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