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All the United States Virginia Gordonsville Gordonsville Fried Chicken Festival
Gastro Obscura

Gordonsville Fried Chicken Festival

This Virginia town has been famous for its fried chicken since the 19th century.

Gordonsville, Virginia

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Gastropod
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Formidable crowd at the 2021 Gordonsville Fried Chicken Festival!   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
Formidable crowd at the 2021 Gordonsville Fried Chicken Festival!   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
Festival sign   blimpcaptain / Atlas Obscura User
Waiter Carriers at Gordonsville.   Gastropod / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Fried chicken has long been considered a Southern dish, and cooks vie to make the crispiest, juiciest, most delicious bird possible. Yet the story of fried chicken is filled with challenging contradictions. The dish has complicated roots in slavery and racism—but it also provided a vehicle for African-American entrepreneurship.

Gordonsville, Virginia has long been famous for its fried chicken. After Emancipation, formerly enslaved women used their cooking skills to start their own businesses, selling fried chicken and other snacks to travelers who passed through town on the train.

In this episode of Gastropod, Psyche Williams-Forson, professor at the University of Maryland and author of Building Houses out of Chicken Legs, discusses an unusual scene from African-American fried chicken history.

Related Tags

Food History Racism

Know Before You Go

While there’s no museum to the chicken ladies of Gordonsville, Virginia, (formerly known as the “fried chicken capital of the world”) there is still a fried chicken festival there every year. You can find more information on the Gordonsville website.

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Gastropod

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blimpcaptain

  • blimpcaptain

Published

November 13, 2016

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  • https://gastropod.com/poultry-power-fried-chicken-chronicles/
Gordonsville Fried Chicken Festival
201-299 US-33
Gordonsville, Virginia
United States
38.13733, -78.187719
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Photo of Virginia

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