The Dixie Lee pea is an heirloom variety of cowpea popular in the Carolinas, although prevalent throughout most of the American south.
[4] Charred remains of cowpeas have been found in rock shelters located in Central Ghana dating to the 2nd millennium BCE.
[6][4] The origin of the word Dixie is unknown but since its first use in 1859; it has referred to someone from the South, akin to the use of Yankee in the North.
[7] Like the name implies and similar to that of the history of the Iron and Clay pea it was a popular variety in the Confederate states of America.
[8] After the Civil War Dixie Lee peas kept many southerners from starving to death, prior to which cowpeas were solely reserved as livestock feed and slave food.