United States Mail

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United States Mail is a sketch in one scene by Charles T. White (best known as "Chas.", "Charlie" or "Charley" White, 1821–1891)[1].

Also found as The United States Mail in South Africa (See Bosman, 1980).

The original text

Described as an Ethiopian sketch it is a Christy's style piece written for his own use by the early blackface minstrel performer.

Performed in America on 19 January 1857 by White's Serenaders.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1868: Performed as The United States Mail by the Young Men’s Institute Amateur Christy’s in either the Mutual Hall or the Cape Town Institute and Club, Cape Town. (Billed as a "Negro farce")

1868: In November it was apparently performed again by Young Men’s Institute Amateur Christy’s, this time with a burlesque called The Nervous Cures (Brown and Norton), the performance being in aid of the Oddfellows Library and Reading Room.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_%22Charlie%22_White

W.J. Mahar. 1999. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture. Volume 442 of Music in American life. University of Illinois Press, 1999

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p. 272.

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