An Octoroon

Although Dion Boucicault’s wildly popular 1859 melodrama The Octoroon is often read as an abolitionist play, and it certainly played a role in catalyzing conversations about the morality of slavery only two years before the start of the Civil War, Boucicault’s approach to the then-controversial topic is demonstrably ambiguous. Contemporary critics acknowledged that the play was hardly abolitionist propaganda, and that Boucicault simply exploits the inherent melodrama of a hot-button issue, using the institution of slavery and “anti-miscegenation” (a racist term) laws to create a sensational scenario of forbidden love. Boucicault himself confirmed that the play was not taking a stance.

The word “octoroon” comes from slavery-era blood quantum laws under which a person whose lineage was one-eighth or more African was considered Black. Zoe, the “octoroon” of the title, is considered right on the cusp of whiteness but just Black enough to be forbidden to marry a white man. Although she is raised by the Peyton family as a daughter, she is also entangled by the legalities under which she is still technically enslaved, as the late Judge Peyton failed to properly free her before dying. At the end of the play, Zoe has been purchased by the villainous Jacob McClosky, who is in love with her.