Racism on the Victorian Stage : Representation of Slavery and the Black Character

While there are many studies of nineteenth-century race theories and scientific racism, the attitudes and stereotypes expressed in popular culture have rarely been examined, and then only for the latter half of the century. Theatre then was mass entertainment and these forgotten plays, hastily written, surviving only as hand-written manuscripts or cheap pamphlets, are a rich seam for the cultural historian. Mining them to discover how 'race' was viewed and how the stereotype of the black developed and degraded, sheds a fascinating light on the development of racism in English culture. In the process, this book helps to explain how a certain flexibility in attitudes towards skin colour, observable at the end of the eighteenth century, changed into the hardened jingoism of the late nineteenth. Concentrating on the period 1830 to 1860, its detailed excavation of some seventy plays makes it invaluable to the theatre historian and black studies scholar. Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 3 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Illustrations......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 9 Introduction......Page 11 CHAPTER 1 From vengeance to sentiment......Page 17 HISTORICALB ACKGROUND......Page 18 OROONOKO – THE SOURCE......Page 21 ‘VENGEANCE IS STILL ALIVE . . .’......Page 31 ‘ME WISH TO DE LORD ME WAS DEAD’......Page 38 SLAVERY AND SENTIMENT......Page 42 CHAPTER 2 The beginning of the end for the black avenger......Page 47 THE LAST OF SENTIMENT......Page 49 A SEA CHANGE......Page 53 THE GAMBIA TWIST......Page 56 ‘A BLOW, AND YET THE STRIKER LIVES!’......Page 60 ‘DANCE, YOU BLACK ANGELS!’......Page 63 CHAPTER 3 Ira Aldridge and the battlefield of race......Page 68 ALDRIDGE’S ROLES......Page 73 Obi; or, Three-fingered Jack......Page 76 Othello and after......Page 79 The Black Doctor......Page 86 Titus Andronicus......Page 90 ALDRIDGE’S LEGACY......Page 93 CHAPTER 4 The comic and the grotesque: the American influence......Page 99 CHARLES MATHEWS......Page 101 BLACKFACE PERFORMANCE......Page 104 CROW MANIA......Page 108 JIM CROW PLAYS......Page 113 THE NEW AND THE OLD......Page 117 A NEW RACISM?......Page 120 CHAPTER 5 The consolidation of the black grotesque......Page 124 DINAH AND HER SISTERS......Page 128 HAVING IT BOTH WAYS......Page 132 AFTER CROW, WHAT?......Page 135 CHAPTER 6 Slavery freed from the constraint of blackness......Page 140 THE ‘SIGN OF THE BEAST’......Page 143 ‘THE DESPISED CREOLE’......Page 153 OLD ENGL AND AND LIBERTY......Page 161 CHAPTER 7 Uncle Tom – moral high ground or low comedy?......Page 165 ‘SELECT SCENES AND JOIN THEM TOGETHER’......Page 167 ‘WESLEYAN TALKEE TALKEE’......Page 170 ‘WHY NOT DIS NIGGER?’......Page 175 THE SLAVE DRAMA AS DOMES TIC MELODRAMA......Page 178 CASSY – THE FEMALE AVENGER......Page 183 UNCLE TOM, OLD TOM AND ANTI-TOMISM......Page 185 DRED – A NEW DIRECTION?......Page 188 Afterword......Page 196 INTRODUCTION......Page 201 CHAPTER 1......Page 202 CHAPTER 2......Page 207 CHAPTER 3......Page 210 CHAPTER 4......Page 217 CHAPTER 5......Page 223 CHAPTER 6......Page 226 CHAPTER 7......Page 231 AFTERWORD......Page 235 PRIMARY MATERIAL – PLAYS......Page 237 PRIMARY MATERIAL – BACKGROUND......Page 240 SECONDARY MATERIAL – BOOKS......Page 242 SECONDARY MATERIAL – ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS......Page 247 Index......Page 250 "While there are many studies of nineteenth-century race theories and scientific racism, the attitudes and stereotypes expressed in popular culture have rarely been examined, and then only for the latter half of the century. Theatre then was mass entertainment and these forgotten plays, hastily written, surviving only as hand-written manuscripts or cheap pamphlets, are a rich seam for the cultural historian. Mining them to discover how 'race' was viewed and how the stereotype of the black developed and degraded sheds light on the development of racism in English culture. In the process, this book helps to explain how a certain flexibility in attitudes towards skin colour, observable at the end of the eighteenth century, changed into the hardened jingoism of the late nineteenth. Concentrating on the period 1830 to 1860, its detailed excavation of some seventy plays makes it invaluable to the theatre historian and black studies scholar."--BOOK JACKET. While there are many studies of nineteenth-century race theories and scientific racism, the attitudes and stereotypes expressed in popular culture have rarely been examined, and then only for the latter half of the century. Theatre then was mass entertainment and these forgotten plays, hastily written, surviving only as hand-written manuscripts or cheap pamphlets, are a rich seam for the cultural historian. Mining them to discover how 'race' was viewed and how the stereotype of the black developed and degraded sheds a fascinating light on the development of racism in English culture. In the process, this book helps to explain how a certain flexibility in attitudes towards skin colour, observable at the end of the eighteenth century, changed into the hardened jingoism of the late nineteenth. Concentrating on the period 1830 to 1860, its detailed excavation of some seventy plays makes it invaluable to the theatre historian had black studies scholar.