异类之不一样的成功启示录 第194期:地主娶奴隶的原因

 　　Daisy Nation was from the northwestern end of Jamaica. 戴西·纳森来自牙买加的西北边陲，

　　Her great-grandfather was William Ford¹. 他伟大的祖父是威廉·福特，

　　He was from Island, and he arrived in Jamaica in 1784, having bought a coffee plantation². 来自爱尔兰，他在1784年来到牙买加并买下了一片咖啡种植园，

　　Not long after his arrival, he bought a slave woman and took her as his concubine. 不久就买了一个奴隶，并娶她为妻。

　　He noticed her on the docks at Alligator³ Pond, a fishing village on the south coast. 他是在南海岸那个叫做短吻鳄池塘村的码头上看见她的，

　　She was an Igbo tribeswoman from West Africa. They had a son, whom they named John. 她是一个东非南端伊博部落的女人，他们生了个叫约翰的男孩，

　　He was, in the language of the day, a "mulatto"; 在当时来说，他就是一个“黑白混血儿。”

　　he was colored-and all of the Fords from that point on fell into Jamaica's colored class. 从那以后，福特家族就烙上了牙买加血统的印记。

　　In the American South during the same period,it would be highly unusual for a white landowner to have had so public relationship with a slave. 在那个时代的美国南部，一个白人地主和一个奴隶成为夫妻是很不寻常的。

　　Sexual relations between blacks and whites were considered morally repugnant. 白人和黑人的男女关系不但在道德上不被允许，

　　Laws were past prohibiting miscegenation⁴, the last of which were not struck down by the US Supreme⁵ Court until 1967. 而且还被法律禁止通婚，这个法律一直到1967年才被最高法院废除。

　　A plantation owner who lived openly with a slave woman would have been socially ostracized⁶, 一个种植园地主和一个奴隶女人生活在一起是被社会摈弃的，

　　and any offspring from the union of black and white would have been left in slavery. 他们所有的后代也将都会是奴隶身份。

　　In Jamaica, attitudes were very different. 但在牙买加，这种态度就很不一样。

　　The Caribbean in those years was little more than a massive slave colony. 在那些年里，加勒比海就是大量奴隶的聚居地。

　　Blacks outnumbered whites by a factor of more than ten to one. 黑人多于白人，数量达到了10比1。

　　There were few, if any, marriageable white women on the island, and as a result, 岛上几乎没有可以结婚的白人女性，

　　the overwhelming majority of white men on the island had black or brown mistresses. 这就导致了岛上大量成年白人男人娶了黑人或者棕色皮肤的女性。

　　One British plantation owner in Jamaica who famously kept a precise diary of his sexual exploits 在牙买加有一个英国种植园主，因为一本日记而被世人所知。

　　slept with 138 different women in his 37 years on the island, almost all of them slaves and, one imagines, not all of them willing partners. 在那本日记里，他详细地记录了在岛上37年间同138个不同女人发生关系的过程，可以想象，她们几乎都只是奴隶，而她们也并不是都希望成为他的情人。

　　And whites saw mulattoes—the children of those relationships—as potential allies, a buffer⁷ between them and the enormous number of slaves on the island. 白人将那些混血儿看成一个潜在的同盟，可以调解他们同岛上奴隶之间的关系。

　　Mulatto women were prized as mistresses, and their children, one shade lighter⁸ in turn,  作为女主人的混血妇女很受珍重，她们的孩子，皮肤会淡些,

　　moved still further of the social and economic ladder. Mulattos rarely worked in the fields. 而且社会地位和经济阶层也会相应提高。混血妇女很少在田间劳作。

1 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

2 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

3 alligator   

n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼)

参考例句：

• She wandered off to play with her toy alligator.她开始玩鳄鱼玩具。
• Alligator skin is five times more costlier than leather.鳄鱼皮比通常的皮革要贵5倍。

4 miscegenation   

n.人种混杂；混血

参考例句：

• It was only in 1967 that the United States finally struck down its anti miscegenation laws.直到1967年，美国才废除了反种族通婚的法律。
• In contemporary times,Brazilians have come to regard miscegenation as a defining national trait.在当代，巴西人已经把种族通婚看作是鲜明的国家特征。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 ostracized   

v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 )；流放；摈弃；排斥

参考例句：

• He was ostracized by his colleagues for refusing to support the strike. 他因拒绝支持罢工而受到同事的排斥。
• The family were ostracized by the neighborhood. 邻居们都不理睬那一家人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 buffer   

n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲

参考例句：

• A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
• Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。

8 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。