History of Peanuts

Peanuts probably originated in South America, the center of origin most likely being slopes of the Andes in Brazil, where about 15 wild species are found.

By 500 to 100 BC peanuts were so common on the coast of Peru. Peanuts were eaten in exactly the way they are eaten today – toasted in the shell as a snack.

The peanut made its way to Africa a half millennia ago and with the slave trade found its way to North America.

It was first brought to Africa by Portuguese sailors and then to Virginia from Africa by enslaved Africans.

Little more than 150 years ago, the peanut was mostly feed for the poor or livestock.

The Spanish explorers are credited with its spread throughout the New World.

Peanut were recorded by Bartolome de las Casa, who had arrived on the Caribbean island of Hispanola in 1502.

In his work of ‘Apologetica Historia de las Indias’, de las Casas reported the peanuts, called ‘mani’, were sown by indigenous peoples in the Caribbean. However it was not published until 1875.

The first published notice of the peanut appeared in Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, ‘Historia general y natural de las Indias,’ in 1535.

Commercial production of peanuts in USA began in about 1876.

With other food scarce, it became recognized as a cheap form protein and an important food source during the Civil War.
History of Peanuts