Tastemakers: Pigfoot Mary

Lillian Harris Dean, aka Pigfoot Mary (c. 1870-1929) embodies the promise of the American dream. She became one of Harlem’s most successful food vendors by selling pigs’ feet.

Food has been a unifier for millennia, not just gathering people together to share a meal, but acting as a warm introduction to new histories and traditions. This February on Womanica, we’re celebrating Tastemakers - the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past. The impact of chefs like Pig Foot Mary, Mama Dip, and Georgia Gilmore stretch far beyond the culinary scene - uplifting their local communities and inspiring those who came after them. 

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. 

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. 

Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, I'm Kia Demon. I'm a Floridabourne chef, writer, host,
and recipe developer. I served as an executive chef of
a New York City restaurant at the age of twenty
four and became Cherrybomb Magazine's first culinary director at twenty five.
I've been named one of sixteen chefs Changing Black Food
in America by The New York Times and Forbes thirty

(00:22):
Under thirty in Food and Beverage. In twenty twenty one,
I found it Kia Fees the People, a budding mutual
aid effort focusing on food apartheid in Brooklyn. I'll be
your guest host for this month of Manica. This month,
we're talking about tastemakers. We're celebrating the black chefs, cooks,
and food historians who created new food ways and preserved

(00:44):
important culinary stories of the past. Today, we're talking about
a woman who embodies the promise of the American dream.
She became one of Harlem's most successful food vendors by
selling pigs feet. Let's talk about Lilian Harristine. Lillian Harris

(01:09):
was born in the Mississippi Delta sometime between eighteen seventy
and eighteen seventy three. We don't know much about her
early life, but we do know three things. She loved
pigs feet. She was the oldest of a handful of siblings,
and her dream was to have enough money to buy

(01:29):
a place to live when she got old. But she
was still just a kid. Lilian decided that the Mississippi
Delta was not where she would turn her dream into reality,
so she left and drifted between the northern cities for
about fifteen years. In nineteen oh one, Lilian landed in
New York City. She took a job as a maid,

(01:50):
but it didn't last for long. After all, it was
just a means to an end. At this time, many
African Americans made their living at street food for it
didn't take long for Lilian to join the movement. In
one week as a maid, she made five dollars. She
used each dollars strategically, a few dollars for used baby carriage,

(02:13):
a little bit for a large tin pot, and the
rest for pigs feet. With these items, Lilian began her
journey to financial prosperity. She cooked the pigs feet in
a pot over charcoal, stole put the pot in the
baby carriage and hit the streets. Every day. Lilian would

(02:35):
park herself on a corner near Columbus Circle and sell
pigs feet from sunrise to sunset, almost like the original
food truck. The pigs feet were an instant success. Black Southerners,
who had migrated north long for this culinary staple from
their roots. But the pigs feet were not exactly a delicacy.

(02:56):
They didn't have a ton of met nor were they
particularly juice, but they reminded African Americans of home and
a place that felt so foreign. Lillian's success came with
financial gains and a new name, pigfoot Mary. After a
couple of years, pigfoot Mary upgraded from a baby carriage

(03:17):
to a portable stove and relocated to Amsterdam Avenue between
sixty first and sixty second Street. Here business boomed. People
would line the block. She sold more than one hundred
pigs feet a day during the week, and more than
three hundred on Saturdays. But pigfoot Mary didn't go on

(03:38):
a spending spree with this influx of cash. She lived
modestly and saved all the money she made. Eventually, pigfoot
Mary married newspaper standowner John Deane, The story is that
John proposed after trying one of her pigs feet. They
ended up selling their wear side by side. Pigfoot Mary

(04:02):
added hog maws, chitlands, and corn on the cob to
the menu. These smells and taste of home gave her
customers a sense of belonging. It grounded them in a
new place and connected them to the culture they left behind.
She also made a name for herself among the artists,
writers and entrepreneurs that flocked to the cultural hub of

(04:23):
the Harlem Renaissance. And once again, she was frugal with
the money she made. Eventually, that frugality paid off. With
her husband's encouragement, pigfoot Mary entered the real estate business.
She was able to purchase a five story apartment building
in Harlem for about forty two thousand dollars. She rented

(04:45):
to anyone who needed a place to stay. Six years later,
she sold it for seventy two thousand dollars. But that
wasn't her only property. As she made more money, she
bought more buildings. Pigfoot Mary couldn't read or write, but
she knew how to cook and she was financially savvy. Today,
some of the buildings she once owned look a little different.

(05:08):
They now housed the Harlem Hospital, a Salvation Army location
in Saint Mark the Evangelist Church. In nineteen twenty three,
Pigfoot Mary took some time to travel around the West
Coast shortly after she retired there. Pigfoot Mary died on
July sixteenth, nineteen twenty nine, in Los Angeles. Her net

(05:30):
worth of three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars would
have been more than six million dollars today. All month,
we're talking about tastemakers. For more info and recipes from
this month's Womannequins, find us on Facebook and Instagram at

(05:52):
Womanica Podcast Special thanks to co creators Jinny and Liz
Kaplan for having me as a guest host Talk see
tomorrow