Biography

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, who was born in Portland, Maine, in 1859, is best known for four novels and numerous short stories which she published between 1900 and 1903.  Her best-known work, the novel Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, was published in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1900 by the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company.  Hopkins followed this first novel with three serialized novels – Hagar’s Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice, Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest, and Of One Blood; Or, The Hidden Self.  All three serials along with several short stories by Hopkins appeared in The Colored American Magazine, a literary journal which became the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company’s primary project.  During this time period, Hopkins worked as an editor at the magazine.  Through her editorial work, fiction, and a substantial body of nonfiction that addressed black history, racial discrimination, economic justice, and women’s role in society among other topics, she emerged as one of the era’s preeminent public intellectuals.

While the bulk of Hopkins’s reputation rests on her output during a four-year period when she was in her forties, she wrote a musical play Slaves’ Escape; or, The Underground Railroad (later revised as Peculiar Sam; or, The Underground Railroad) that was produced in 1879 when she was twenty years old. (Full bio)

Plays

PECULIAR SAM, OR THE uNDERGROUND RAILROAD (1879)

Peculiar Sam, or the Underground Railroad is the earliest extant play written by an African American woman. Billed as a “moral and musical drama,” the play opens on a Mississippi plantation, where Sam learns that his beloved, Virginia, is being forced to marry Negro overseer Jim. The news – and Virginia’s determination to flee rather than face that fate – prompts Sam to form an escape plan. Joined by family and friends, and pursued by Jim, Sam and Virginia make their way from bondage in Mississippi to freedom in Canada.

Commissioned as a vehicle for then-famous minstrel and comedic performer, Sam Lucas, The Underground Railroad began touring under the management of Z.W. Sprague in the spring of 1879 with the following company: 

• Mr. Sam Lucas (as Sam, a peculiar fellow)

• Mr. J. H. Crawford, tenor

• Mr. Fred Fernandez, 2nd tenor

• Mr. Charles C. Cary, baritone

• Mr. Edward Johnson, bass,

• Mme. Inez Fernandez, prima donna

• Miss Jennie Smith, soprano

• Miss Alice Mink, contralto

• Miss Lillie Williams, pianist

• Signor Jose Brindis de Salas, violinist

The play was later presented by the Hopkins Colored Troubadours (with the playwright in the role of Virginia) under a few different titles, including The Slaves Escape and The Flight to Freedom. Eventually, it was given the title Peculiar Sam, or the Underground Railroad.

Cast Requirement: 8 (3f, 5m)

Characters: Sam, Jim, Caesar, Pete, Pomp, Virginia, Juno, Mammy

Publication Info: The Roots of African American Drama : an anthology of early plays, 1858-1938. Edited by Leo Hamalian and James V. Hatch. Wayne State University Press, 1991 (Link)

Peculiar Sam, or the Underground Railroad, Alexander Street Press* (Link)

Resources

other writing by HOPKINS

The Colored American Magazine. From 1900 until 1904, Hopkins was served as women’s editor, literary editor, and eventually editor-in-chief, as well as the magazine’s most prolific contributor. Many of her writings can be found at The Digital Colored American Magazine. (Link)