美国奴隶的饮食、身体塑造与生存博弈

Diet,Body Building and Survival Game of American Slaves

由于时空的差异、种植园的效益和主人的标准不同,北美大陆的奴隶们在对自己能否吃饱方面叙述不尽一致,但奴隶人口的持续增长说明,食物的相对短缺不足以转化为严重的身体健康问题。从整体来说,奴隶的饮食品种比较单一,多以玉米和熏肉为主,但他们仍能在业余时间进行捕鱼、打猎或打理自己的菜园而改善自己的生活,并往往以偷窃来抵制不公平的食物分配制度,在奴隶财产如何保值方面主仆之间由此产生了持续性的生存博弈和紧张关系。

Due to variations in localities,profitability of plantations,and standards of slave-owners,slaves in North America had different experiences and thus gave inconsistent accounts of whether they were fed or not.However,the continued growth of the slave population suggests that the relative shortage of food did not lead to any serious health problem.In general,slaves had a rather simply diet,mostly consisting of corn and bacon,but they might still spend their spare time in fishing,hunting or tending their own vegetable plots to improve their nutrition.They sometimes resorted to theft as a way to protest the unjust distribution of food.Their survival strategies created ongoing tension with slave-owners regarding how to best preserve the property value of slaves.