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Samuel Morgan Smith


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The "Coloured Tragedian" Samuel Morgan Smith worked on the British stage from 1866 until his death in Sheffield in March 1882

Touring the theatres, playing different parts each night, was a normal feature of the British stage in the 1860s and 1870s. Smith is said (by Hill) to have spent 12 months 1866-7 appearing in 29 locations. He settled down in Sheffield, where he died at home on 22 March 1882.

His death was reported in The Era, 25 March 1882, which gave his address as 21 Preston Street, Lowfield, Sheffield and noted he left a widow and a son. The Morning Post 27 March stated Smith was "little known in London, but popular in the provinces".

jeffreygreen.co.uk

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BUDDING black actors are urgently needed to help resurrect a "forgotten" Sheffield star of the Victorian theatre.

The city's celebrations of Black History Month will culminate in a performance about the African-American Samuel Morgan Smith, who arrived in England in 1866.

Finally coming to rest in Sharrow, he died in Sheffield and is buried in the city's General Cemetery.

The Star Fri Oct 01st 2004

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1868 Bill Marylebone Theatre

Marylebone Theatre playbill, [Church Street], Tuesday May 26 1868, for the benefit of Miss Nellie McEwen the celebrated coloured tragedian Mr [samuel] Morgan Smith (1833-1882) will appear for this night only in his favourite impersonation of Gambia

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Actor Samuel Morgan Smith, who arrived in 1866, refused to play Mungo or any other comic black character, instead taking on only those characters ‘who were unfairly victimized or who suffered for a noble cause.’ He did, however, appear in Uncle Tom’s Cabin as George Harris, as well as in Oroonoko, The Slave as Gambia, The Revenge as Zanga, and, as Aldridge did, in ‘white’ roles like Hamlet, Richard III, Macbeth and Shylock, Iago and Romeo.

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