(THEATRE) The Hyers Sisters Out of Bondage

Sale 2271 - Lot 520

Price Realized: $ 6,720

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(THEATRE.) The Hyers Sisters... Out of Bondage. Small broadside, 8-3/4 x 3-7/8 inches; some slight wear, affixed to a piece of what looks like wallpaper, possibly from an album. Pittsfield, 1876

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

rare broadside advertisement for the first play about slavery with an african-american cast. "Out of Bondage, a musical drama" was co-written by white Bostonian Joseph Bradford, with the collaboration of the Hyers Sisters and Pauline Hopkins, all black. Hopkins would later collaborate with the Hyers Sister on three slavery-related musical dramas: "The Escape from Slavery" (based loosely on "Out of Bondage"), "The Underground Railway," and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," all in 1880. "Out of Bondage" also starred Sam Lucas, one of the most famous black minstrels of the day. Pauline Hopkins went on to be a journalist, author of the novel "Contending Forces," and editor of The Colored American Magazine. She wrote one other play, "The Colored Aristocracy," also in 1880.