Biography

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, who was born in Portland, Maine in 1859, is best known for four novels and numerous short stories which she published between 1900 and 1903.  Her best-known work, the novel Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, was published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900 by the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company. Hopkins followed this first novel with three serialized novels–Hagar’s Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice, Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest, and Of One Blood; Or, The Hidden Self. All three serials along with several short stories by Hopkins appeared in the Colored American Magazine, a literary journal which became the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company’s primary project.  During this time period, Hopkins worked as an editor at the magazine. Through her editorial work, fiction, and a substantial body of nonfiction that addressed black history, racial discrimination, economic justice, and women’s role in society among other topics, she emerged as one of the era’s preeminent public intellectuals. (Full Bio)

Plays

PECULIAR SAM, OR, THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD (1879)

The four-act musical drama Peculiar Sam, or, The Underground Railroad dramatizes a gang of family members, friends, and lovers who navigate the treacherous Underground Railroad from enslavement in Mississippi to freedom in Canada and Ohio. Along the way, Sam and his fellow fugitives are hunted by a relentless Negro overseer named Jim, who is Sam’s rival for the affections of the lovely Virginia. 

Cast Requirement: 8 (3f, 5m)

Characters: Sam, Jim, Caesar, Pete, Pomp, Virginia, Juno, Mammy

Publication: The Roots of African American Drama: An Anthology of Early Plays, 1858-1938. Edited by Leo Hamalian and James V. Hatch. Wayne State University Press, 1991. (Link)

Peculiar Sam, or the Underground Railroad, Alexander Street Press (Link)*

RESOURCES