The Historical Turkey (Part One)

The historical turkey and its journey from the Americas to Europe (and back again) is one of convolution that is filled with misconceptions, fabrications, and good old doses of myth; let alone, political and financially driven nomenclature. If one thing that is certain, one can ferret out some of these details, if not the basic and rudiment facts of this historical record when willing to invest enough time sifting through the aforementioned minutiae of mans ego and political ambitions. With this writing I am not writing a doctorate thesis; but rather, a simplistic uncovering or unmasking of the basic facts as written in the historical record that I personally am able to attain. 

The initial introduction to Europe is one that has been accounted for with as many versions as are writers, and as Wright would state in 1914, “The first introduction of the turkey into Europe has always been a mooted and now rather hackneyed question”; which today, seems as relevant a statement as then. Yet today as then, and even before 1914 there seems no general authority on the subject that everyone will agree upon. Wright himself believed the date “could hardly have been before 1518, when Mexico was discovered.”  

Thomas Pennant, Esq. in 1781 would account for turkeys in the new world from Oviedo’s writings of previous account of the turkey in 1525, describing the black turkey and use of the word to describe what one would assume the bronze - ferruginous, or the color of iron oxide, rust, reddish-brown. Yet, the differences in color from then to today, may be more than just linguistic. When we look at the color of the Ferruginous Hawk we can see the same color as what is apparent in today’s Bourbon Red turkey, a reddish-brown more so than anything else. Pennant does not discuss any date other than Tusser’s date of the English introduction in 1524. 

Edward Brown writing on domestic poultry in 1906 would seemingly regurgitate the same narratives of previous writers on the turkey’s initial introduction, and would later add a revision to his writing after receiving an official statement from Count de las Navas, Sub-Director General of Agriculture and War and librarian at the Royal Palace of Madrid. According to Count de las Navas it was Pedro Alfonso Niño who is to be credited with introducing the turkey to the Old World in 1500 from stock purchased on the coast of what would become Cumaná in present-day Venezuela. Leaving San Lucas in May 1499, Niño arrived 23-days later off the coast of Maracapana returning after only a 2-month voyage. This date would place the introduction of the domesticated turkey in that same year; although, Count de las Navas placed the date in 1500.

Who, What, & When ( A Closer Look )

If there is one fact that every person should accept is that the Aztec’s domesticated turkey was first introduced into greater Europe through Spain. According to Count de las Navas, Sub-Director General of Agriculture and War and librarian at the Royal Palace, Madrid, it was Pedro Niño who discovered the domesticated turkey on the coast of what would become Cumaná in present-day Venezuela. Leaving San Lucas in May 1499, Niño arrived 23-days later off the coast of Maracapana returning after only a 2-month voyage. This date would place the introduction of the domesticated turkey in that same year; although, Count de las Navas placed the date in 1500. While we know that Niño was not the first from the Old World to discover the turkey, it appears that he was the first to return with them having paid four glass beads for each turkey he obtained. Returning to Europe shortly afterward as Spain started colonization of the New World. The questions remain with the who, what, and where of turkey’s trek across the Atlantic, but there are some misconceptions we can certainly eliminate. 

    Of course, we all know that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. It would also go to reason that he discovered all her riches and treasures, and his voyages returned them to the Old World in 1493; or something as such. While Columbus did write of the extensive range in which the turkey was distributed across the New World, he did not return with any of them on any of his voyages.

It is also a common misconception crediting Hernán Cortés with introducing the domesticated turkey to Spain, and hence greater Europe. From 1511 Cortés was a young secretary and administer under Governor Velázquez in Cuba, and would not be commissioned to secure the mainland for colonization until 1518, long after the turkey would reach Spain. While much is accredited to Cortés, both good and bad, the introduction of the turkey is one that cannot be accounted for in the historical record.

Another popular misconception tells us the first turkey introduced in Europe was by Bishop Alexander Geraldini under the Pontificate of Pope Leo X in 1516; this yet is another misconception as Geraldini would not set sail until 1519 to the Spanish colonies in the New World. Moreover, as with Cortés, this is far past the date of introduction of the turkey. Written in other accounts is that the Venetian Codro is responsible for introducing the first specimens of turkey to Pope Leo X having them sent from the Antilles along with other treasures sometime around or after 1515. History still leaves Codro in an ambiguous state, and confused with Antonio Urceo in some places, and still to this day it is unclear how the turkey was returned to Pope Leo X from the Antilles as there are no other accounts to substantiate the turkey in the Antilles in this period.

According to Count de las Navas, Sub-Director General of Agriculture and War and librarian at the Royal Palace, Madrid, it was Pedro Niño who discovered the domesticated turkey on the coast of what would become Cumaná in present-day Venezuela. Leaving San Lucas in May 1499, Niño arrived 23-days later off the coast of Maracapana returning after only a 2-month voyage. This date would place the introduction of the domesticated turkey in that same year; although, Count de las Navas placed the date in 1500. 

There is only more confusion as the accounts of Annot Arnaud recites roast turkey being served at a banquet of Philippe of Burgundy on 12 November 1385, centuries before other accounts, and even the supposed discovery of the West Indies. Though this account creates a stumbling block, we can be quite certain that the turkey (dinde) was not served at this banquet; but rather, it was Guineafowl (d'Inde) that was roasted that November.

We do not know what exactly was returned to Spain and introduced to the Old World, though we do know that the Aztec breeding programs of Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo had developed the White and Black varieties along with what we now term the Standard Bronze. We can only make a safe assumption that all three varieties were returned to Spain with Niño as described by Count de las Navas as all historical records seem to be in place and solid in factual content and context. Considering the early historical records which display the presence of all three varieties as the turkey rapidly swept its way across Europe, it may prove to be a more realistic baseline than mere assumption. 

When it comes to the widespread flood of the turkey across Europe, we should be hard pressed to believe that it all started with those several first birds to greet the Old World. As the New World would start opening to more exploration, the trade ships would soon follow the explorers over the following decades which is where most, if not all the turkey introduction across Europe would come. While we cannot discredit the records of those who brought back the turkey from their explorations in the New World in the first decades of the sixteenth century, the apparent first introduction of the turkey happened on the return voyage of Niño in 1499. 

The Turkey Reaches France

In writings from the early-seventeenth-century onward we find the epithet “de jésuite” for the turkey. The connection between the Jesuit order and the turkey are prominent. Writers of the period and the following century would assume the Jesuit order responsible for the initial introduction to Europe giving the turkey this epithet. We can be certain that the Jesuits were not responsible for the first introduction to France, let alone greater Europe, as the new order was not established until 27 September 1540 under Pope Paul III, five years after a record of the turkey in France and forty-one years after Niño would present this prize before Ferdinand II. As far as can be ascertained from the historical record, with ample documentation if sometimes confusing, the turkey finally reached France in 1518. 

The new order of priests increased rapidly and by 1556 at the death of its founding father Ignatius grew to one-thousand men in number. By this time the order became a principal weapon of the Vatican in the Reformation wars and was exhibiting immense power not only within the Church but also culturally and economically. Pope Gregory XIII would officially grant the order privileges of entering commerce and banking, which by 1556 the order was making rapid use. We know for certain that the Jesuits did import large numbers of turkeys from Spain bringing them to a very large farm controlled by the brotherhood near Bourges, and to another farm further south in Gers, and it is this period that seems most reasonable as the time when the Jesuits brought the turkey to the French countryside.  

Moubray's treatise states the initial introduction to France in 1556 with twelve birds being sent to Henry II as a gift from Amiens. While certainly not the first to introduce the turkey, the order did manage to become the largest and most respected of turkey breeders in France during the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries before finally being dissolved from France in 1762 with their assets sold or taken as State property. The Jesuit ability in bringing the turkey to the general population, farms, and peasants through the vastness of their turkey breeding programs and control of commerce may be the driving force behind the epithet “de jésuite” that was attributed to the turkey for such a length of time.  

From this farm in Centre-Val de Loire, the turkey was broadcast across the countryside, and many great things were taking shape for the turkey as the Jesuit brotherhood became known for their mastery of turkey breeding and rearing in the early seventeenth century. The Black turkey, even in the Americas, was rare; and was one of the treasures that Spain, England, and France held dear, even to this day. It is the Jesuit merchants that secured these turkeys bringing them to France, and it is the Jesuit breeding programs that can be attributed to the beginnings of the refinement that has made the French Black turkeys what we witness today.  

There are two breeds today that remain from those initial lines. The first is the “Dindon Noir de Sologne” from which the Dindon Noir de Bourbonnais, Dindon Noir de Bresse, Dindon Noir de Normandy of France owe their lineage, and the same lineage of England’s beloved Black Norfolk turkey. The second is the Dindon Noir de Gers which has been isolated to such degree as to hold unpolluted and pure genetics relating to the original stock brought back to Spain by Niño in 1499. The Dindon Noir de Gers also finds itself critically endangered today maybe more so than any other turkey.

Dindon de Chocolat

When dealing with the history of the Dindon de Chocolat, it may be even more misleading and vague as the historical record is not rich of information. The common thread of information comes from an article written in 2002 by Paula Jonson which stated

 “… they were popular in the south before the Civil War. The Civil War caused so much change in the south that the Chocolate Turkey never recovered in popularity and their numbers have been declining ever since with only a few known to exist in North America.”

While in 2002, just more than 4 years after receiving her Chocolate turkey poults from master breeder Glenn Drowns, and not long after the Chocolate was “rediscovered” with three toms and eight hens remaining, a variety once lost to common knowledge was being reintroduced to the poultry world, and its history sought. For the poultry world, these two sentences from Paula Jonson in a vastly more important paper would become the accepted historical story line of the Chocolate turkey. Unfortunately, it also seems to be where the research ended; and, the regurgitation of lack of information perpetuated itself among all who would deal with the Chocolate turkey’s historical details. As it turns out, there is a vastness of the story that is lying in wait to be recited once again. As the trail of the Chocolate is followed by those living who have had an impact upon its presence since its reintroduction, the path of its past few decades have become even more clouded through the politics of the poultry world, the intellectual corruption of Universities, and the passion of Ph.D. egos. While everyone concerned for one reason or another is fighting to hide the knowledge they hold, there remains the true history behind this turkey, regardless of what protest, and by whom, raises it. When we first received the Chocolate, we were left with the same simple two sentences from Paula Jonson. With a bit of research, we found nothing past those two sentences, by anyone, except with their own plagiarist and augmented style of contribution to the “historical facts” behind the Chocolate. For us, it was clear that no one seemed to look past what was already in print and “common knowledge.” This was something that was unacceptable; and to be reminded of the late Paul Harvey, somewhere there was “…the rest of the story.”