Escaping slaves use to throw balls of fried cornmeal out to distract the hounds from tracking them. The hounds stopped barking and tracking thanks to the cornmeal which later adopted the name “hush puppies”.
Possibility 2:
They were created by a group of Ursuline nuns who had come from France. The nuns converted cornmeal into a delicious food that they named croquettes de maise. The making of these croquettes spread rapidly through the southern states. An African cook in Atlanta is said to have given the name hushpuppy to this food item.
Possibility 3:
The first recorded use of the word "hush-puppy" dates to 1899. The name is often attributed to hunters, fishermen, or other cooks who would fry some basic cornmeal mixture (possibly that they had been bread-coating or battering their own food with) and feed it to their dogs to "hush the puppies" during cook-outs or fish-fries.
Possibility 4:
Confederate soldiers making dinner around a campfire heard Yankee soldiers approaching, so they tossed their yapping dogs some fried cornmeal cakes and ordered them to "hush, puppies!"
Possibility 5:
Cajuns in Southern Louisiana, the story goes, used to take a salamander that they called a "mud puppy," batter it, and deep fry it. "Since eating salamanders ranked low on the social scale," one account explains. "The eaters kept hush about it."
In the grand scheme of things, this doesn't matter at all. However, if I was a betting man, I would place my wager on Possibility 4.
BTW, Long John Silvers hushpuppies are the bomb. Have not had one in ages though.
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt