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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Sorghum: Southern Sugars

ORAL HISTORY

Michael Prince

Michael Prince, born in 1963, grew up in Sherwood, Tennessee surrounded by a large extended family. Prince spent much of his boyhood in the rural Sherwood Valley. Every fall, he watched his uncles, grandfather, and father plant, harvest, and cook sorghum syrup. Prince’s father, Bill Mike Prince was a prolific gardener, cultivating and saving heritage varieties of seed.

As an adult, Michael Prince left Sherwood to work in Chattanooga. He returned and bought his aunt Lucy’s house. Prince continues the family tradition, planting heritage seeds his father saved and growing sorghum on his family’s land. Almost every year, he grows and processes sorghum just like his family did in his boyhood.

Date of interview:
2020-11-28

Interviewer:
Annemarie Anderson

Photographer:
Annemarie Anderson

Download Transcript

“

“In the fall, it was non-stop for my grandfather making sorghum. They would make hundreds and hundreds of gallons of sorghum. Everybody would bring their little load of sorghum, no matter how big or how small, and shock it up around the mill.” - Michael Prince

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Ronald Jenkins

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Steve Patterson

Steve Patterson cooks sorghum in Rome, Georgia.

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Kaitlyn Elliot

Kaitlyn Elliot cooks sorghum in Gravel Switch, Kentucky.

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Terry Hughes

Terry Hughes cooks sorghum in Young Harris, Georgia.

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Renee Goss

Renee Goss cooks sorghum with her family in Henagar, Alabama.

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Kenneth Goss

Kenneth Goss cooks sorghum with his family in Henagar, Alabama.

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Larry Goss

Larry Goss cooks sorghum with his family in Henagar, Alabama.

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