[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It also seemsthat freedom changed the complaisant waiter s behavior, a not un-common transformation and one that created tension betweenTaft and his former master.Not only did the former slave an- STAGING FREEDOM 79nounce his new identity by changing his name, but the once ap-proved waiter was, according to the statement of Drumgold, turned away for his bad conduct and was now idleing about theStreets apparently without any visible means of livelihood. 21The details of timing in all this are infuriatingly vague in thesources, but it is tempting to see a close linkage between Taft sachievement of freedom, his new and more assertive persona, andhis taking on of the role of Richard III in a black theater company.The liberating power of these black stage performers was ineluc-tably tied to their own and their free audience s often boisterousexploration of what freedom actually meant.White New Yorkerscertainly saw this as well, though they were less sanguine aboutthe change in blacks attitudes.Taft s hopes for freedom were, notsurprisingly, bound up in his slave past.Attracted by the life of theartist, as he had observed it, this African New Yorker pursued hisunusual goal with the same impressive determination that wouldcharacterize the efforts of the other black actors.Scarcely any ofthe New York literati that Taft had waited on in the Shakespearecould support themselves on the proceeds of their artistic endeav-ors; many were also lawyers, merchants, or physicians, lucrativeoccupations that were closed to blacks.Taft chose to steal to sup-port his acting career, was rather easily caught, and given a puni-tive sentence.With the removal of Taft (or Beers), James Hewlett, anotherblack actor, came to the fore and before long was completelydominating the bill, singing most of the songs and playing themost important roles.James McCune Smith claimed that, likeBrown, Hewlett had come from the West Indies, but according toan article in the December 22, 1825, issue of the Brooklyn Star, theblack actor was a native of our own dear Island of Nassau, andRockaway is said to have been the place of his birth. The latteraccount seems the more likely Hewlett was a not uncommon 80 STORIES OF FREEDOM IN BLACK NEW YORKname in Rockaway and he probably moved to New York alongwith many freed blacks from the surrounding countryside.Appar-ently he was quickly drawn to the theater and spent a considerableamount of time watching performances from the gallery.The Staralso stated that Hewlett was the servant boy of George Freder-ick Cooke and Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, two famous Englishactors who performed in America in the early 1810s, and fromwhom he received his histrionic education. But for all this writ-er s appreciation of Hewlett s abilities he acknowledged that theblack performer must have had a natural talent for theatrical per-formances, and an excellent voice withal the idea of a black ac-tor was still so startling that he felt compelled to denigrate him,asserting that Hewlett was not simply influenced by Cooke andCooper but that he stole their actions and attitudes in moments ofrecreation or recitation. 22 There are faint traces of Hewlett s ac-tivities in New York over the next few years.In October 1813, a black man named James Hewlett was found not guilty of as-saulting an African American sweepmaster named Simmons.InSeptember 1815, the National Advocate carried a theater advertise-ment announcing a forthcoming benefit performance for Hew-lett and Diego. 23 In all likelihood, James Hewlett picked up workat sea but hung around the theater whenever he had the chance;he may even have been employed there when he was in town.Hewlett had performed as a singer in Brown s entertainment gar-den.He was probably not in the city for the opening performancein Thomas Street, but very soon thereafter assumed the leadingrole in the company.The meager evidence we possess suggests that African NewYorkers attended theatrical performances with some frequency,even though many must have found it galling to do so.Theaters,notorious the world over for their crush and inadvertent body-contact, were among the first institutions to be segregated in New STAGING FREEDOM 81York.Blacks were relegated to the gallery up near the roof, distantfrom all but the most disreputable whites.Thomas Hamilton, atraveler, recounted the story of a young Haitian s tribulations inNew York in the 1820s.The well-dressed young man in fact, hewas something of a dandy was turned away from not only thebest hotel but from all the hotels and forced to take up his abodein a miserable lodging-house kept by a Negro woman. That eve-ning he went to the theater and tried to pay the doorkeeper togain admittance to the boxes, but his money was tossed back tohim, with a disdainful intimation that the place for persons of hiscolour was the upper gallery. According to Hamilton, the humil-iated young man left New York by the first available conveyance.24For the most part black patrons went unnoticed, other than bythose counting box office receipts, but every now and again theymade their presence felt.In 1820 the famous English tragedianEdmund Kean had declined to go on stage in front of a sparseBoston audience, a display of hubris that ruined his immediateprospects of success in the United States and forced him to de-camp across the Atlantic.Five years later Kean returned to aBoston still uninterested in his apologies: a baying crowd shoutedhim down and pelted him with refuse.When Kean performed inNew York, however, black theater patrons, possibly empathizingwith him because of their own hostile treatment by whites, deci-sively took the actor s part.The New York Spectator sniffed that the most ludicrous part of the affair, was the interest manifestedfor Kean by the blacks in the upper tier. A black man in the audi-ence had led his compatriots in chants of Kean, Kean!, had wit-tily put down a white heckler, and made sure to drown out anyfurther opposition.According to the New York American, whenthe black yelled out Hurra for Kean the whole gallery instantlyresponded to their leader. 25Very occasionally one can find references by blacks to their at- 82 STORIES OF FREEDOM IN BLACK NEW YORKtendance at the theater.In December 1823 four young black menwere indicted and, with the usual alacrity, convicted of grand lar-ceny.From their testimony in the legal proceedings, we can piecetogether a fascinating account of their varied activities over thecouple of days before their arrest
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]