Pharsalia; or, For Crying Out Loud
Lilith readers preview here the cast of characters from a new play by regular Lilith contributor Dr. Carolivia Herron. “Pharsalia” was commissioned by Washington, D.C.’s Theatre J, one of the country’s premier regional playhouses, as part of its Expanding the Canon fellowship. The playwright honors her African, Jewish, and Wampanoag ancestors.
Note that Pharsalia is both the name of an ancient Roman epic by Lucan (First Century CE), decrying the Roman Civil War and the name of a slave plantation in Nelson County, Virginia, where some of my ancestors were enslaved in the 19th Century. — C.H.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MARY ANN LUMPKIN: Pregnant twenty-one year old enslaved sexual partner of slave driver Robert Lumpkin. Light-skinned African American woman. Dressed in upper class white women’s clothes. This is Mary Ann’s sixth pregnancy of children fathered by Robert Lumpkin. The first and fifth children died before they were five years old. Most of the action takes place when Mary Ann and Robert Lumpkin are visiting Pharsalia Plantation in Nelson County, Virginia in July 1852.
WASHEKA I: African American man named Washeka Nelson. He is enslaved and is related to the family of his white owner, Thomas Nelson, Jr., through an unknown member of the Nelson family of an earlier generation. Thomas Nelson, Jr. is a signer of the U. S. Declaration of Independence. Washeka accompanies Thomas Nelson, Jr. To Philadelphia in July 1776 so that he (Thomas) can vote to approve the Declaration of Independence.
WASHEKA II: Son of Washeka I and Wampanoag wife, Geau, (pronounced Jo). He is African American, Wampanoag Indian, and white. Born free in Massachusetts in the Wampanoag Indian Nation in 1825. In 1851, Through illegal application of the Fugitive Slave Law, he is captured and forced into enslavement
at Yorktown, Virginia then transferred to Pharsalia Plantation in Nelson County, Virginia in 1852. When in Yorktown he marries enslaved woman Laetitia, their daughter is Rowena Nelson, the Great Grandmother of the playwright.
WASHEKA III: African American and white man named Richard Lumpkin by his father, Robert Lumpkin. His mother, the enslaved woman Mary Ann Lumpkin, is pregnant with him when she visits Pharsalia Plantation in 1852. Mary Ann eventually changes Richard’s name to George Washeka in honor of Washeka II whom she meets at Pharsalia Plantation in 1852. Although there is no direct blood kinship between Washeka II and Washeka III, there is blood kinship in following generations because Washeka III marries Rowena Nelson, the daughter of Washeka II and Laetitia.
WASHEKA IV: African American man named George Washeka Lumpkins by his mother, Rowena Nelson, and his father, George Washeka Lumpkin (AKA Washeka III). Washeka III adds the “s” to Lumpkin to remove himself and his descendants further from his father, Robert Lumpkin.
WASHEKA V: African American man, George Washeka of Kingston, Massachusetts, son of Washeka IV and Nancy Peterson. Real life Uncle George of playwright.
Note: The five Washekas have Roman numeral designations here in order to differentiate them from each other. They never used the numeric designations in real life. Each of them was known either as Washeka or as George Washeka. In the playwright’s imagination, all five Washekas are played by the same African American and Wampanoag man.
SERAH BAT ASHER: Dark skinned African American Jewish woman of the Geechee/Gullah community from the Georgia Sea Islands. A free black fisher woman, a particularly good cook from a family of free black fisherfolk. Greatly sought after to cater banquets at fancy white slave-owning and slave-driving
plantations. Serah usually caters meals in homes near the Atlantic Coast. She meets Mary Ann when she is catering at the Nelson/Massie home in Yorktown, Virginia. The Massie family hire her to cater a large Banquet at Pharsalia Plantation in Nelson County Virginia where most of the action occurs in July 1852.
ROBERT LUMPKIN: White man slave driver, jailer and notorious punisher of enslaved people at the Devil’s half-acre, owns “Lumpkin’s Jail” in Richmond, Virginia in the 1850s. Robert is the legal owner and sexual partner of Mary Ann Lumpkin, a light-skinned African American enslaved woman. There is an unproven rumor that Robert Lumpkin also has a white wife, name unknown, whom he keeps in isolation and psychological bondage. He forces his African American enslaved partner, Mary Ann, to “pass” as his wife when they visit Yorktown in 1851 and Pharsalia Plantation in July 1852.
SONDRA: African American Jewish 20th and 21st century woman, descendant of Mary Ann Lumpkin, the Washekas, Serah bat Asher, and Robert Lumpkin. Sondra walks through and speaks dialogue in several of the scenes adding her 20th and 21st century comments and conversation to words and actions of
the other characters.
DOLORES: White 20th and 21st century woman, friend of Sondra, investigator of Sondra’s ancestors. Dolores walks through some of the scenes adding her 20th and 21st century comments and conversation to words and actions of the other characters.
KALINDA: African American 20th and 21st century woman, friend of Sondra, angry black woman. Kalinda walks through some of the scenes adding her 20th and 21st century comments and conversation to words and actions of the other characters.
Note: The 20th and 21st century characters, Sondra, Dolores, and Kalinda, are the playwright’s version of the ancient Greek chorus.
SETTING
After sharing a brief view of the original United States Independence Day, July 4, 1776, during which the African American slave, Washeka, runs away from his owner in Philadelphia and escapes to Massachusetts, the setting of the play changes to Nelson County, Virginia in the summer of 1852. At Pharsalia Plantation in Nelson County, the free African American Jewish woman, Serah bat Asher, the enslaved African American Wampanoag man, Washeka II, and the enslaved African American woman, Mary Ann Lumpkin, interact during a summer day that ends with a fancy banquet for the white folks who have gone out to look a waterfall during the day. Serah is the caterer of the Banquet, Washeka II was born free in Massachusetts but has been stolen into slavery through a misapplication of the Fugitive Slave Law, and Mary Ann Lumpkin, who has very light skin, is owned by the slave driver, Robert Lumpkin, who pretends to be her legal husband when they are around white people.
Carolivia Herron teaches Classics and Humanities at Howard University. Her children’s book Kindergarten Blues is forthcoming from Picnic Heist Publishers.
