Colonial Le Cap enforced rigid racial hierarchy even in its theaters

Evidence

Le Cap, which one resident called “the Paris of our island,” was a lively cultural center, one of the most important in the eighteenth-century Americas. It boasted a theater with a 1,500-person capacity, where Molière’s Le Misanthrope was performed in the 1760s. In 1784 Le Mariage de Figaro opened there soon after its premiere in Paris. A local play, Monday at the Cap, or Payday, was also performed. Racial segregation was strictly maintained in the theater, where the ten boxes at the top were reserved for free people of African descent, three for “free blacks” and the rest for “mulattos.” As a result, many mothers could not sit with their daughters. Freecoloreds were also banned from participating in the dances at the theater, though they were allowed to watch from their boxes. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 92

Categorization

• SHARE: Dubois’s detail that racial segregation split mothers from their daughters in the theater boxes is a striking microfact about how color lines fractured even family intimacy — a tidbit for a friend into Atlantic world social history.
• XREF: connects to: Le Cap rivaled Boston in size but its population was mostly enslaved — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 89; Egyptian anti-colonial theater reinforced rather than questioned internal racial hierarchies — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 915; Racial boundaries in colonial publics are more permeable than historians assume — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi: Liberalism and the…, 142 (+7 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Le Cap rivaled Boston in size but its population was mostly enslaved — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 89; Egyptian anti-colonial theater reinforced rather than questioned internal racial hierarchies — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 915; Racial boundaries in colonial publics are more permeable than historians assume — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi: Liberalism and the…, 142 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Le Cap’s theater enforced strict racial segregation even among free people of color #corroborates (0.95) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 92
• Colonial authorities suspended racial hierarchy to secure viable settlements #complicates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1895
• Racial boundaries in colonial publics are more permeable than historians assume #complicates (0.78) — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 142
• Colonial race was judged by conduct and affiliation rather than appearance #complicates (0.75)
• Caribbean nationalism inverted racial hierarchy by making cultural capital outrank whiteness. #complicates (0.74) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3229