Who am I you ask? Whatever I choose to be...

Dear Mr. Waldstreicher,

I was greatly intrigued by the depiction you gave on runaways and their “self-fashioning” nature during slavery in the eighteenth-century Mid-Atlantic. Some of the ideas you presented have made me reflect on many of my preconceived notions regarding what constitutes one's true identity and also caused me to question whether or not these notions are in dire need of revisiting. Identity, it seems, may not be as concrete or steadfast as society has led me to believe. One question in particular has stuck with me since I first read your article:

“How, after all, could one really tell who was a slave, who a freeman, who a servant, and who a runaway?"

Tried as I may, I remained completely dumbfounded as to how to effectively answer the question. That is, until I came across another important group of key phrases dealing with the “stressed theatricality of the master slave relationship” and how “roles, of course, are only part of reality”. The two words “theatricality” and “roles” made me recall the argument that was made in one of my classes previous discussions, which claimed that race is merely a performance, effectively allowing people to mold themselves into whatever category they saw fit.

From reading your article it has been made very clear that runaways were able to use their past experiences with multiple cultures, various skill sets, knowledge of stereotypes, and even their predetermined attributes in order to mimic or blend in with other races. In some cases, this ruse was enacted to the point where the actor went completely unnoticed and was able to achieve significantly better living conditions for the rest of his or her life. 

This idea is solidified and can be even further expanded to incorporate ones identity as a whole to be a performance when one hears multiple accounts of people "passing" for other races, genders and so on taking place even to this day. All due to misconceptions and stereotypes plaguing and perpetuated by society.

With this concept in mind, I have an answer to your question. "How, after all, could one really tell who was a slave, who a freeman, who a servant, and who a runaway", you ask? Well, that is a trick question! For the only way to tell a person's true identity is to know what they see when they look in the mirror.

Respectfully,

Mike Mendoza