Description
, circa 1850; 8" x 12 1/2" original 19th c. holographic manuscript of the first act of an unnamed stage play set a,among the inhabitants of Gordon Mansion, a prosperous Virginia Plantation. The curtain opens on a group of slaves lying about resting and singing when two, Sambo and Dulcimer, become engaged in name-calling, which quickly turns into a fight. A field boss arrives to break it up, driving them back to work with the crack of a whip. The story revolves about an educated black slave by the name of Harry who is appointed overseer of the estate by Col. Gordon upon his deathbed. The Colonel entrusts Harry with the safekeeping of his (the Colonel’s) daughter Nina, and reveals that he, Harry, is his eldest son, thereby making Nina Harry’s half sister. Harry gives his word he will carry out the Master’s wishes. Harry and Nina had always been unexplainably close, and with his newfound knowledge Harry is torn between his desire to divulge to Nina the truth of their relationship, or keeping it hidden from her for her own good. Nina’s spendthrift nature soon brings the estate to the brink of bankruptcy, and to meet his obligations Harry decides to take five hundred dollars from his savings in order to save the plantation and Nina’s future from ruin. This means he will not be able to make the final payment to buy his freedom in the next few months as he had planned. Tom, the Colonel’s shiftless second son, had always been antagonistic toward Harry, and thus the Colonel stipulated in in his will that Harry would be able to buy his freedom before Nina married in order to protect him from any negative repercussions from her husband or from Tom. If Nina were to die before marrying, Harry was to have his freedom by payment of a nominal sum. One evening, feeling the pressure of things closing in on him, Harry returns home to his wife Sisette to deliver the gift of a new dress from Nina. Upon prodding, Harry divulges the secret he has been keeping for so long, adding that Nina must soon marry in order to preserve the estate, and that things have suddenly been made more urgent by the fact that she has become engaged to three different beaus. To get the necessary freedom money in time now seems impossible, but Harry takes an oath, "Waking or sleeping to know but one thought, and that is to secure my liberty and that of my downtrodden race." The next scene takes place in a ramshackle cabin where a Mrs. Cripps, convinced she is dying, lies ill in bed waiting for the return of her slacker husband while her faithful housemaid Tiff attempts to bolster her spirits and lullaby the mistress’s baby to sleep. Mrs. Cripps’ daughter Fanny arrives with medicine and Tiff sets about to prepare it while bemoaning what happens when good Virginia families like that of Mrs. Cripps marry beneath them, "Dis yer comes of quality marrying dese yer poor white folks," she observes. John, Mrs. Cripps’ husband, finally arrives carrying a load of fancy ladies’ hats and boasting that with the sales of these he is sure to turn their luck around. Tiff, unimpressed, takes one look at them and exclaims, "Well, dey’s fust rate for scarecrows, anyhow." Mrs. Cripps tells John she knows she is going to die and wants him to promise to have the children educated so they "don’t grow up to be like we’ve been." John is disdainful of any such idea, calling education nothing but a Yankee hoax and, throwing himself onto the bed, falls off to sleep. Tiff comforts Mrs. Cripps by telling her to pay no attention to John, because those not born gentlemen cannot be expected to see things "like us ob de ole families," and promises to see to the children’s welfare as long as she is alive. Mrs. Cripps asks Tiff to read something from the Bible and Tiff recites the exhortation, "Come unto Me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Begging Tiff to take care of her orphans, Mrs. Cripps dies and, to slow music, the curtain for Act I falls. Two handwritten manuscripts form this lot. The first, in an energetic fluid hand, is no doubt the author’s original draft, with notations for changes, additions, deletions, etc. The second, in a more studied hand, incorporates the changes from the first. Length is 25 pages, written one side only on chain laid blue paper. Accompanying these is a separate sheet with lyrics for song and chorus, in dialect, for use in a Third Act of the production. Author not identified, but on the verso of page 21 are inscribed the initials "R.M.B." A rare and unique item from the ante bellum American stage, with all the elements of an absorbing and moving drama, demonstrating the good and the bad in human beings whatever their extraction. Excellent condition.
