3-003-971 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from Mr. Boucicault's new drama at the Adelphi: the Slave Market - sale of the octoroon, 1861. London stage production. 'In delineating the dreadful business which the "sensation" scene represents, the dramatist has attempted no exaggeration. He has treated it as a familiar horror, one which society has accepted as portion of the regular business of the market and legalised as an institution. However abominable it may be, it is authorised. Those who observe, and those who are actively engaged in the transaction, alike acquiesce in the fact and the principle, as if there were no outrage being done to nature, no sin against humanity committed...And in that determined wretch, who exceeds his means in her purchase - O! what a hell there is in his bosom, of premeditated guilt, and even already of an anticipated remorse!...The audience take all through a strong interest in the fate of the heroine, and this is manifested by the reluctance they feel at the end when the victim finds no refuge but in death'. (Because Zoe's ancestors were black despite her apparent "whiteness," she chooses to kill herself rather than face slavery. Octoroon: a person who is one-eighth Black by descent - now considered offensive). From "Illustrated London News", 1861.