Existing comment:
Charleston Theatre
Hamlet; Prince of Denmark
December 20, 1805
Playbills not only advertise entertainments, they also provide a window into the culture of the time. Here, an 1805 playbill from Charleston, SC, advertises that "People of Colour cannot be admitted to any part of the House." We might expect to find such a statement on a playbill from the American South, but perhaps not on a New York playbill from nearly 50 years later. "A portion of the Third Circle has been appropriated for the accommodation of respectable Coloured Persons" for 35 cents. Together, these bills represent in small the much larger issue of the treatment of people of color in American history. |