Response 1 - Skye Nguyen
February 13, 2018, by Skye
Baker’s “A Glance of New York” play, as the title tells us, shows us a glance of New York during the mid-1800s— in a “distinctly American” manner. During this time period, New York City only exists in the lowermost tip of Manhattan and over time as the city’s population increased, the city expanded. With the city expanding, the location that held the most wealth moved around as well, from the Battery to Washington Square to Gramercy, and so on. This play shows us how people lived during this time period, but as it’s a play, it’s clearly glamorized to an extent and most likely highlighting the best parts of living in New York City during this time period. The characters go to the park (what I’m assuming is now Battery Park) and saloons, they play ten-pins, and they participate in auctions— all of which seem very stereotypical New York in the mid-1800s. There’s a big emphasis on going to the theater, as well.
The play was shown at William Mitchell’s Olympic Theater for four months, and it caused a “pandemonium,” so it’s clear it did well. People were happy to see what was highlighted about their own lives, or what they aspired to live like. The play and theater did so well because William Mitchell made it his goal to hire only the best actors and writers, and sensationalize the important and popular topics at the time. Because “A Glance of New York” did so well, he also introduced “New York As It Is” and brought this theme to other cities as well, with “Glance at Philadelphia,” “Philadelphia As It Is,” “Mose in China,” “Mose In California,” and “Mose in a Muss”.
As this play is clearly highlighting and emphasizing the good parts of living in New York City during this time, the audience doesn’t get a full picture of what really went on. Sure, there were people who could afford going to saloons and the theater and even paying to go to the park, but what’s left out is the fact that while people were enjoying these plays and playing ten-pins, there were also slaves tending to these people’s’ property. The idea of New Yorkers keeping slaves is usually left out in New York history, but after visiting the African Burial Ground for my Race & Media class last semester, I learned about the side of living in early New York that wasn’t glamorized, or even mentioned.
The African Burial Ground exists because one year, as a development company was digging into the ground to secure the foundation for whatever office building they were planning to construct in the Financial District, they ran into thousands of bodies— bodies of slaves from the 1800s. Many people protested against the construction of this building, and that’s how the African Burial Ground Memorial was built. So many slaves died during this time period that you can see a diagram of how the bodies were found, and bodies were buried on top of other bodies and people of all ages, from young to mid-30s or 40s were buried there. While we learn about the highlights of living in NYC during this time period through “A Glance of New York,” we clearly aren’t given the full picture and it’s important to keep that in mind.