There's a swamp. There's something. Oh God.

[00:29:36] I'm embarrassed that I don't want to swamp people because I think there was a, maybe

[00:29:40] Ashley: it was something like that. But all I know is this man was like, talk about how much money he would get from seeing different logs. And I think it had something to do with the swamp, like preserving the wood a certain way.

[00:29:54] So when they made stuff with it, it was like really good, but I just was worried about this man with no shoes on, [00:30:00] there's alligators everywhere and he's just walking around the swamp, and I'm like, sir I was so nervous for him, but he's fine, he got a hernia, I watched the whole episode, he went to the hospital, and he was alright, they fixed it, so he's fine, and they told him not to go back for the swamp for a couple weeks, and he did not care, he was going, And then I was a little worried again, but he's fine.

[00:30:20] I want to,

[00:30:21] Brandon: I want to go Google this, but I don't know what to put into the search term. I have to watch this.

[00:30:30] Ashley: It was so funny. And he just seems and it's one of those shows where he just seems like such a good, pure person. That's why I liked it. I was like, this so nice. I'm so worried about him. Oh God, it was a good time. But yeah, I couldn't hear it. Couldn't understand a word he said, but love that guy.

[00:30:47] Let's see. What else? I think we're good with their foods. We've mentioned a lot of them. We have some squash casserole. Oh, another thing is there's a lot of casseroles. I see that, so I guess we love a casserole too. [00:31:00] Pull apart bread, I'll eat that. Peach ice cream, which I was like, huh? Is that like maybe a Georgia kind of thing?

[00:31:06] I'm assuming? Maybe? Because they have peaches down there a

[00:31:10] Brandon: lot, I think. Yeah, they're pretty obnoxious naming everything with peaches.

[00:31:15] Ashley: Yeah. I was like, the South is to me, every time I've entered anywhere in the South, It's literally like going to a different country to me Because things are just different and the people are completely different than up here like up here.

[00:31:31] Everyone's in a rush Nobody's gonna say hello to you. Everybody in the South is trying to give you something to eat or Inviting you to their church It's very it reminds me very much of like I'm Jamaican and West African and it's very similar to that. Everyone's trying to feed you, everyone's trying to invite you to church, and they're like, What church do you go to?

[00:31:56] You should come to my church. I'm like, I don't even live here, but thank you. [00:32:00] Very sweet.

[00:32:03] Brandon: No, you're, that's a very fair assessment and I think you getting you, yeah, you visited all of us now. I enjoy it.

[00:32:13] Ashley: Huh. Oh gosh. That's some foods and I'll put a link so everyone can see some of the other foods that we have on this beautiful Southern Living list.

[00:32:22] And then this is the part of the show where I'm going to plug myself. If you like this show, you can follow us on the socials if you like, Dining with the Divine on Instagram or Dining with the Divine on Facebook. And if you really like the show, you can give us a five star rating and whatever whatever application you listen to us on, and you can keep listening to us. And if you have any questions or comments, you can feel free to email me at dinewiththedivinepod at gmail. com and all that's in the show notes. Okay. Next. Now we're going to talk about some Southern sayings that says, so I found another article. I did found a lot of articles.

[00:32:57] One says Southern sayings that the rest [00:33:00] of the United States won't understand. Oh, so we're going to see, we're going to see if we know some of these. Because these, I found some that I was like, oh no, this is pretty standard, but some of these I was like, pardon? What's this going, what's going on here? So the first one we got is, we're living in high cotton.

[00:33:20] Apparently it means that you're feeling really good, like you're doing really well or you're very successful.

[00:33:29] Okay. The next one. She was madder than a wet head.

[00:33:37] Brandon: Y'all don't say

[00:33:37] Ashley: that up there. I'm like, what? Apparently, hens sometimes enter a phase of broodiness. They'll stop at nothing to incubate their eggs and get agitated when farmers try to collect them. Farmers used to dunk hens in cold water, woo, to break their broodiness. Oh, wow. Really? [00:34:00] Yeah,

[00:34:00] Brandon: apparently.

[00:34:01] I always just assumed that hens didn't like to get wet. I thought that's what, that's thank, I've learned something today.

[00:34:09] Ashley: Exactly. I would think that too. I like cats. You're like a cat,

[00:34:12] Brandon: right? You know what I'm saying? You ever, you ever get a cat near the bathtub? Oh, yeah.

[00:34:15] Ashley: They'll try to kill you.

[00:34:17] And that's

[00:34:17] Brandon: what hens felt like too, I think, yeah.

[00:34:20] Ashley: Oh, these poor hens, they were just hormonal, and everyone was mad at them poor hens. He could eat corn through a picket fence. What? Okay. So this describes someone with an unfortunate set of buck teeth. Oh no!

[00:34:44] Oh, man. Oh no, not back teeth. Okay. That's okay. You can get that fixed. A really

[00:34:51] Brandon: unique way of saying really mean things really nice. I know.

[00:34:55] Ashley: That's the other thing about Southern people. They make every first of all, the accent [00:35:00] makes everything sound very smooth and sweet. No matter where they're from, even like the Cajun kind of heavier accents, it sounds very cute.

[00:35:08] You're just like, aww. When they're really like, screw you.

[00:35:13] Brandon: Bless your

[00:35:13] Ashley: heart. Yeah. Bless your heart. I learned that one years ago and I was like, Ooh, that means they're talking about you.

[00:35:24] You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Okay, so okay I think I get it. So a southerner might say this about her redneck cousin who likes to decorate his house with deer antlers That's not nice

[00:35:42] Brandon: Yeah Some real hillbilly hate going on.

[00:35:48] Ashley: Oh gosh. This one I really like because this one has to do with history too.

[00:35:52] He's as drunk as Cooter Brown. And I

[00:35:58] was like, who the hell [00:36:00] is Cooter Brown? What did he do to anybody? So apparently, Cooter Brown is an infamous character in Southern lore. Legend tells that he lived on the Mason Dixon line, the border between the North and the South during the Civil War. To avoid the draft on either side, Cooter decided to stay drunk throughout the whole war, making him ineligible for battle.

[00:36:21] That's rude.

[00:36:25] Brandon: I don't know if it's, I'm a little too old for it, I think, but the Dukes of Hazzard, that was one of the characters, too. So that's that's continued to move on. Cooter was the mechanic, I believe. Oh, okay. So he was also he fits the bill.

[00:36:38] Ashley: Oh, boy. Oh, no, Cooter.

[00:36:40] I

[00:36:40] Brandon: mean, the generation before me, Dukes of Hazzard was the

[00:36:45] Ashley: thing. Yes. I know it was a very big thing. You rode hard and put up wet. Okay before you guys think anything. This is not southern sexual innuendo The phrase refers to a key step in horse [00:37:00] grooming. When a horse runs fast, it works up a sweat, especially under the saddle.

[00:37:04] A good rider knows to walk the horse around so it can dry off before going back to the saddle. The horse will look sick and tired if you forget this step, much like a person who misses sleep or drinks too much. Okay, got that. She's as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine. Okay. When a pig dies... When a pig dies, presumably

[00:37:33] Outside, the sun dries out its skin. The effect pulls this pig's lips to reveal a toothy grin, making it look happy even though it's dead. Okay. So actually, I know this because So years ago, like when people were getting nervous about vampires and they would leave a body like in the grave for two, three days and then they open it back up, it's the [00:38:00] same situation.

[00:38:01] The skin would recede cause the water would like all the moisture would go away and then it sometimes would look like their nails grew so people would assume they were still alive. So that makes. That makes sense. I like it better the way they say it. She's got more nerve than Carter's got liver pills.

[00:38:21] So apparently there's a place that was called Carter's Pro Carter's Products and they started a pill peddling company in the latter part of the 19th century. Specifically, they had little liver pills. That was something that were big and people used to take them all the time and they became Carter's little They became Carter's little pills in 1951, but the South doesn't really pay attention to history.

[00:38:48] That's what this article said. I didn't say that.

[00:38:53] I'm finer than a frog hair split four ways. Okay, that's fine. I feel like we can all figure that out.[00:39:00] He thinks the sun comes up just to hear him crow. That makes sense. I get that. So saying somebody's they think they're really important. This, oh gosh, this is about as useful as tips on a bull.

[00:39:15] Brandon: Oh, I hear that one all the time. Yeah.

[00:39:21] Ashley: Oh no. Thing. That thing is all catawampus, which means, okay, askew, awry, or catacornered. Okay, that's fine. And last but not least, we got, he's got enough money to burn a wet mule. Oh, no. In 19 Okay, now we have to tell the story. I have to hear that one. In 1929, then governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed the Kingfish, tried to enact a five cent tax on each barrel of refined [00:40:00] oil to fund welfare programs.

[00:40:02] Naturally, standard oil threw a hissy fit and tried to impeach him. On some fairly erroneous charges including attending a drunken party with a stripper But long a good old boy fought back He reportedly said the company had offered legislators as much as 25 000 for their votes to kick him out of office What we called enough money to burn a wet mule Okay.

[00:40:29] Interesting. All right. Those are some of our Southern sayings. If you've never heard them, neither had I, so that was a good time. I loved it. That was

[00:40:40] Brandon: about as useful as... I love it.

[00:40:45] Ashley: We all have to learn something. Look, I don't know much about the South. That's why I really enjoy listening to your podcast.

[00:40:50] I'm learning a lot of different things.

[00:40:52] Brandon: Oh no. All the bad stuff.

[00:40:57] Ashley: It's fun. We did an episode about[00:41:00] Bell Witch. That was a fun one. Yeah, that's like a whole thing. Betsy, she's not, it's all Betsy's fault. But anyway

[00:41:08] Brandon: I went on down there last year to the cave. I actually went and visited and it was went and We stole a rock from the cave like you're not supposed to.

[00:41:17] Oh no! And we did the bad thing and we went and it's really, it's actually really cool. It was interesting. It was, you go, there's not really much there. The cabin, that actually happened and, they got rid of that while the family was still there, they got rid of the cabin or a few, or Jen, the sons or something.

[00:41:33] But they have this cave and you go down to the cave and of course it's like supposedly where the kids like hung out in there. But when you go up to it and you go in the gift shop to buy your tickets or whatever, there's all these letters on the wall and all these, like basically saying we stole a rock out of the cave, it's like that, that classic, like the Brady bunch with the Tiki, like we, we got a mile down the road and then our car flipped and, and totaled and it's all because of this rock, please take the rock back,[00:42:00] and then all these.

[00:42:01] things. And and of course I I went with a girl and, I had to be a man and I stole a rock and I I brought the rock home with me and the rock is actually on that bookcase behind me back there still. But it's, it was fun, man. But ironically, what's crazy when you go visit, I didn't realize as wild as that story is.

[00:42:23] That, that place where they're at, you always hear these stories about native burial grounds. Everything's always built and so you don't really believe it, but they actually is one there actually like when you go and you visit, they have This massive arrowhead collection that they've collected from the property.

[00:42:41] And they actually found the remains of a native child, like an indigenous child on the property and sent it off to get dated and everything, like legit real. Wow. Yeah. So it was really, it was kinda, it was interesting because I read all these stories, hear all these stories all the time.

[00:42:58] Oh, it was on a burial ground. [00:43:00] It must be haunted. And it's, and maybe it isn't, but this one really was. So it was creepy, but I haven't had to send my rock back yet. So

[00:43:08] Ashley: we won't tell anybody if

[00:43:09] Brandon: something bad, if something bad happens one day, then maybe I'll blame it on the rock, but knock on wood, it's been almost a year.

[00:43:16] So hopefully it's not listening. Yeah.

[00:43:19] Ashley: I know because the Bell Witch, she's coming for you. Don't tell her where that rock is. She'll be at your house. Now we're gonna do our story time. We're gonna tell this story today The Nat Turner Rebellion. Oh, yeah. Yeah, or it's also, I didn't know it had another name, The Southampton Insurrection.

[00:43:39] I was like, oh, it has two names. I've never heard of that part, but it makes sense. Okay. Our story, everybody, it starts in Southampton County, Virginia. So this is close to the border of North Carolina. In 1800, there was a slave, and he was [00:44:00] born, and he belonged to a guy named Benjamin Turner. He, they named him Nat.

[00:44:06] So everyone called him Nat Turner, because most slaves took their slave owners last names. And when Benjamin died, Nat became the property of Samuel, Turner, his son. So everybody said that Nat was super smart And he also could memorize the Bible like he was really good at that. So in quote He grew up deeply religious and was also often seen fasting praying and immersed in reading stories of the Bible.

[00:44:35] So he really believed very deeply in signs and omens and people said that he had the gift of prophecy. Now, he was growing up like this and then at the age of 21 he decided to run away. Because he was like, yeah this slave shit's for the birds. I'm over it. So he ran away and he then after a couple days became completely delirious from hunger.

[00:44:59] [00:45:00] So he said at that point he had a vision and the vision told him to return to the service of his earthly master. So he returned It had almost been a month. He returned back to Samuel Turner to, continue being a slave, unfortunately. At this time, or around this time, he ended up... Getting married to a lady named Sherry.

[00:45:24] They had, they said three kids. They don't know the ratio of sons or daughters because it's a little hairy. They know he had at least son, one son that was named Riddick. But after Samuel Turner died, they ended up separating Sherry and the kids and Nat. Nat was, ended up going to a guy named Thomas Moore.

[00:45:42] And the wife and kids ended up being sold to a guy named Giles Reese. Nat Turner said that Thomas More was pretty nice to him. Obviously he still hated being a slave, right? But he's this guy's alright. He's not so bad. So in [00:46:00] 1824, Turner had second vision while working in the fields when he was with More.

[00:46:07] And in it, quote, The savior was about to lay down the yoke he had borne of the sins of men, and the great day of judgment was at hand. So this is what... Nat Turner said so also another thing he did was he conducted religious services He was a preacher and he even had some White people who were following him such as a guy named gonna say his first name wrong.

[00:46:31] Sorry Ethel Dredd. Yeah, that's right Ethel Dredd T Brantley whom Turner was credited with having convinced to quote cease from his wickedness now We don't know what mr. Brantley was doing, but I guess he's just not trying to help to convince him to stop doing that shit. Which is good. So then, according to this guy David Almeninger who I think took a account of Nat [00:47:00] Turner's what he, his confession and different things about his life, apparently Nat Turner said between 1822 and 1828 he had ten different supernatural occurrences.

[00:47:10] These included appearances of the Holy Spirit communicating through religious language and scripture, as long as seeing the Holy Spirit. He, by the spring of 1828, Turner was convinced that he was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty. And he had heard loud noises from the heavens while working in the fields on May 12th.

[00:47:35] And the spirit instantly appeared to him and the serpent was loosened. This is what he said. And Christ laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men. And that I should take it on and fight against the serpent. For the time was fast approaching when the first should be the last and the last should be the first.

[00:47:55] He interpreted this. All that something was going to happen. He was gonna be a big part [00:48:00] of it He didn't know yet what he was gonna do though. So now it's 1830 now in 1830 Joseph Travis This is another guy purchased And, Turner also said that Joseph Travis was a kind master, and he actually was okay with him for the most part.

[00:48:19] Then, okay, now, it's 1831, a year later. There was a solar eclipse. Nat Turner took this solar eclipse as being a sign that it was... It's time for him to possibly start figuring out what he wanted to do in terms of this rebellion. It was visible in Virginia and much of the southeastern United States.

[00:48:44] And he was planning now, it start, it was in February 12, 1831, sorry about that. He was planning on July 4th to do the rebellion. But then he was like, he got sick, so he couldn't do it. [00:49:00] So then on August 13th, an atmospheric disturbance made the Virginia sun appear bluish green. And this possibly could have been the result of the volcanic plume produced by an eruption in Sicily.

[00:49:15] Which is wild. Sicily is far. But that's interesting. Okay. He saw this bluish green hue in the sky. Much as how a few weeks ago in New Jersey, we saw Canadian wildfires and we were all losing our shit it was terrible nobody could breathe so he saw this in the sky and he's oh, it's another sign.

[00:49:32] This is the divine telling me that I've got to do this. So now he decided a week later in August 21st is when he was going to do this rebellion. So he started out with a few slaves. There was four guys and his name, the names are down there somewhere. I can't find it. But anyway, there was four guys that he entrusted with most of his information.

[00:49:56] Plus he would write stuff down and he would give it to Cherry. Since [00:50:00] she was in a different plantation, it helped him out a little bit. Another place for him to hide his stuff. So he had four guys that he worked with and all of them were slaves. But then at the end of the rebellion, it ended up being more than 70 people.

[00:50:14] Some were slaves and some were free black people. And some of them were even on horseback at this point. So when they started the rebellion, it was at night and they went from plantation to plantation and they were freeing slaves and they killed the masters of these people. So now, obviously, it was very difficult for them to get firearms.

[00:50:36] So they didn't have any firearms, but what they had done was collected a lot of knives, hatchets, and blunt instruments. They didn't discriminate against age or sex, they just killed any white people, for the most part, that they came in contact with. Nat Turner himself had only killed one person. That's what he said.

[00:50:55] But they did spare some. So they were killing these [00:51:00] masters, right? The plantations. But they spared poor white people or people who weren't involved in this because they were like, look, they're just as bad off as us right now. So we're not gonna kill them. Here's the thing, right?

[00:51:12] Here's the thing. Back then, a lot of these people who own plantations, they had a lot of money. The people who were just like regular white people, I'm not saying they weren't racist, but what I am saying is a lot of them weren't living that good. It's not like every white person in the South was just like doing great.

[00:51:30] There was a lot of poor people so some of the black people were like I'm not gonna mess with them. What's the point of that? They haven't really done anything. They didn't own slaves because they were usually pretty poor. Nat Turner was like, we'll just leave them alone. They're going through it too.

[00:51:43] Let's not do that. They also avoided Giles Reese Plantation, which, because Matt Turnell's wife and his kids were there, in the end of everything, they killed about 60 people before the state militia of Virginia, came and stopped them.

[00:51:57] Also the state militia of North Carolina, [00:52:00] since they were so close to the border, also came. Now, one thing. That the people were like, oh, he's trying to get all the land. He wasn't trying to get land. Also, what would he do? That wasn't really, didn't make sense to me when I was reading that.

[00:52:13] People were like, oh, is this him trying to take over? What was he gonna do? No. He was just trying to be like, you guys, this slave thing sucks. So

[00:52:30] So he said his quote was he wanted to spread quote terror and alarm amongst white people so The militia from North Carolina, like I said, they came up, they stopped everything, but then what happened was after they were able to stop it, there ended up being like a two week killing spree of black people because now they were just going around, anybody they suspected, anybody they didn't like were like, oh, you must be a part of it, and they were just killing them in, in,[00:53:00] mass numbers, literally anybody they suspected to be a part of the rebellion was beheaded and they put their head on what they used to call literally blackheads signpost road.

[00:53:15] It's now called Virginia route. 658. And they, which is a better name I think than Blackhead Signpost Road. Yeah, it's creepy. But they do have a mile marker there to note what had happened there. So this guy, Reverend G. W. Powell, he wrote a letter to the New York Evening Post stating that many Negroes are being killed every day.

[00:53:40] The exact number will never be known. And there was a company of militia. Now, back then, also we had an army, America, but it was more militias that were doing the protecting, right? Because that was, it was groups of people, our country still wasn't too organized all the time yet.

[00:53:58] So there was a company of [00:54:00] militia. from Hartford County, North Carolina, who reportedly killed 40 blacks in one day and took 23 and a gold watch from the dead. And 23 back then was probably like 100, so that's not great. Then there was a captain still in Borland who a contingency from Murfreeboro, North Carolina, and he condemned the acts because he said This is not good, and we actually might be stealing from white people because those black people may have stolen it.

[00:54:28] So I guess that was the only reason he thought the stealing was bad, but okay, that's fine. We're just telling the story. So now, Nat Turner has been alive this whole time, okay, for six weeks. He was able to elude his captors his wife, they were unfortunately beating the crap out of her all the time and torturing her.

[00:54:48] She gave all the papers she had, but she genuinely didn't know where he was. He just ran and was hiding. So then now on October 30th, a farmer named Benjamin Philip [00:55:00] found Turner hiding in His field and turned him in and then he was in prison He was sentenced to death November 5th, and when somebody asked him, do you regret what you done?

[00:55:14] He responded Was Christ not crucified? Okay. He said I'm going out with a bang. I did what I got to do He was hanged on November 11th 1831 now, sorry this whole story. I will go back and I'll probably go back and put a trigger warning for it because It's gruesome. This part's pretty gruesome too. Trigger warning.

[00:55:36] Dissection. They dissected, yeah. They dissected his body and gave skin away as coin purses. And then a doctor took the rest of his body and bought it for 10. The weird thing about it is like The things people used to do back then is so strange and this didn't only happen in like the United States Yeah, it happened like people used to [00:56:00] do very strange things.

[00:56:01] They always wanted souvenirs from people dying It's very weird, but Back then it was like a thing people did. Even you think bonnie and Clyde, right? Weren't people like trying to take pieces of bonnie and clyde when they saw the car and they tried to take all their clothing? It's weird. But people did that so During the rebellion Actually a lot of virginia legislators.

[00:56:23] They had Targeted already free black people with this colonization bill Where they wanted to have funds to actually remove free black people and send them back to Africa And that's another thing people don't always realize about some of the abolitionists So there was a lot of abolitionists who were like no like slavery's bad We shouldn't do it But there was also some abolitionists who just didn't like want black people in the United States So they were like we should Stop slavery and then send them back, right?

[00:56:54] So that was like a thing that a lot of abolitionists like wanted to do. They thought it was the only way because they thought [00:57:00] another thing. A lot of people thought was like, there's no way that we can live with black people. Basically after what we've done, we can't live with them. We need to free them all but send them all back to Africa, which some other people were like that doesn't make sense.

[00:57:16] These certain people have been here for 200 years. How are they gonna go back there? They don't know where they're from. Whatever. But that's the thing that happened a lot. So now what happened was afterwards they've had to make a lot of laws because now they were really freaked out This 30 years before the Civil War.

[00:57:34] So they didn't know this stuff was gonna happen yet So now they were having a big debate like should we keep people? Enslaved or not because it seems like they're getting pretty mad about it Also I love how this is when they thought that. I'm like, people were constantly rebelling. Like, all the slaves were not just I guess we're slaves.

[00:57:53] No, they really didn't like it. So they were constantly pissed off about it. It wasn't just this time. [00:58:00] This just happened to be, I think for the United States, this was the bloodiest slave rebellion. There were tons of them, there was a lot of them, and then the Haitian, I think, revolution ends up being the biggest one in North America, but in the U.

[00:58:16] S., this was the biggest one, so in Virginia, they were like, ooh, this isn't good, maybe we should stop them be slaves, but then everyone was like no, slavery is fine. We're doing and they had a bunch of stupid reasons that didn't make sense now, but back then they're like no we're we're just like, we're just we're helping up more whatever like but now, we know that's stupid So then they started making a lot of laws like number one They were like we can't teach black people how to read anymore because if they know how to read Then they'll start writing things down and communicating.

[00:58:47] Unless it's under, yes, I'm like, they can talk, right? But it's fine. They could just speak to each other, but they were like, we can't teach them how to read unless there is like a pastor present. And I guess [00:59:00] watching what they're learning, how to read, they're in certain states mostly slave holding states in the south, they had similar laws restricting the activities of enslaved and free black people they weren't allowed to get together assemble, usually unless it was a church thing, and there had to be, like, a supervisor to make sure they weren't talking about killing more white people.

[00:59:22] And they can only talk about the Bible. Stop talking about killing white people. That's not good. And they had some other rules about they had lots of rules about they can't have weapons and they and actually in South Carolina, they built a bunch of arsenals to have weapons in case this happened again.

[00:59:43] And I just, again, I really love how the, argument here is never maybe we should treat them better. It's like, how do we protect ourselves? We see that now, this is the kind of thing. It's like, how do we make things better for people? And then instead, we're [01:00:00] like, let's just buy more guns.

[01:00:02] But yeah, the American way, guys. White people got really freaked out about this for quite, quite a while. And then, 30 years later, the Civil War happened. It all happened. But, to a lot of black people, Nat Turner was regarded as a hero. And now there's a bunch of things.

[01:00:21] There's even a park in Newark, New Jersey, that's named after Nat Turner. There's a lot of things. There's monuments. There's tons of books written about Nat Turner because people thought he was a hero. He did his best. Again, he said he just wanted to scare people and show them that this was bad, and he did.

[01:00:39] Not bad enough for them to stop, but bad enough for them to get really scared. And, like I said, it was the largest slave revolt in the whole United States. Nat Turner. You did what you did and I get it, slavery sucks, killing people isn't great, but slavery really sucks. Alright, that's the story of [01:01:00] God Turner.

[01:01:01] Brandon: Yeah, we have one where where I'm from actually in 1811, that was down in New Orleans. Is that ironically is like my ancestors would have been on the wrong side of the on the German coast. It was up, up New Orleans, up from New Orleans, up the river, about 20 miles was where all these like German plantation, these German farmers own plantations and all.

[01:01:22] And it was called the German coast uprising in 1811 and it was a group of men. It was the same thing. And what I think what a lot of people don't realize is obviously. Obviously when they're when people are purchasing men to work, they want the big brawny guys, right?

[01:01:38] Because it has work. We don't realize it's like a lot of these men that are coming over are soldiers that were in West African civil wars. That were trained to fight and lost battles. And those are the men that they're sending over. So you're sending soldiers to America to work in your fields and these guys know how to fight, so two of these gentlemen [01:02:00] out there, to these men of course did something similar to Nat Turner. They weren't quite as, divinely inspired or anything. They were just ticked off, and and made a plan. I think one of them. I can't remember the whole story decided.

[01:02:12] I, I think they were involved. One of them was in, was actually the plantation owner's son, because he was, the mother or his mother was enslaved and, and so he was able to actually read because he was taught. And so anyway this was a big rebellion, just like yours.

[01:02:26] And they started going down the river towards new Orleans. And they started with about 50 people. And every time they put Past a plantation, it would grow more and more. And they were making their ways to new Orleans to do the same thing like Nat Turner would do. But of course, they, were stopped before they got here but the brutality of it, like you're saying it, this one was very.

[01:02:49] Like research wise has been like was totally whitewashed because they didn't want people to know because they didn't want other places to know that this was an option and that's like you like Nat Turner [01:03:00] wants everybody he wants to terrorize because he wants everyone at all these other plantations to hear about what he did.

[01:03:06] So maybe, everyone will do it. Well down in New Orleans, they put a stop to it and they didn't want to publicize it. They didn't want to let anybody know outside of the city that this awful thing happened. But the most brutal part of all was. This happened, I believe, in January of 1811.

[01:03:21] And by the end of the month, they had taken, there was something like a hundred enslaved men's heads were put on pikes on the river to try and say, Hey y'all better, know your way. Just like you're saying and it's it's just a it was a really dark legacy that got, shoved under and a guy like Nat Turner, a lot of people have heard of him, there's all these ones like from where I came from that, nobody has heard of.

[01:03:46] It's wild. But it's crazy. South was a day. They had to use that violence or else, here's these, again, these strong men out in the field, like what other way could they, if those men wanted to and could really organize, [01:04:00] fat and happy plantation owner in the house, what's he going to do about it, right?

[01:04:04] Exactly. Come on,

[01:04:07] Ashley: man. So it's so funny what you just said about war because I've talked about this before and I'm going to do a proper episode on it one time. But there's a group of there were a group of people in Jamaica called the Maroons, and they were mostly from West Africa, in Ghana, in Ashanti land , and the Ashanti people, we're like, we're war people.

[01:04:29] That's like our thing. We love to kill people. Not really, but we really like war. We just tend to do it all the time. They would kidnap a lot of Ashanti people, bring them to Jamaica, I think Jamaica outside technically our DNA in Jamaica, it's mostly Ashanti people there.

[01:04:45] They were, since they were so good at war, they were really good at guerrilla warfare, they were really good at, Ghana's full of a thick bush they were good at navigating really well. at night during the day. So what they did was like, they just got [01:05:00] like sick of being slaves one day and they just ran away.

[01:05:03] They just went into the mountains and they were like, we're gonna chill here while you guys figure it out. And the British just couldn't find them. Cause they were... It's and then they would just, some of them would go down and be like, Hey, are you guys also sick of this shit? And they're like, yeah, and they're like, come on.

[01:05:21] And then they also ended up actually working a lot with Irish indentured servants. So yeah, there's a lot of places in even my family, my mom's family has a Irish last name. There's a lot of places in like the country of Jamaica where. The accent is very similar to the accent of people in Cork, Ireland.

[01:05:44] That's interesting, yeah. Yes, because a lot of people came from Cork when there was they were just trying to get rid of Irish people all the time. The English were terrible to them. Yeah, they just got sick of being slaves and then they invited the Irish to come chill with them. And yeah, and it's like you pick the [01:06:00] wrong people.

[01:06:01] And I'm going to put on this island, because they're like, we're just going to run away. It's fine. Yeah.

[01:06:08] Brandon: It's fascinating how that works.

[01:06:10] Ashley: It is. It is. Oh, gosh. So this has been so much fun.

[01:06:20] It has been awesome. Everybody thank you for listening So once again, if you don't know what you're listening to, let me remind you This is dine with the divine and you can find us on instagram on facebook And if you really enjoy the show, you can give us five stars. You can make sure you subscribe.

[01:06:38] Everything is free By the way, i'm supposed to remind people that and You can listen to us every week on a Thursday, and if you wanna email me, it's done with the divine pod gmail.com. And then if you wanna follow me, Ashley, I am at Sankofa hs. That's S A N K O F A H S. And I'm Sankofa Healing saying, sure.

[01:06:58] I'm on Facebook. So everybody, [01:07:00] thank you so much once again. Thank you Brandon, and have a wonderful week. Bye

[01:07:07] Brandon: bye.

[01:07:12] Ashley: Okay.