Imoinda’s Shade Free West Indian Dominicans, ca. 1770, Agostino Brunias (1728–96) a Imoinda’s Shade Marriage and the African Woman in Eighteenth-Century British Literature, 1759–1808 Lyndon J. Dominique The Ohio State University Press Columbus Copyright © 2012 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dominique, Lyndon Janson, 1972– Imoinda’s shade : marriage and the African woman in eighteenth-century British litera- ture, 1759–1808 / Lyndon J. Dominique. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8142-1185-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8142-1185-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8142-9286-0 (cd-rom) 1. English literature—18th century—History and criticism. 2. Race in literature. 3. Women, Black, in literature. 4. Marriage in literature. I. Title. PR448.R33D66 2012 820.9'3552—dc23 2011049519 Cover design by Mia Risberg Type set in Adobe Garamond Pro Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48–1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For my mother and father, Rita and Victor Dominique a CONTENTS Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction Imoinda, Marriage, Slavery 1 Part One. Imoinda’s Original Shades: African Women in British Antislavery Literature Chapter 1 Altering Oroonoko and Imoinda in Mid-Eighteenth-Century British Drama 27 Chapter 2 Amelioration, African Women, and The Soft, Strategic Voice of Paternal Tyranny in The Grateful Negro 70 Chapter 3 “Between the saints and the rebels”: Imoinda and the Resurrection of the Black African Heroine 104 Part Two. Imoinda’s Shade Extends: Abolition and Interracial Marriage in England Chapter 4 Creoles, Closure, and Cubba’s Comedy of Pain: Abolition and the Politics of Homecoming in Eighteenth-Century British Farce 143 Chapter 5 “‘What!’ cried the delighted mulatto, ‘are we going to prosecu massa?’”: Adeline Mowbray’s Distinguished Complexion of Abolition 185 Chapter 6 “An unportioned girl of my complexion can . be a dangerous object.” Abolition and the Mulatto Heiress in England 223 viii Contents Afterword 260 Bibliography 269 Index 281 a ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Title page, Oroonoko, 1759, John Hawkesworth (1715–73) 42 Figure 2 Title page, Oroonoko, 1760, Francis Gentleman (1728–84) 43 Figure 3 Title page, Oroonoko, 1760, Anonymous 44 Figure 4 Mrs. S. Kemble as Imoinda, 1791. Elizabeth Kemble (1763?-1841) 48 Figure 5 Harriet Litchfield (1777–1854) as Imoinda, 1807 49 Figure 6 Mrs. Hartley in the character of Imoinda, 1777. Elizabeth Hartley (1750?-1824) 50 Figure 7 Miss Smith as Imoinda, 1806. Sarah Smith (1783–1850) 51 Figure 8 Title page, The Benevolent Planters, 1789, Thomas Bellamy (1745–1800) 53 Figure 9 Title page, The Negro Slaves, 1796, August Von Kotzebue (1761–1819) 114 Figure 10 “Am I Not a Man and A Brother?” Cameo marketed and popularized by Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95) 117 Figure 11 Title page, High Life Below Stairs, 1759, James Townley (1714–78) 149 Figure 12 Title page, Love in the City, 1767, Isaac Bickerstaff (1735–1812) 150 Figure 13 Title page, The Irishman in London; or, The Happy African, 1792, William Macready (d. 1829) 151 Figure 14 A Female Negro Slave, with a Weight chained to her Ancle, John Gabriel Stedman (1744–97) in his Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796) 153 Figure 15 A Negro Hung alive by the Ribs to a Gallows, John Gabriel Stedman (1744–97) in his Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796) 154 ix x Illustrations Figure 16 “Noon,” 1736, from The Four Times of Day, William Hogarth (1697–1764) 156 Figure 17 Plate 1 of A Harlot’s Progress, 1732, William Hogarth (1697–1764) 191 Figure 18 “Washing the Blackamoor White,” 1807, William Mulready (1786–1863) (illustrated in William Godwin’s Fables, Ancient and Modern) 230 Figure 19 “Washing the Blackamoor,” 1795, Isaac Cruikshank (1756–1811) 233 a ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Mere thanks hardly seem adequate for all the help and support that I have received while bringing this book to completion. But I extend them sincerely and heartily to the mentors, colleagues, friends, family and students without whom Imoinda would have remained in the shade. This project began under the tutelage of Claudia L. Johnson and Jona- than Lamb and was helped along with the good will and support of my for- mer colleagues at Georgetown, especially Dennis Todd, Gay Gibson Cima, Duncan Wu, Joy Younge, Mark McMorris, Patrick O’Malley Paul Betz, John Hirsh, Sarah MacNamer, Lori Merish, David Gewanter, Angelyn Mitchell, Libbie Rifkin, Norma Tilden, Maureen Corrigan, Steve Wurtzler, M. Lind- say Kaplan, Christine So, Leona Fisher, Patricia O’Connor, Samantha Pinto, Jennifer Fink, Andrew Rubin and Kelly Wickham-Crowley. Deep thanks to all of them. Danny O’Quinn, and Jessica Richard provided immense support when I needed it, as did Tim Watson, who I must thank twice. Without you, Tim, The Woman of Colour would have never seen the light of day. Many sincere thanks for supporting me at all stages of my career. To my esteemed friend and colleague R. Scott Heath, the gin and tonics are on you this time, brother! To my new colleagues at Lehigh University: Scott Paul Gordon, Bob Watts, Stephanie Powell-Watts, Dawn Keetley, Eliz- abeth Fifer, Elizabeth Dolan, Michael Kramp, Ed Whitley, Jenna Lay and Amardeep Singh—you welcomed me into our department with warmth and graciousness, and your comments and questions during my talk helped me refine my argument in Chapter One. Thank you. To Nicole Aljoe, the S.E.A. roundtable rocked thanks to you and Thaddious Davis, and it helped me complete Chapter Six. To Sandra Strachan-Vieira, Nolana Yip, Rebecca Boylan, and Joseph Fruscione, for so many kind words and deeds, thank you. To Elizabeth Velez, Dennis Williams and all the students under the C.M.E.A. banner, thanks for helping me grow as a person and a teacher, as xi xii Acknowledgments did my wonderful former English mentees Meaghan Fritz, Meaghan Orie, Bridget Macfarland, Katie Sagal, Pamela Nwaoko and Susan Weeber. A number of people deserve thanks for making the writing process bear- able for me even when I wasn’t: Leroy Dominique, Alonzo Brown, Roder- ick McGuire, Tawanna Bradley, Gladys Hamilton, Scott Bibbins. Jabella Hinton, Sadie Boone, Irving “Skinner” Hutchinson, Jim Haynes, Jean and Vernon Nembhard, Julian, Julien and Jan Pierre, Andrina Dominique, Terry Carter, Anthony Udu-Gama, Corey Daniels, Maurice Smith, Tammy Brown, Danielle Elliot, Craig Johnson, Larry Bruce, Marcus Sharpless, Rolf Barber, Corwin Jay Mathews, Chester, Sandra Pierre, Sinead Pierre, Louise, Valdora and Enord Leatham, Jeff, Jeffi and Brad Mathieu, Royden, Sandra and Kelley Dominique, Simon Regis, Catherine Legrande, Barry Talley and Jaunita Beau-Pierre. A very gracious thank you to Sandy Crooms for keeping me on schedule with such good humor, and also to the readers and editorial staff at The Ohio State University Press, especially Kristen Ebert-Wagner, Eugene O’Connor, Malcolm Litchfield, and Kathy Edwards, whose wonderful comments and suggestions pushed me to sharpen my arguments, structure and prose to produce a better book. The Agostino Brunias prints are used with the kind permission of the Yale Center for British Art. The Imoinda prints are used with the permission of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Isaac Cruikshank print is used with the permission of Heritage Images. This book is also dedicated to Michael Ragussis who inspired me to seek out these fictional African women, and to my uncles, Emanuel Fevrier and Patrick Dominique. Wherever you are, I hope you all will read it with a smile. a INTRODUCTION Imoinda, Marriage, Slavery N 1707, the year that the Act of Union between Scotland and England I officially established the United Kingdom of Great Britain, two extremely contradictory illustrations of the literary heroine Imoinda appear in genres that are, themselves, extreme exercises in the art of contradiction. In the first, a paradox titled “That a Black-a-moor Woman is the greatest Beauty; in a Let- ter to a Lady exceeding Fair,” a male speaker, clearly influenced by the black African heroine from Aphra Behn’s novella, Oroonoko (1688), apostrophizes, Oh Imoinda! how can they look upon you, for I. Those Heavenly Attracts of yours, your Eyes And Face, that all the World surprize, Do dazle all that look upon ye, And Scorch all other Ladies tawny.1 In the second, “A Satyr . Against the Luxury of the Town in Eating and Drinking,” another poet explains in a footnote: “Imoinda is a Name us’d by Mr. Southern in the Tragedy of Oroonoko. The Part was very often acted by Mrs. B.”2 This knowledge is an important precursor to the warning delivered by the satire’s male speaker: 1. Athenian Sport (London: Bragg, 1707), 103. Although originally published anonymously, John Dunton has been subsequently identified as the author. 2. Anonymous, Reflections, Moral, Comical, Satyrical, &c. on the Vices and Folies of the Age (London, 1707), 7, note n. 1 2 Introduction Soft Imoinda’s tender Air despise; Beware the force of her designing Eyes: She sells her Vertue, and complexion buys. Who thinks her chaste, perchance may be mistook, Her innocence is only in her look.3 The tone of apprehension used to refer to the unnamed, though suggestively inferred, actress who “very often” played the role of the virtuous white hero- ine that Thomas Southerne premiered in 1695 contrasts explicitly with the tone of admiration leveled at the black Imoinda in the previous poem, and offers a clear indication that attitudes toward this fictional character were extremely contradictory in 1707.