BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//com.denhaven2/NONSGML ri_cal gem//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN VERSION:2.0 BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:North\, South\, Race &\; Class\, \; \;A Staged Rea ding Series of 19th Century Plays\n \;7:30 Wednesdays at Grace Churc h\,1041 Wisconsin Ave\, (below M Street\, in Georgetown)\nFebruary 8 --& nbsp\;Obi\, or Three Fingered Jack (by Thomas Hailes Lacy) is set during a slave rebellion in Jamaica\, The legend of Three-Fingered Jack repute dly has its origins in a true story\, circa 1780. \; The play is bas ed on a pantomime of 1800\, which featured the famous African-American a ctor Ira Aldridge. The late-18th- early 19th century saw slave rebellion s in Haiti and in the USA. \; The horrifically violent nature of the Haitian rebellion caused panic in slaveholding southern states.\nFebrua ry 15 -- \;The Gladiator (by Robert Montgomery Bird) tells the Spart acus story. Although championed by Abolitionists\, the story of Spartacu s was also popular with classically educated southerners\; slaveholders refused to acknowledge the similarities between the noble gladiator and enslaved people of color.\nFebruary 29 -- \;The Octoroon (by Dion Bo ucicault) was one of the biggest hits of mid-19th century American theat re. \; It is the story of a beautiful mixed-race girl raised as whit e\; when her father dies in debt\, she is sold as property. \; Like the novel Uncle Tom&rsquo\;s Cabin\, The Octoroon sensationalized the pe ril of a young slave woman at the hands of an evil white man. The play a lso serves as an apology for aristocratic slave-owners by presenting the m as kindly and broad-minded\, while the lower-class white characters we re depicted as vicious\, lecherous immigrants. These stereotypes persist ed is Southern literature until well into the 20th century.\nMarch 7 --& nbsp\;The Escape\, or A Leap for Freedom (by William Wells Brown) was wr itten by an escaped slave who claimed that it was partly autobiographica l\, The Escape was widely read and discussed in Abolitionist circles. &n bsp\;\nFree Parking in The Georgetown Park Colonial Garage\, with Grace Church validation\n URL:http://georgetown.patch.com/events/north-south-race-class SUMMARY:North\, South\, Race &\; Class LOCATION:Grace Episcopal Church: 1041 Wisconsin Ave NW\, Washington\, DC END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR