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Historical Background and Dramaturgy

Photo of Jerod Haynes, Tyla Abercrumbie, and Davdi Alan Anderson by Michael Brosilow.

Explore the historical context of Gem of the Ocean, its dramaturgy, and the design of Court Theatre’s production.

Gem of the Ocean takes place in 1904, just 39 years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment and the legal end of slavery in the United States. Learn more about the agony of enslaved—and later, free—Africans and Black Americans, and how they found ways to resist a country hell-bent on their subjugation and dehumanization.  

  • The Underground Railroad: This 13-minute video from Crash Course in Black American History explains the history around this remarkable network of resistance. 
  • Roots: The Middle Passage | History: This short video explains the brutality of the journey across the ocean for enslaved African men and women. Please note: though short, this video is exceedingly graphic. 
  • The Transatlantic Slave Trade: This Crash Course in Black American History video explores the traumatic events and economics that victimized millions of enslaved Africans, and the ways they resisted. 
  • The Underground Railroad: On the Road to Freedom: This 2-minute overview examines the history and significance of the Underground Railroad. 
  • Reconstruction in America: The hope of freedom was shattered by a new wave of unparalleled violence towards formerly enslaved Black Americans. Learn more with this 6-minute video from the Equal Justice Initiative. 
A Black family from Worcester, Massachusetts, poses for a photograph. The father sits, while the mother and two daughters stand.
An example of fashion during the period in which Gem of the Ocean takes place.

William Bullard, James & Jennie Johnson Family, 1894-1918; printed 2016, E.132.16.10 https://archive.worcesterart.org/exhibitions/william-bullard/.
This image shows how enslaved Black Africans were tightly crammed and chained on ships during the Middle Passage.
The Middle Passage: Woodcut of the deck of a slave ship from “The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament,” vol. 1, by Thomas Clarkson, London, 1808 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC05965.01).

Image from https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/middle-passage-1749.
Nine Black children, some waving hats in the air, stand in front of a bare tree outside a wooden house.
Historic image of the home of American Quaker and abolitionist Levi Coffin located in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a group of Black Americans out front. Research has shown that though the network kept its activities a secret, movement on the Underground Railroad could and did take place in broad daylight.

Photograph by Cincinnati Museum Center, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/underground-railroad/.
A painting depicts 25 or more enslaved people walking through rain as they make their way on the underground railroad on their way to the free states.
“Fugitive Slaves Fleeing From the Maryland Coast to an Underground Railroad Depot in Delaware,” 1850, Peter Newark/American Pictures/Bridgeman Images.

Image from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/the-secret-history-of-the-underground-railroad/384966/.
Also pictured are three children and two older adults. A dogs sits curled on the floor between the older people’s legs.
American abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman (far left) standing with family and formerly enslaved people whose escape she assisted, c. 1887. Tubman’s second husband, Nelson Davis, is seated to her left; their daughter, Gertie, stands between them. Tubman married Davis, a veteran Union soldier, in 1869, and the couple adopted Gertie in 1874.

Image from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-tubman 
Powelson, Benjamin F, photographer. Portrait of Harriet Tubman / Powelson, photographer, 77 Genesee St., Auburn, New York. New York, 1868. [Auburn, N.Y.: Benjamin Powelson, or 1869] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018645050/.
A map of the eastern United States shows slave states in blue and free states in green. Arrows from slave states to free states indicate the path that enslaved people took to find freedom in the North.
Map of the Underground Railroad.

Image from WGBH, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lincolns-underground-railroad/.

Posted on November 5, 2025 in Uncategorized

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