Henry Francis Downing

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Henry Francis Downing (Henry F. Downing), (1846 – 1928), was an African-American sailor, politician, dramatist and novelist.

He served in the U.S. Navy (1864–65 and 1872–75). In 1887, Grover Cleveland appointed him consul to Luanda, Angola, but Downing resigned in 1888. In 1895, Downing traveled to London, where he remained until 1917. While in London, he published several plays and a novel, The American Cavalryman: A Liberian Romance (1917).[1] As a playwright in London, Downing took inspiration from the dramatic legacy of Ira Frederick Aldridge[2] and became "probably the first person of African descent to have a play of his or her own written and published in Britain."[3]

Downing lived in New York City during his final years. Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux based two films on Downing's literary work. Micheaux's Thirty Years Later (1928) is based on a story/novella by Downing, and the film A Daughter of the Congo (1930) is based on Downing's The American Cavalryman.

Dramas

  • The Shuttlecock; or Israel in Russia: An Original Drama in Four Acts (1913)
  • Human Nature, or The Traduced Wife: An Original English Domestic Drama, in Four Acts (1913)
  • The Arabian Lovers: Or the Sacred jar; an Eastern Tale in Four Acts (1913)
  • Placing Paul's Play; A Miniature Comedy (1913)
  • Lord Eldred's Other Daughter: An Original Comedy in Four Acts (1913)
  • Incentives: A Drama in Four Acts (1914)
  • A New Coon in Town: A Farcical Comedy Made in England (1914)
  • Voodoo: A Drama in Four Acts (1914)

References

  1. ↑ Contee, Clarence (1982). Dictionary of American Negro Biography: 188–189. 
  2. ↑ Roberts, Brian (2012). "A London Legacy of Ira Aldridge: Henry Francis Downing and the Paratheatrical Poetics of Plot and Cast(e)". Modern Drama 55 (3): 386–406. 
  3. ↑ Chambers, Colin (2011). Black and Asian Theatre in Britain: A History. London: Routledge. p. 63. 

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