Brother,

It's been nearly six months since I set sail on the Dragon, and I don't recall ever feeling so lonely. When I stand on deck and look out at all this water, when I think about how far I am from what I know...it's just too much, brother. Even though I'm surrounded by a dozen men all the time, I ain't their kind of man. I might as well not even be a man at all. They never talk to me, except to give me an earful about dinner every damn night. I swear I think about slipping a little poison into their soup every now and again, except I know God wouldn't look too kindly upon me if I did that. And I ain't got no poison anyway. But that's just my foolish talk.

Brother, I can't tell you how it feels to be the only slave and the only black man around for weeks at at time. And even when I go ashore, I barely talk to anybody, 'cause the captain don't ever let me out of his sight. Never has my heart felt so heavy in my chest. I feel tired all the time, and my feet have to work hard to drag the rest of me along. Nothing will make a body feel more like it's dying than having no one to talk to. I thought being on this boat would maybe give me a little taste of freedom, but to be honest brother, I ain't never felt more like a slave.

Always your brother,
Joseph

Questions:
1. Bolster writes of "the evolution of diasporic consciousness and blacks' cultural hybridity" that occurred as a result of blacks' participation, voluntary or involuntary, in the triangular trade system. When that trade system declined, what was the effect on diasporic consciousness, both immediate and long-term?
2. Waldstreicher's article focuses on the idea of runaway slaves as "confidence men." Were there perhaps also runaway female slaves who exhibited the same cunning and cleverness as their male counterparts, i.e. "confidence women"? Surely there were, as exhibited by Ellen Craft. Why, then, does Waldstreicher focus so much on men? Is there an absence of ads concerning runaway female slaves? Or were slave women less prone to run away?