Reviewed by:

• Colonial Complexions: Race and Bodies in Eighteenth-Century America by Sharon Block
• Antonio T. Bly

On April 29, 1768, “Two English Convict Servant Men” ran away from their master’s place in Loudoun County, Virginia. Almost a week passed before William Carr Lane employed the services of Anne and William Green’s Maryland Gazette for help in securing his property. Both fugitives, the Chesapeake resident reported, were blacksmiths. John Benham had a “slender” build and “stoops in his Shoulders.” John Miller, by contrast, had a “short well-set” frame. The two men, as their master told it, robbed him not only of their labor, but also of several additional articles of clothing along with two horses. Perhaps the most striking part of their effort toward freedom had been their plan to steal away. In order to conceal their true identities, their master explained, the two men “black’d themselves . . . [with] some Coal and Tallow found in a Kettle of theirs.” It is in this vein that Sharon Block, in Colonial Complexions, explores the complex history of race in eighteenth-century America.

Drawing on “more than four thousand newspaper advertisements for runaway servants, slaves, and other missing persons issued between 1750 and 1775” (3), Block makes a compelling case about race as a social construction in early America. Race, as Block quotes historian Barbara Fields, “is not an idea but an ideology” (2). Over the course of the colonial era, notices for fugitives categorized groups into races. “[R]epresentations of bodily coloration,” Block explains, “homogenize[d] people of African descent while individualizing those of European descent. Categorical terms such as ‘Negro,’ ‘Mulatto,’ and ‘Indian’ were purposefully applied (or erased) to mark boundaries of slavery and freedom through descriptions of physical bodies” (7–8). Before the appearance of this codified racial language, notices reflected European ideas about humoral medicine, in which skin color signified physical health, emotional well-being, and personality traits. The darker one’s hue, many owners believed, the more imbalanced the runaway seemed to be with respect to their humors. These beliefs, however, changed with the advent of racial slavery in the New World. As Block writes, “Anglo-Americans’ focus on red and white as a sign of health” became “less prominent as Native Americans became red.” While property-owning whites “retained the label of whiteness,” African Americans “became increasingly categorized as black” (18). Despite the popularity of geo-humoralism and theories of monogenesis, colonial Americans developed racist views about Native Americans and African Americans to buttress their economic objectives.

Over time, these views would color the very language of runaway advertisements. Encoded in the physical descriptions about a fugitive’s age, height, or body [End Page 254] type was a subtext that went far beyond the words appearing in print. For many indentured servants, their height came to represent “a proxy for strength, health, and the effect of life history on bodies” (37). For enslaved African Americans and some Native Americans, however, those same characteristics came to speak to those individuals’ productivity and thus their monetary value. These racialized expectations may explain why female bondservants of European descent were “never” referenced as being “well-made,” while enslaved African women who absconded were routinely described in such potentially hypersexualized terms. Viewed through the prism of color, words like “straight,” as in “straight-bodied” or “straight-limbed,” “lusty,” and “likely,” and even “pale,” were loaded racial terms that complicated a person’s intrinsic worth. Descriptions of fugitives’ hair, eye color, names, and speech also came to conflate race with status. In her deft analysis of these and other words and phrases used in advertisements printed for indentured servants, Native Americans, and African American slaves, Block demonstrates effectively how race mattered.

But Colonial Complexions is not without its flaws. Block does not consider, for example, the various ways in which runaways challenged the authority of their owners, thus confusing the context in which notices were composed. Nowhere does she fully address the rich oral traditions that underpinned the production, dissemination, and publication of runaway advertisements (145). To...

审核人：

• 殖民地肤色：十八世纪美国的种族与机构莎朗·布洛克（Sharon Block）
• 安东尼奥·布莱

Ø ñ1768 4月29日，“两英囚徒仆人”跑到离他们的主人在劳登县，弗吉尼亚州的地方了。威廉·卡尔·莱恩（William Carr Lane）聘请安妮（Anne）和威廉·格林（William Green）的《马里兰州宪报》（Maryland Gazette）服务将近一个星期寻求帮助以保护他的财产。切萨皮克居民报道说，这两个逃犯都是铁匠。约翰·本汉姆（John Benham）身材苗条，双肩弯腰。相比之下，约翰·米勒（John Miller）的框架设定得很“短”。就像主人说的那样，这两个人不仅抢劫了他的劳力，还抢走了另外几件衣服以及两匹马。他们争取自由的最醒目的部分可能是他们偷窃的计划。他们的主人解释说，为了掩饰他们的真实身份，两人“给自己涂黑”。。。在他们的水壶里发现一些煤和牛脂。” 正是在这种背景下，殖民地肤色中的沙龙·布洛克（Sharon Block）探索了18世纪美国种族的复杂历史。

借助“在1750年至1775年之间发布的四千多份报纸广告，供失踪的仆人，奴隶和其他失踪者使用”（3），布洛克提出了一个令人信服的案例，说明种族在美国早期是一种社会建设。正如布洛克所引用的历史学家巴巴拉·菲尔德斯所说，种族“不是一个思想而是一个意识形态”（2）。在殖民时期，逃亡者的注意事项将群体分为种族。布洛克解释说：“身体着色的代表”使非洲人后裔同质化，同时使欧洲人后裔个性化。诸如“黑人”，“穆拉托”和“印度人”之类的分类术语被有意地运用（或删除）以通过对身体的描述来标记奴隶制和自由的界限”（7-8）。在这种编纂的种族语言出现之前，公告反映了欧洲关于体液医学的观点，其中肤色表示身体健康，情绪健康和人格特质。许多所有者认为，色调越深，失控似乎与他们的幽默感越不平衡。然而，随着新世界种族奴隶制​​的出现，这些观念发生了变化。正如布洛克所写的那样，“英裔美国人对红色和白色作为健康标志的关注”变得“随着美洲印第安人变得红色而变得不那么突出。” 拥有财产的白人“保留了白色的标签”，而非洲裔美国人“被越来越多地归类为黑人”（18）。尽管土工幽默主义和单基因现象理论广为流行，但殖民地美国人还是对美洲原住民和非裔美国人提出了种族主义观点，以支持他们的经济目标。许多所有者认为，色调越深，失控似乎与他们的幽默感越不平衡。然而，随着新世界种族奴隶制​​的出现，这些观念发生了变化。正如布洛克所写的那样，“英裔美国人对红色和白色作为健康标志的关注”变得“随着美洲印第安人变得红色而变得不那么突出。” 拥有财产的白人“保留了白色的标签”，而非洲裔美国人“被越来越多地归类为黑人”（18）。尽管土工幽默主义和单基因现象理论广为流行，但殖民地美国人还是对美洲原住民和非裔美国人提出了种族主义观点，以支持他们的经济目标。许多所有者认为，色调越深，失控似乎与他们的幽默感越不平衡。然而，随着新世界种族奴隶制​​的出现，这些观念发生了变化。正如布洛克所写的那样，“英裔美国人对红色和白色作为健康标志的关注”变得“随着美洲印第安人变得红色而变得不那么突出。” 拥有财产的白人“保留了白色的标签”，而非洲裔美国人“被越来越多地归类为黑人”（18）。尽管土工幽默主义和单基因现象理论广为流行，但殖民地美国人还是对美洲原住民和非裔美国人提出了种族主义观点，以支持其经济目标。正如布洛克所写的那样，“英裔美国人对红色和白色作为健康标志的关注”变得“随着美洲印第安人变得红色而变得不那么突出。” 拥有财产的白人“保留了白色的标签”，而非洲裔美国人“被越来越多地归类为黑人”（18）。尽管土工幽默主义和单基因现象理论广为流行，但殖民地美国人还是对美洲原住民和非裔美国人提出了种族主义观点，以支持他们的经济目标。正如布洛克所写的那样，“英裔美国人对红色和白色作为健康标志的关注”变得“随着美洲印第安人变得红色而变得不那么突出。” 拥有财产的白人“保留了白色的标签”，而非洲裔美国人“被越来越多地归类为黑人”（18）。尽管土工幽默主义和单基因现象理论广为流行，但殖民地美国人还是对美洲原住民和非裔美国人提出了种族主义观点，以支持他们的经济目标。

随着时间的流逝，这些观点将使失控广告的语言变色。在有关逃犯的年龄，身高或身体类型的物理描述中编码的[End Page 254]是一个超文本，远远超出了印刷品中出现的单词。对于许多契约雇员而言，他们的身高代表“力量，健康以及生活史对身体的影响的代表”（37）。但是，对于被奴役的非洲裔美国人和一些美洲原住民来说，这些相同的特征对这些人的生产力也有影响。因此，它们的货币价值。这些种族化的期望可能解释了为什么欧洲血统的女奴隶从来没有被“称做得好”，而潜逃的被奴役的非洲妇女通常以这种潜在的性欲过高来形容。通过颜色的棱镜来看，诸如“直”，“直身”或“直肢”，“精力充沛”，“可能”甚至“苍白”之类的词语充斥着种族色彩，使人的内在价值。逃犯的头发，眼睛的颜色，名字和言语的描述也使种族与地位混为一谈。在她对为契约仆人，美国原住民和非裔美国人的奴隶印刷的广告中使用的这些及其他单词和短语的敏锐分析中，布洛克有效地展示了种族的重要性。

但是殖民地肤色并非没有缺陷。例如，布洛克没有考虑逃亡者以各种方式挑战其所有者的权威，从而使通知的构成环境混乱。她在任何地方都没有充分论述过丰富的口头传统，这些传统支撑了失控广告的制作，传播和出版（145）。到...