‘True Patriots’: a touring play honors enslaved Africans’ position within the American revolution | South Carolina

A beam of white mild illuminated actor Anita Singleton-Prather’s face. “War was on the way,” she mentioned, addressing the viewers.

Portraying a previously enslaved African in heaven, Singleton-Prather wore a white costume and held a big wood workers. “Folks was asking us, what side we was going to fight: red or blue?” she mentioned, referring to the Continental Army’s blue uniforms and the British military’s purple coats throughout the American revolutionary battle. Both sides implored enslaved Africans to combat by providing them freedom, which was rarely granted. She was joined on stage by a refrain of Black singers additionally clad in white who served as holy angels. They repeated her phrases as if they had been a church congregation engaged in call-and-response.

“I’m fighting for freedom for me and you,” Singleton-Prather mentioned. The patriots and loyalists had one factor in widespread, she added. “Both sides lie.”

So goes a scene from Da’ Gullah American Revolutionary Experience, a brand new historic fiction play and musical by the South Carolina-based non-profit Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater Inc. The efficiency retells the American revolution from the Gullah Geechee perspective, the descendants of previously enslaved Africans within the south-east US.

In the play, previously enslaved Africans in heaven determine whether or not historic figures, akin to enslavers George Washington, can enter the pearly gates. Singleton-Prather, the CEO & inventive director at Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater Inc, acts because the narrator, a Sierra Leonean baby named Priscilla who was enslaved by South Carolina’s Ball family in actual life. She wrote the play to spotlight the usually untold contributions of Black individuals within the American revolution.

Da’ Gullah American Revolutionary Experience premiered in July 2025 and will probably be carried out once more on 18 July 2026 in Bluffton, South Carolina. Singleton-Prather hopes that viewers acknowledge the American founders’ hypocrisy of upholding enslavement as they fought for independence from the British.

“Even now in America today”, she mentioned, “until we work for freedom and equality for everybody, everybody is still in bondage.”

‘I ran so my people could fly’

Da’ Gullah American Revolutionary Experience was commissioned by and has acquired about $150,000 in funding from the SC American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission (SC250). The group was established by the South Carolina legislature in 2019 to commemorate the state’s contributions to the American revolution.

“Part of our charter from the legislature is to ensure that all voices are told in the story of South Carolina’s role in winning the American revolution,” mentioned Molly Fortune, CEO of SC250. Fortune hopes the present will proceed to tour the nation to point out the Gullah Geechee’s contributions to the state.

“The reason that South Carolina was one of your wealthiest colonies … is due to the labor, the rice, the indigo,” Fortune mentioned. “And it’s not just the labor, it’s the food, it is the culture that comes over that becomes so ingrained within the South Carolinian psyche and music and clothing.”

When she started researching the subject to jot down the play, Singleton-Prather discovered scant details about Black South Carolinians within the 1700s. She labored backwards by researching white enslavers akin to General Francis Marion and farmer Eliza Lucas Pinckney, after which figuring out the Africans whom they enslaved. Singleton-Prather discovered that an enslaved man, John “Quash” Williams, helped Pinckney produce the indigo crops that she later turned well-known for.

“Behind every great man is a great woman,” Singleton-Prather mentioned, “but behind every so-called great American revolutionary war hero, there’s some Africans somewhere.”

One of her best challenges was capturing the complicated emotions for Black individuals who remained enslaved after the US gained its freedom. “The first Fourth of July, we probably weren’t enjoying no picnic. We were probably still working in the alligator swamps of the rice fields, or picking the long fiber Sea Island cotton until our fingertips were bleeding,” mentioned Singleton-Prather, a Gullah lady born and raised in South Carolina. “How do you tell the story and honor the 250th without trying to sugarcoat stuff?”

The play highlights the hypocrisy of enslavement by depicting European immigrants who fled persecution of their house nations solely to oppress marginalized teams within the US. One scene options Paris O’Ree, a boy of African descent who was enslaved by a well known French Huguenot household in South Carolina.

“Master, you remember you and your family was French Protestants come here from a foreign country to escape cruelty, violence,” the fictional O’Ree mentioned within the efficiency. He wore a straw coloured hat and quick trousers. “Come right here and do the same things to we colored people.”

“I ran,” the fictional O’Ree mentioned on stage, flapping his arms to imitate a chook in flight, “so my people could fly.”

In actual life, O’Ree escaped slavery at 15 years outdated and traveled to Charleston to combat for the loyalists throughout the revolutionary battle. After their loss, the British evacuated O’Ree and different previously enslaved Africans who fought for them to Canada.

“They were on the losing side. They didn’t feel like there was a real opportunity for them,” mentioned Robert Adams Jr, South Carolina’s Penn Center’s government director and one among O’Ree’s descendants. The Penn Center was one of many first colleges for previously enslaved individuals within the US and now preserves Black historical past and promotes social justice.

“Canada probably needed some of these bodies,” Adams mentioned, “to help develop what had been a really vast territory”. Willie O’Ree, the primary Black National Hockey League player, is one other one among O’Ree’s descendants.

Keonda Grant Taylor, who performs the enslaved lady Ona Judge, mentioned the efficiency helped her connect with her Gullah roots. Grant Taylor and her household proceed to stay on Oaks plantation on St Helena Island, the place her ancestors had been as soon as enslaved lots of of years in the past.

“It really brings me back home,” mentioned Grant Taylor, who additionally works in finance. “I get a chance to speak my dialect in a way that I can’t do from nine to five.”

Judge served because the maid for George Washington’s spouse, Martha Washington, till she escaped whereas they ate dinner on 21 May 1796. In the efficiency, Martha Washington seeks to achieve entrance into heaven, however she’s questioned by St Peter, one among Jesus Christ’s 12 apostles. When Martha Washington asks her former maid to vouch for her, Judge recounts the dehumanizing expertise of being promised to her granddaughter as a wedding gift.

After watching the efficiency, viewers members typically inform Grant Taylor that they’re impressed by Judge’s legacy. “The children come up to me and say, ‘I’m going to be strong too, and I’m not going to let anybody treat me in any kind of way,’” Grant Taylor mentioned. “It’s a really beautiful experience, someone knowing their worth.”

The efficiency additionally helped the actor Alison Chambers, who performed Pinckney, come to phrases along with her circle of relatives’s ties to enslavement. During her undergraduate research in historical past, Chambers was taught that Pinckney was a profitable businesswoman who had popularized indigo. Her view of Pinckney grew extra difficult over the previous few months, as she discovered that enslaved Africans helped construct her empire.

In February, Chambers was disheartened to find by way of census information that one among her ancestors enslaved Africans. “I was very upset with the things I learned about [Pinckney],” Chambers mentioned, “and also upset with the things I learned about my own family.”

She sees the efficiency as a cautionary story for America’s subsequent 250 years. “It needs to be told, because we need to know where we come from,” Chambers mentioned. “We also need to make sure we don’t repeat any of this.”

Da’ Gullah American Revolutionary Experience allowed Singleton-Prather to carry the US accountable for its previous wrongdoings, she mentioned, whereas celebrating the resilience of marginalized communities. “When I look at the true patriots of the American revolutionary war, it’s not George Washington, it’s not Francis Marion.” Singleton-Prather mentioned.

“It’s those Blacks and Native Americans that fought for freedom knowing that they themselves would be denied. They are the true patriots.”