Laughing can be considered a sign of enjoyment and happiness. Something slavery is not. On some plantations, enslaved Africans / African Americans would be punished if they laughed. To avoid being heard laughing, the enslaved individuals would run to a barrel, stick their heads in it, and laugh. Some say this is where we get the saying barrel of laughs and also why Black people run when they are laughing in a group of people.
During slavery, the kitchens were built as a separate building from the rest of the main house where the enslavers lived. Enslaved Black people had to carry food from the kitchen building to the dinner tables for the enslavers. To ensure the enslavers that the enslaved Black people were not picking food off the plates they were caring for and/or to ensure that they did not spit in the food, they were ordered to whistle from the kitchen to the dinner table.
