''The Drama of King Shotaway, founded on Facts taken from the Insurrection of the Caravs on the Island of St. Vincent, written from Experience by Mr. Brown'' (1823) was a play believed to be by
William Henry Brown. The first known play by a black playwright in the United States, no known copies of the play exist.
Brown, who founded the
African Theatre troupe in the 1820s,
was from the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
and became established in New York.
He was both a playwright and the proprietor of the
African Grove Theatre
The African Grove Theatre opened in New York City in 1821. It was founded and operated by William Alexander Brown,Hatch, James V., and Ted Shine. ''Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans: The Early Period, 1847––1938''. New York: Free, ...
, which produced the play.
The play was based on the life of
Joseph Chatoyer
Joseph Chatoyer, also known as Satuye (died 14 March 1795), was a Garifuna ('' Carib'') chief who led a revolt against the British colonial government of Saint Vincent in 1795. Killed that year, he is now considered a national hero of Saint Vi ...
(''Satuye''), a
Garifuna
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian ...
chief who led a revolt of
Black Carib
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian Creo ...
people on the Caribbean island of
St. Vincent against
British rule
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
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or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was hims ...
in 1795.
It was produced in 1823 by the African Company at the African Grove Theatre in New York City, which was the first resident African-American company. It was the first known play written in the United States by a black man.
[George Thompson, ''A Documentary History of the African Theatre''](_blank)
Northwestern University Press, 1998, p.53[Bernard Peterson, ''Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers: A Biographical Directory and Catalog of Plays, Films, and Broadcasting Scripts''](_blank)
Greenwood Publishing, 1990, pp. 37-39
References
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1823 plays
African-American plays
Lost plays
{{1820s-play-stub