QUAKER-ROOTS-L Archives

From: Barbara Eberly <>
Subject: History-Slavery
Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 08:18:54 -0400

I want to recommend something to all of you. It is a
performance based on court records. (Even if you aren't
interested in the performance, you might be interested in
the information on the records.) If you see it advertized in
your area, go out of your way to see it. If you have any
authority to invite touring groups to your area, get in
touch with them. I have absolutely no contact with them
except that of a delighted audience.

I had the pleasure of seeing a fantastic program at the
university last night. It was called: Let My People Go: The
Trials of Bondage in Words of Master and Slave. It is a
dramatic presentation of a collection of fourteen court
cases dealing with various aspects of slavery. They were
compiled and edited by Loren L. Schweninger -- who was there
for a question and answer session afterwards -- and adapted
for the stage by Branda P. Schleunes. They were performed
by the Touring Theatre Ensemble of North Carolina.

They said that it was their thirty-fourth performance in
North Carolina. When they finish up this western tour, they
will take a break for the summer and then "take it out of
state."

The script is taken directly from court cases and is
therefore historically accurate. They said that the cases
were chosen for their adaptability to the stage and as a
representative of the kinds of cases brought to court. It
includes a case of a "free woman of color" asking to be
allowed to be sold as a slave, slave owners asking to be
compensated for the loss of a slave, a couple of cases of
fraud involved in sales -- one of which was a case where a
man "sold" a slave he knew to be dead -- a couple of cases
of "free people of color" asking the courts to establish
their position as "free" and restrain people who had tried
to sell them back into slavery, a case -- which went on for
years -- of a group of slaves freed by their master where
the executor of the estate tried to keep them as his own
slaves and refused to carry out the provisions of the will
and a case of a woman petitioning the court for a bill of
divorce because among other things, her husband is sleeping
with the slave women.

It is also good theater. The stories are woven around seven
spirituals. (All the actors have good voices.) The actors
never leave the stage throughout the performance. Without
changing costume or makeup, they change characters through
use of voice and movement and the sharing of the few props
on stage. (I have a degree in theatre. I tend to notice
such things.)

There is a note from the compiler in the program which
reads:
"The words of 'Let My People Go' come directly from original
sources. While every effort has been made to respect the
integrity of the original testimony, some editing and
re-organization have been necessary. The documents are
taken from the Race, Slavery and Petitions Project Archive
housed at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Sponsored by the National Historical Publications and
Records Commissions (at the National Archives), the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the Charles Stewart Mott
Foundation, the Archive contains photocopies of 17,000
petitions and 120,000 pages of documentary evidence.
Collected over a period of four years, the petitions came
from courthouses and state archives across the South.
Eventually they will be made available for wider
distribution in microfilm and selected book edition." Loren
L. Schweninger

When this is made available, it should be a fantastic source
for genealogists. Keep an eye out for it. In the meantime,
the originals are still in the courthouses throughout the
south if you want to go look for them. I personally never
knew there was such a thing to go looking for.

In the meantime, if you want to get in touch with these
people, the address given in the program is 117 South
Tremont, Greensboro, North Carolina 27403 Phone:
336-272-1279. I searched for a web page when I got home
last night, but apparently they don't have one. (If I do
discover one, I will pass it on.)

To give you a rough idea of the power of the presentation, I
had insisted that my fifteen year old son go with me as a
part of his homeschooling history lesson. He was not happy
about going. When the program began, he was still trying to
read a book in the dim light of the theatre audience. When
it was finished, he was one of the first to leap to his feet
for a standing ovation. He leaned over and
whispered, "Thanks for making me come."

Barbara

This thread:

• History-Slavery by Barbara Eberly <>