Americans didn't commonly use forks until the early-to-mid 1800s, with the utensils becoming widespread by the 1850s after centuries of resistance.
Americans Resisted Forks for Centuries
In 1633, when Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop pulled out a fork at the dinner table, clergy denounced it as "evil." Their reasoning? The only thing worthy of touching God's food was fingers. This wasn't just one preacher's opinion—it reflected widespread American attitudes toward forks that would persist for nearly two centuries.
"An Effeminate and Useless Curiosity"
While Europeans had widely adopted forks by 1700, American colonists viewed them with suspicion. British-imposed taxes made forks expensive to produce, and colonists dismissed them as an unnecessary luxury. Well into the 1800s, forks were still considered "an affection" by some Americans—a pretentious Continental habit that real, practical folks didn't need.
The numbers tell the story: in 1800, fewer than 1% of American households owned even a single silver spoon, let alone a fork. People ate with knives and their hands, and they were perfectly fine with it.
The Gradual Shift
Change came slowly through the early 19th century. Three- and four-pronged forks, developed in England and Germany, began appearing in American homes. By the 1850s—before the Civil War—forks had finally become common as mass production made them affordable and middle-class Americans acquired more wealth.
During the Civil War itself, soldiers carried forks from home or bought them from sutlers, though many found them "pretty useless all round—especially with sloppy stews." Spoons remained the preferred tool for camp food.
Why Americans Eat Differently
Even after adopting forks, Americans developed their own distinctive style. The "zigzag" method—cutting with the fork in the left hand and knife in the right, then switching the fork to the right hand to eat—preserves an 18th-century European practice. Europeans abandoned this switching habit for the more fluid Continental style, but Americans kept the older tradition alive.
Interestingly, early American forks weren't even used to bring food to the mouth. They were simply there to hold meat steady while the knife cut it. The idea of actually eating with a fork took some getting used to.
From religious condemnation to everyday necessity, the fork's journey in America reveals how cultural attitudes toward technology can shift—even when that technology is as simple as a piece of metal with prongs.