The Roots of African American Drama: An Anthology of Early Plays, 1858-1938

457 Pages·1990·23.95 MB·English

by  James V. Hatch

THE ROOTS OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN
DRAMA
An Anthology of
Early Plays,
1858-1938
Edited by
Leo Hamalian and
James V. Hatch
Foreword by
George C. Wolfe
The Roots of African American Drama
African American Life Series
General Editors
Toni Cade Bambara
Author and Filmmaker
Geneva Smitherman-Donaldson
Michigan State University
Wilbur C. Rich
Wayne State University
Ronald W. Walters
Howard University
THE ROOTS OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN
DRAMA
An Anthology
Of Early Plays,
1858-1938
Edited by Leo Hamalian and James V. Hatch
Foreword by George C. Wolfe
Wayne State University Press Detroit
Copyright © 1991 by Wayne State University Press,
Detroit, Michigan 48202. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without formal
permission.
Library off Congress Cataloging-in-Publicatioii Data
The Roots of African American drama : an anthology of early
plays, 1858-1938 / edited by Leo Hamalian & James V.
Hatch ; foreword by George C. Wolfe.
p. cm. — (African American life)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. American drama—Afro-American authors. 2. Afro-
Americans—Drama. I. Hamalian, Leo. II. Hatch, James
Vernon, 1928-
III. Series.
PS628.N4R66 1991
812.008'0896073—dc20 90-1200
CIP
2
ISBN 0-8143-2141-0 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8143-2141-0 (alk. paper)
To our wives,
Camille Billops and Linda Hamalian

Contents
Foreword, George C. Wolfe 9
Preface 11
Acknowledgments 13
Introduction: Two Hundred Years of Black and White
Drama, James V. Hatch 15
William Wells Brown 38
The Escape: or, A Leap for Freedom (1858) 42
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins 96
Peculiar Sam, or Thje Underground Railroad
(1879) 100
Katherine D. Chapman Tillman 124
Aunt Betsy's Thanksgiving (c. 1914) 126
Mary Burrill 134
Aftermath (1919) 137
Butterbeans and Susie
{Jodie and Susie Edwards) 152
Black Vaudeville (c. 1920) 155
Willis Richardson 159
The Chip Woman's Fortune (1923) 164
Zora Neale Hurston 186
The First One (1927) 191
8 CONTENTS
Joseph S. Mitchell 204
Help Wanted (1929) 207
Shirley Graham 231
Tom-Tom (1932) 238
George A. Towns 287
The Sharecropper (1932) 290
May Miller 307
Nails and Thorns (1933) 310
Owen Vincent Dodson 328
The Shining Town (1937) 332
Abram Hill 353
On Strivers Row (1938) 359
General Bibliography 447
Foreword
Every time I return home, my parents know that I'm
plotting to abscond with some prized family posses-
sion. Two Christmases ago, it was my grandfather's
coat. Last spring, it was one of my great-grand-
mother's quilts. I always ask permission and they al-
ways flatly refuse. But then when I am packing to
leave, my mother invariably asks, "Aren't you forget-
ting something?" She then presents me with the ob-
ject we had been haggling about all along. I believe
they always give in because they figure that living in a
city like New York, I can use all the ancestral protec-
tion I can get.
My most recent acquisition is a photograph of the
1912 student body of Kentucky State University, then
called the Kentucky School for the Normal. Trees, one
or two academic-looking buildings, and a few A-frame
houses dot the horizon. And in the foreground span-
ning the entire width of the meager campus, are rows
upon rows of black/Negro/colored folks all properly pol-
ished and pressed—looking so good, somebody had to
gather them all together for a picture.
The men are handsome and determined. The wom-
en are regal and poised. Each and every one of them
is dressed with an attitude, wearing their determina-
tion and sense of mission as sure as they are wearing 9