The most common and accepted story behind why black-eyed peas are a custom in the South on New Years Day traces to the late days of the War Between the States, when the yankee army was on the rampage in Georgia. Sherman's army had orders to "make Georgia howl" by living off the land. Which translated into carrying off anything they needed and destroying the rest. This meant taking their hogs, cattle, chickens, and diggin up plots of land growing vegetables. BUT...one of the things that, according to this tale (which, I might add, I will always be commited to, true or not! *smiles*) left alone by the plunder and pillage, was a type of "legume" which grew wild in the South, and thought. previously, useless for anything but "cow feed" This was the black-eyed pea
With little or nothing left to eat otherwise, devastated Southern women, left with no alternative, tried those black-eyed peas and found them actually quite fit for human consumption! Pure starvation had been staved off by these sweet little legumes! And since all this took place around the first of the year, it was taken as a "divine" intervention of sorts. That good luck for the South was sure to follow.
Well, of course, we lost the War, so good luck in that sense didn't follow. But, the survivors from Georgia (or Alabama, or South Carolina) never forgot how black-eyed peas had saved them from starvation. And, and whether they remained after the conflict, or migrated west to Texas, the memory spread and eventually became a region wide custom.
Ok. THAT is one theory. And yes, the one I love! *smiles*. However, the OTHER is a bit more interesting. It says that all the above was just a marketing ploy on the part of a really smart East Texas fellow. AND? If so, it really was great.