Actor 1: Thomas Mathews, Chorus 6, Jeffrey Reodica,
CFRB Host 1
Actor 2: Officer 1, Simon Phillip, Peter Cashin,
Chorus 3
Actor 3: Almanda, Chorus 5, Officer 3, Sabrina, CFRB
Host 2
Actor 4: Officer Elsie MacGill, Ann Harvey, Chorus
4, Leonora Howard King, Rebecca, Peggy
Actor 5: Violet, Chorus 2, Mary Anne Shadd, Rose
Fortune Moseby, Nzingha
Actor 6: Chorus 1, William Willis, Solomon Moseby,
Officer 2, Gurdit Singh
low is a list of most of the characters in the play and a note about where I stole their names from. This is not a character description!!! Just a list of the names of the characters, and why I picked them. I thought it might be fun to share the info. (I’ve cut and pasted the information from all over the web, breaking many copyright laws in the process, so if you see the exact same wording on some other web site, you’ll know why. At least I’m honest about it.) I’m working on a full character description for each character that I’ll post later. But while you wait…
The Accused:
Solomon Moseby
Solomon Moseby (or Mosely) stole a horse to flee Kentucky. Arriving in Niagara, he was jailed, but the local Black community surrounded the courthouse to prevent his transfer. When he was taken out under armed guard, shots were fired, resulting in the deaths of 2 Black people, the arrest of 20 others and Moseby’s escape. He later returned to the area.
The Sister of the accused:
Rose Fortune
(ca. 1774-1864). First female police officer in North America.
The Crown Attorney:
Thomas Matthews
In Thomas’ best known appearance in the New Testament, John 20:24-29, he doubts the resurrection of Jesus and demands to feel Jesus’ wounds before being convinced.
In The Gospel of Matthew, Matthew is introduced as a publican, or tax-collector, at Capernaum
The Defense Attorney:
Simon Phillip
Simon, a fisherman from Bethsaida. He is also known as Simon the Zealot.
In Phrygia, Phillip preached with Bartholomew, and through prayer killed a large serpent in a temple devoted to serpent worship, and healed many people of snake bites. Phillip is the one that Jesus asked what it would cost to buy bread for five thousand men
The Police Officer
Elsie MacGill
The American wartime role model was “Rosie the Riveter”. In Canada, Elsie MacGill was a war heroine who became known as the “Queen of the Hurricanes” – the symbol of Canada’s wartime transformation. In 1938, the 35-year old woman became chief aeronautical engineer at Canadian Car & Foundry.
The Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Army (RCA) ordered Hawker Hurricane fighters from the company and inspired a production line directed by Elsie MacGill. The RCA used a fleet of Hurricanes in Canada to defend our shores. In 1942, a comic book called Queen of the Hurricanes told Elsie’s story.
The Crown Attourney’s wife:
Almanda Marchand
In 1914, at the start of World War I, volunteer Almanda Walker-Marchand (1868-1949) organized an initial meeting of French-Canadian women in Ottawa to raise funds to charter a hospital ship. More than 400 women answered her call and quickly grew into a formal association. In 1918 the Fédération des femmes canadiennes-françaises was officially founded with Almanda as its first President. The group worked to expand the participation of French-speaking Canadian women in the fields of education, economics, culture and politics and has now branched out to reflect the needs of francophone women living in minority communities. Outside Quebec, the Fédération now has 17 member associations in all parts of Canada, serving more than 7,000 women.
The Reporter:
Mary Ann Shadd
One of the most significant contributions of those early Canadian Blacks who settled in Upper Canada was the establishment of two newspapers: “The Voice of the Fugitive”, published in Windsor by a famous refugee named H.C. Bibb, and another refugee newspaper called The Provincial Freeman, founded in Toronto and later moved to Windsor. This latter abolitionist newspaper was very competently edited by a most remarkable and highly literate Black woman, Mary Ann Shadd, well known for her sharp tongue and biting editorials. Ms. Shadd was born of free parents in Wilmington, Delaware on October 9, 1823 and fled with her family to Canada. Mary Ann Shadd is acknowledged as the first Black newspaperwoman in North America and the publisher of Canada’s first anti-slavery newspaper. Perhaps she was the first woman publisher of a newspaper in Canada.
The White Student:
Ann Harvey
Ann Harvey (1811 – 1860) was a fisher and rescuer born near the small fishing community of Isle aux Morts, Newfoundland, Canada. Harvey, called “Grace Darling of Newfoundland”, is known for her bravery at the young age of seventeen for rescuing, along with her father, younger brother and a dog, 163 shipwrecked souls from the brig Despatch between the twelfth and fifteenth of July, 1828.
The Black Student:
VioletViolet Pauline King is believed to be the first African-Canadian to practise law in 1954
Competing White Attorney:
Peter Cashin
Major Peter John Cashin (March 8, 1890 – May 21, 1977) was a Newfoundland politician, businessman and soldier. He was a Roman Catholic and a political and social conservative.
IT Guy:
William Willis
The first Black businessmen in Toronto were two contractors-Jack Mosee and William Willis-who under took, in 1799, to open a road from Yonge Street, York, westward through ‘the Pinery’; and although at first the senior surveyor of the province found the road too narrow and improperly cleared, in time it was completed satisfactorily.
Officer that warns MacGill:
Clara Brett Martin became the first female lawyer in the British Empire. She set up a law practice in Toronto.
Simon’s assistant:
hérèse Casgrain – feminist reformer who was the first woman in Quebec to lead a provincial political party
‘Friend’ of Simon:
Angelique
Marie-Joseph Angélique (commonly known as Angélique; died June 21, 1734) was the name given by the French authorities to a Portuguese-born black slave in New France (later the Province of Quebec in Canada). She was tried and convicted of setting fire to her owner’s home, burning much of what is now referred to as old Montreal.
Stripper in bar:
Dr. Leonora Howard King – the first Canadian doctor to practice medicine in China
Gurdit Singh
Perhaps one of the poignant moments in South Asian immigration history in Canada is the Komagata Maru incident. In 1914 a clever Sikh leader named, Gurdit Singh, attempted to challenge the “continuous passage” legislation. He hired a ship, the Komagata Maru, and planned a non-stop voyage to Vancouver with 376 East Indian immigrants. When the freighter anchored in Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, Canadian immigration officials did not allow the men to disembark. Negotiations carried on for two months after which the federal government expelled the ship and men and escorted them back out to sea. (Twenty of the men were allowed to disembark. This was to be the first official act of the recently formed, Royal Canadian Navy.) The Komagata Maru incident cost the East Indian men much time and expense and was perceived as a blatant racist act.
Because of the “continuous journey” law, there was very little South Asian immigration to Canada between 1908 and 1947, when the restriction was lifted. In fact, many of the men who had settled there left for either the United States or India in an effort to reunite with their families. In 1919 a law was passed to allow wives and children to join the men who had immigrated earlier. Nonetheless, the South Asian population fell to just above 1,000 persons. By the early 1950s there were only about 2,000 South Asians in Canada.
