Biography

William Wells Brown was an African American antislavery lecturer, groundbreaking novelist, playwright, and historian. He is widely considered to have been the first African American to publish works in several major literary genres. Known for his continuous political activism especially in his involvement with the anti-slavery movement, Brown is widely acclaimed for the effectiveness of many of his writings.

Brown was born to a white father and enslaved mother on a plantation outside of Lexington, Kentucky, most likely in 1814. He spent his childhood and much of his young adult life as a slave in St. Louis, Missouri working a variety of trades. Brown slipped away from his owner’s steamboat while it was docked in Cincinnati, Ohio and thereafter declared himself a free man on New Year’s Day 1834.

In 1858 his play The Escape became the first play ever to be published by an African American. (Full Bio)

Plays

THE ESCAPE; OR, A LEAP FOR FREEDOM (1858)

Considered the first published play by an African American, The Escape is a five-act comic melodrama centered on two Missouri slaves who secretly marry before making a desperate bid for freedom. Brown had it printed as a pamphlet in Boston in 1858; though the work was never produced theatrically in his lifetime, he performed excerpts from it at abolitionist rallies and other public events at which audiences were said to roar with laughter. (Source)

Cast Requirement: 26+ (8f, 18m)

Characters: Dr. Gaines, Mr. Campbell, Rev. John Pinchen, Dick Walker, Mr. Wildmarsh, Major Moore, Mr. White, Bill Jennings, Jacob Scragg, Mrs.Gaines, Mr. and Mrs. Neal and their Daughter, Thomas, Glen, Cato, Sam, Sampey, Melinda, Dolly, Susan, Hannah, Big Sally, Pete, Ned, Bill, Tapioca, Officers, Loungers, Barkeeper

Publication Info: Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans 1847 to Today: Revised and Expanded Edition. Edited By James V. Hatch and Ted Shine. The Free Press, 1996. (Link)