Annie Daley

Confederation to Confederacy
Linda Sturtz
5-20-17

TitleAmericas First Feminist Playwright: Commented [u1]: Need something more descriptive!

How Susanna Haswell Rowson Used Theater to Teach

Formatted: Font: 16 pt
Equality

For thousands of years, people have been commenting on social, political, and

human nature through theater. From the Greeks to Shakespeare, from Rodgers and

Hammerstein to Lin-Manuel Miranda, good theater not only entertains the audience, it

stretches them to question and seek to improve themselves and the world they live in. It

comes as no surprise, therefore, that American theater in the late eighteenth and early

nineteenth centuries was full of hope and dreams for the American ideals of liberty,

democracy, and the opportunity for people to realize their full potential. What is

surprising is that, despite playwriting being almost exclusively a male-dominated field

then, one of the strongest surviving early American plays was not only written by a

woman, but also deals with the place of women in a patriarchal society: Slaves in Algiers,

or a Struggle for Freedom, by Susanna Haswell Rowson (see appendix for plot summary

and character notes).

Rowson was born in England but moved to America before the revolution. As the

daughter of a British naval officer during the revolution, Rowsons family lost its money

and was driven back to England. Rowson was forced to work as a governess to support

herself. She is best known for her novel Charlotte, a Tale of Truth (1791), a moral tale

reminding women of the dangers of seduction, which was the most popular book in

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America before the publication of Uncle Toms Cabin. Susannas husband, William

Rowson, declared bankruptcy shortly after they married, so the two turned to theater to

support themselves, eventually earning a contract with a theater in Philadelphia. Slaves in

Algiers was Rowsons first play, written in less than two months. She played Olivia and

delivered the epilogue. Slaves was produced first in Philadelphia, then in Baltimore and

Boston, and possibly in New York. Eventually, Rowson left theater to open a school for

girls. Throughout her life, her plays, and her academy, Rowson displayed dedication to

advancing womens place in society: many of her stories portrayed innocent girls and

untrustworthy men, and she eventually began educating girls to have the best chance at

success outside the home as possible.

By writing a comedy based on the wildly popular plot of the captivity narrative,

Rowson used popular appeal to spread her messages. While Slaves in Algiers may seem

on the surface to be a typical historical comedy, its message goes beyond the right and

wrong of slavery. Its deeper themes lie in issues of womens rights, the question of love

versus marriage, and her conviction that liberty, so deeply rooted in Revolutionary

American ideals, should apply to women as well as men. Through her characters and

plot, Rowson seems to indicate a loathing of the traditional patriarchal society that

America, as colonies, inherited from England and brought forward into its national

society. Her work demonstrates a strong sentiment that women can be equal to men, if

they are given the same opportunities. She also casts doubt on the institution of marriage,

suggesting that, while love is free, marriage constrains women. Lastly, Rowson extols the

ideals fought for in the American Revolutionliberty prominent among themby

prominently featuring a perfect Republican mother as a sympathetic character and by

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making freedomof some sort or anotherthe goal of every good character in the

play.

Rowson wrapped her far-reaching themes in a format designed to appeal to public

sentiment. Early Americans loved captivity narratives; most prominent among them were

stories of Americans taken prisoner by Native Americans who had raided towns and

killed most of the white people before integrating a few chosen Americans into their

society. Both the Indian captive narratives and later Algerian captive narratives usually

featured brutal treatment by the non-white (non-Christian) captors, either directed at the

captives or other members of the captors society. In Americans minds, captivity,

captivity narratives confirmed the superiority of the white Christian race, their society

and their morals, vilifying the other as Americans have done time and time again

throughout history.

When Slaves in Algiers was written, Barbary pirates had become notorious for

capturing and enslaving American and European sailors and their passengers. Though the

total number of Americans enslaved in Algiers is only estimated to be around 180, the

American public was hungry for stories portraying the Algerians as savages and

American captives as innocent victims. The institution of slavery is far from comedic, but

Rowson chose to tell her tale using hallmarks of comedies during that period, such as

theas the extreme difference between the unscrupulous villains and the pure heroines and

the seemingly impossibly neat ending that not only freed the slaves, but reunited a long-

separated family. Rowson used comedy to satirize the treatment of women, allowing her

audiences to take in the message while enjoying themselves.Withthemselves. With

people eager to be entertained by the tale, Rowson, as a playwright, had the power to slip

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in political and social commentary, which an audience is frequently more receptive to

when they are laughing.

ThThe play addressed a huge question about women in post-revolutionary

America: would the notion that all men are created equal be extended to them? By the

time Rowson wrote Slaves in Algiers,, the ideal of the Republican mother had taken

hold. The post-revolutionary woman should stay home, tending to the familys needs and

raising her children to cherish and defend American values: liberty, democracy, equality,

and Christian morality.. Through the female characters behavior and speech, Rowson

argued that American women could, and should, be both virtuous and free.

The true meaning of liberty is most notably shown through the character of

Rebecca, both through her teachings to Fetnah and her determination that her American-

born son receive his birthright of freedom. As a mother, Rebeccas primary concern is

liberty for the person she loves most: her child. She laments:

I have a sonmy child! my dear Augustuswhere are you now?in

slavery.Grant me patience heaven! must a boy born in Columbia, Commented [u2]: Check capitalize?

claiming liberty as his birth-right, pass all his days in slavery.(Rowson, Commented [u3]: Use block quote or quote marks, not both.

18)

Here, Rebecca epitomizes the Republican mother. She not only wants the best for her

child, but also serves as the voice of the American people, proud of the freedom they

fought for and won, and livid that it has been stripped from anyone taken captive.

Time and time again, the value of freedom is extolled by Rebecca. It is Rebecca

who most clearly states the relation between liberty and equality for women. When

Hassan attempts to prey on her love of liberty to seduce her into marrying him by saying

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our law gives liberty in love; you are an American and you must love liberty, Rebecca

swiftly responds,

Hold, Hassan; prostitute not the sacred word by applying in to

licentiousness; the sons and daughters of liberty, take justice, truth, and

mercy, for their leaders, when they list under her glorious banners.

(Rowson, 21)

Here Rebecca refuses to allow Hassan to sully her American ideal of libertyshe

will not let him corrupt it into allowing him liberty to have many wives, and thus to

marry her. Polygamy may give men freedom, but it is even more restraining to women

than monogamous marriage. To Rebecca, as Rowson tells us, liberty is freedom for men

and women, masters and slaves. Freedom and liberty should be absolute, not applied

when and where it is most convenient for the powerful members of society.

The question of liberty is woven tightly with the issue of social depreciation of

women. As Doreen Alvarez Saar notes in Susanna Rowson: Feminist and Democrat,

three out of the four main female characters are enslaved, not for political reasons, but

sexual ones. Fetnah is a concubine, bound to sleep with the Dey whenever he desires,

valued because of her beauty. Rebeccas ransom money has arrived and she ought to be

free, but Hassan has hidden the money in the hopes of seducing her. Olivia, also, is

enslaved by the Dey, who longs to take her virginity. Zoriana alone is physically free

though Saar argues that she is a prisoner of her love to Henry

Throughout Slaves in Algiers, Rowson firmly asserts that women are inherently

equal to men and expresses her disgust for the patriarchal society that patronizes and de-

values women.. In the first scene, Fetnah, educated in American ideals and womens

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rights by Rebecca, tells her servant, Selima, that nature made [women] equal to [men],

and gave [women] the power to render [them]selves superior (Rowson, 16). This

sentiment is bolder and more direct than most women were about their rights in this time,

but that is a common theme in Rowsons work.

Perhaps the most important piece of feminist dialogue comes, again, from Fetnah,

who is frustrated by the attempts of the weakest, most comical men in the play to sideline

her while they attempt to rescue the other slaves. She exclaims:

A woman!Why, so I am; but in the cause of love or friendship, a woman can

face danger with as much spirit, as little fear, as the bravest man amongst you.

Do you lead the way; Ill follow to the end, (Rowson, 52)

This underscores Rowsons belief that women are capable of rising to any challenge men

might be heralded for overcoming.

In the epilogue, Rowson laments the bondage that keeps an enslaved man from

living his life. No ray of comfort, she says, the sad bosoms cheer/ Of many a

Christian, shut from light and day,/In bondage, languishing their lives away (Rowson,

78). On the surface, this quote speaks of men languishing, unable to truly live their

lives because of the chains of slavery. In the context of Rowsons feminist argument,

however, that bondage can also serve as an explanation for why women, on the whole,

have not yet achieved the same level of success outside the home as men: theyve simply

never been given the opportunity to reach their full potential. As one of the very few

professional female playwrights of the time, Rowson herself proves that women can do

anything men can do, if they are allowed to try.

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As Saar notes, all the women in the play experience a true throwing off of

bonds (Saar). Olivia, Rebecca, Zoriana, and Fetnah rebel against the patriarchy in some

way or another and become happier because of it. Fetnah is happier when she is not a

sexual slave. Zoriana is happier with the Christian religion, which is considered less

restrictive, especially for women, than Islam. Olivias plan to take her life rather than

being forced into marriage with the Dey gives her comfort. Rebecca finds strength in

teaching Fetnah about liberty and womens rights. These womens happiness in their

freedom has no negative consequences for them or anyone else. The fact that this

freedom allowed the slaves to escape suggests that Rowson felt that women ought to have

control over their lives, and that this would not only help women, but society as a whole.

While Olivia and Henry are motivated by their love for each other, Slaves doesnt

end with a wedding, as most other famous comedies of this time period did.. Like other

comedies of that time period, a series of unrealistic events culminates in a happy ending.

But the happiness flows from reunification with loved ones, both for Henry and Olivia

and for Olivia with her parents and brother that is not capped off with a marriage

ceremony. As Saar points out in her article, this particular plot structure allows women

freedom from marriage as a conclusion of the plot (Saar). Of the four women who

revolt, Rebecca is the only one who is married, and she thinks her husband and daughter

dead, having been separated from them for years. The women revel in their love, but

Rowson refused to chain them at the end.

Rowson may have questioned the institution of marriage, perhaps feeling that ,

love is wild and passionate and free, while traditional marriage chains women, making

them legally their husbands property. Rowsons own marriage was unusual in that she

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worked equally with her husband to support them, even going beyond him to write plays,

not simply perform. This undoubtedly changed the power balance in their marriage from

the typical male-dominant family to one a little more balanced. Rowson makes it clear Commented [u4]: Any evidence of equality in marriage or non-
traditioal form of marriage in the play?

that Rebecca, the one married woman, is not going to allow herself to be pushed around

by a husband. She rejected all Hassans advances, despite the fact that marrying him

would have made her a very wealthy woman in Algeria. This suggests that Rebecca seeks

more equality in love than Hassan is willing to grant her.

The themes explored in Slaves in Algiers were particularly relevant in post-

revolutionary America, when so much was up in the air. Rowson was keen to make

herself heard as the government and society were forming and solidifying. Through the

play, Rowson winds together the concepts of womens rights and liberty, ultimately

coming to the conclusion that true liberty for a society does not put one member above

another but values all equally. It gives each the chance to be their best and thusly add to

society. Hence, the final message of the show is a simple but radicle one that Rowson

wished her audiences to depart with in the early days of the land of liberty: women

have the potential to be every bit equal to men, and when they are freed of the chains of

the patriarchal society, society as a whole will benefit from the contributions they are

allowed to make.

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Bibliography
Bordman, Gerald Martin., and Richard Norton. American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.

New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

The first section, chronicling musical theater up to 1866, will be particularly useful in the

early musical theater narrative and political expressions through theater.

Mannion, Elizabeth. "Plays of Susanna Rowson." Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.

N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2017. Looks at Rowson herself and themes and motifs in

her theatrical works.

Marr, Timothy, Susanna Haswell Rowson, Jennifer Margulis, and Karen M. Poremski.

45.3 (2002): 111-13. Web. 4 May 2017. A professional's review of the musical,

should be useful in explaining how others have perceived this work.

Rowson, Susanna Haswell, Jennifer Margulis, and Karen M. Poremski. Slaves in Algiers,

Or, A Struggle for Freedom. Acton, MA: Copley, 2000. Print. Primary source, the

starting point for the paper.

Saar, Doreen Alvarez. Susanna Rowson: Feminist and Democrat. Literature Resource

Center, Gale, 2017. Literature Resource Center.

Schpp, Joseph C. "Liberty's Sons and Daughters: Susanna Haswell Rowson's and Royall

Tyler's Algerine Captives." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. N.p.: n.p.,

n.d. Gale. Web. 4 May 2017. Speaks on political implication of musical.

"Susanna Rowson." History of American Women. N.p., 02 Apr. 2017. Web. 04 May

2017. Puts musical and author into historical context.

"Susanna Rowson." Women in History. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017.

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"Women in Post-Revolutionary American Culture: Susanna Haswell Rowson's American

Career 1795-1824." Journal of American Culture (01911813), vol. 6, no. 4,

Winter83, pp. 56-62.

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Appendix
Setting:
Algiers (Northern Africa), also known as the Barbary Coast.

European Characters:
OliviaChristian, English, engaged to Henry, daughter of Rebecca and Constant.
ConstantChristian, English, father of Olivia and Agustus, husband of Rebecca
RebeccaChristian, English, mother of Olivia and Agustus, wife of Constant. Slave in Algiers. Has
been separated from her husband and daughter by American Revolution. Does not know they are
alive.
AgustusChristian, English, son of Rebecca and Constant, sister of Olivia. Slave in Algiers. Has
been separated from father and sister by American Revolution. Does not know they are alive.
HenryChristian, engaged to Olivia. Olivia does not know he has been captured and is working to
free her.
FredericFreed Christian slave, working to help free the others.
SebastianChristian, Spanish slave.

Algerian Characters:
Ben Hassana greedy Jew, Rebeccas captor
FetnahDaughter of Hassan, concubine of the Dey, Muslim
Deya powerful leader
ZorianaDaughter of the Dey, secretly converted to Christianity, in love with Henry
SelimaFetnahs servant

Plot Summary:
Constants family has been split by the Revolutionary War. Wife Rebecca and son Agustus, slaves in
Algiers, are unaware that Constant and daughter Olivia have been captured along with Henry,
Olivias fianc. Unbeknownst to Olivia, Henry has been freed and is working to free her, with the
help of Frederic and Sebastian. Meanwhile, Hassan, Rebeccas captor, has been hiding the ransom
money that ought to have freed Rebecca, hoping to make her his wife. Hassans daughter, Fetnah, is
tired of her enslavement as a concubine to the Dey (who is also attempting to seduce Olivia), as she
explains to her servant, Selima. While enslaved by Fetnahs father, Hassan, Rebecca has taught
Fetnah about womens rights and American ideals of liberty, both of which Fetnah longs for.
Zoriana, alone of the women, is not enslaved, and is in love with Henry, though he is engaged to
Olivia. Nevertheless, Zoriana helps plan the slaves escape. It fails, the slaves are recaptured, and
Olivia nobly offers herself to the Dey, promising to marry him so the others may be free, while
secretly planning to take her life before the marriage. Just as Olivia comes up with this plan, slaves
across the city rebel against the Dey, convincing him of the wrongness of slavery and persuading
him to release all his slaves. Olivia, Rebecca, Constant, and Augustus are reunited. Fetnah decides to
stay and tend to her now help-less father; Zorianas fate is unknown, and it is assumed that Selima
remains in service to Fetnah. Though slavery as a subject is far from comedic, the play is considered
a comedy because of the extreme, sometimes satirical characters and the plot structure, which
juxtaposes chaos and an ending that neatly ties up loose ends.

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