Joseph Bradford (1843–1886) was an American playwright who most famously helped write a landmark production, ''Out of Bondage'', the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

. The show's cast included

Pauline Hopkins Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (May 23, 1859 – August 13, 1930) was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editing, editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes, ...

and the

Hyers Sisters The Hyers Sisters, Anna Madah (ca. 1855 – 1929) and Emma Louise (ca. 1857 – 1901), were singers and pioneers of black musical theater. With Joseph Bradford and Pauline Hopkins, the Hyers Sisters produced the "first full-fledged musical pla ...

, debuting in 1876. The production featured

Sam Lucas Sam Lucas (August 7, 1840 – January 10, 1916) was an American actor, comedian, singer and songwriter. His birth year has also been reported as 1839, 1841, 1848 and 1850. Lucas' career began in blackface minstrelsy, but he later became one of ...

, a famous minstrel performer of the era. A White Bostonian, Bradford was also an actor, poet and journalist. He wrote for the ''

Boston Courier The ''Boston Courier'' was an American newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded on March 2, 1824, by Joseph T. Buckingham as a daily newspaper which supported protectionism. Buckingham served as editor until he sold out complete ...

'' as "Jay Bee".

Works

*''New German'' (1872) *''Law in New York'' (1873) *''

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' () is a science fiction adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. It is considered a classic within its genres and world literature. It was originally serialised from March 1869 to June 1870 i ...

'' (1874) Libretto *''The Conditional Pardon'' (1875) *''Fritz's Brother'' (1875) *''Out of Bondage'' (1876) *''In and Out of Bondage'' (1877) *''Our Bachelors'' (1877)Augustus Thomas
''The Print of My Remembrance – Page 115''
(2004) *''A.A. 1900'' (1879) *''John Mishler'' (1882) *''One of the Finest'' (1883) *''A Wonderful Woman'' (1883) *''Cherubs'' (1885) *''Rose and Coe'' (1886)

References

Citations

Sources

Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography ''Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography'' is a six-volume collection of biography, biographies of notable people involved in the history of the New World. Published between 1887 and 1889, its unsigned articles were widely accepted as autho ...

– Volume 1 – Page 348 * * 1843 births 1886 deaths 19th-century American dramatists and playwrights {{US-playwright-stub