United States Mail

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.

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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