Slavery and Sentiment on the American Stage, 1787–1861

Lifting the Veil of Black

Heather S Nathans author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:19th Mar '09

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Slavery and Sentiment on the American Stage, 1787–1861 cover

This book examines how both black and white Americans used theatre to fight negative stereotypes of African Americans in the nineteenth century.

For almost a hundred years before Uncle Tom's Cabin burst on to the scene in 1852, the American theatre struggled to represent the evils of slavery. Slavery and Sentiment examines how both black and white Americans used the theatre to fight negative stereotypes of African Americans in the United States.For almost a hundred years before Uncle Tom's Cabin burst on to the scene in 1852, the American theatre struggled to represent the evils of slavery. Slavery and Sentiment questions how the text, images, and performances presented to American audiences during the antebellum period engaged with the debate over black participation in American society. The book reconsiders traditional comic stereotypes like Jim Crow, as well as familiar sentimental ones, such as Uncle Tom. Using plays, poetry, performances, popular novels, and political cartoons, Heather Nathans blends American history, theatre history, and literary history to question how theatre and performance lifted the 'veil of black' on American racism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book contributes to the ongoing discussion of the role of African-American characters and performers in American cultural history, offering scholars in a range of fields a new perspective on a complicated moment in the nation's theatrical past.

'Nathans shows us some of the ways in which the representation of such characters' cunning and foolishness, pathos and nakedness, were felt to be powerful and important on the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century stage.' Performing Ethos

ISBN: 9780521870115

Dimensions: 235mm x 160mm x 18mm

Weight: 590g

288 pages