By Tamara Shiloh

The minstrel shows of the early 19th century are believed by some to be the roots of Black theatre. However, they were written, acted, and performed by whites for white audiences. The first known play by a Black American was James Brown’s “King Shotaway” (1823), but the first Black play published was William Wells Brown’s (ca. 1814–1884) “The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom.”

While “Escape” was published in 1858, it was not officially produced until 1971 at Emerson College. It was one of the earliest extant pieces of African American dramatic literature.

Brown, whose mother was a slave, was born on a plantation outside Lexington, Ky. He would become a Black antislavery lecturer, a groundbreaking novelist, playwright, and historian.

According to the New Bedford Historical Society (NBHS), he is “widely considered to have been the first African American to publish works in several major literary genres, and widely acclaimed for the effectiveness of many of his writings.”

Bought and sold several times before age 20, Brown spent his childhood and much of his young adult life as a slave in St. Louis, Mo. There he was hired out to work on the Missouri River which, at that time, served as a major thoroughfare for the slave trade. This location allowed him several chances to escape. It was New Year’s Day in 1834 that he slipped away from a steamboat and finally became successful.

Brown landed in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began educating himself and reading antislavery newspapers. He later worked as a steam boatsman on Lake Erie and conductor for the Underground Railroad. On arrival at Cleveland, he’d taken shelter with Mr. and Mrs. Wells Brown, a white Quaker family and later adopted their names.

By 1843, Brown had become a regular on the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society lecturing circuit. He was also deeply committed to speaking out on women’s rights and temperance laws (laws banning the sale of spirits in less than 15-gallon quantities). It was Brown’s speaking that led many historians and scholars to provide the trajectory for his later career as a writer. By 1845, he’d published “Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself.”

Brown personified the American dream. He’d become an internationally renowned antislavery activist and writer who resided in and traveled widely across the northern United States and the British Isles. He penned a series of remarkable books including the first Black novel, the first printed Black play, the first Black travelogue, and the first Black panorama displayed in Britain.

Focusing on his own historical works, Brown penned two histories of the Black race, a history on Blacks and whites in the South, and a rare military history of Blacks in the Civil War. He eventually settled in Boston, where he practiced medicine until his death from cancer in 1884.

Learn more about Brown’s compelling story through his classic American slave narrative: “The Narrative of William W. Brown a Fugitive Slave.”

By Godfrey Lee

Marin County District Attorney Lori E. Frugoli recently distributed an informational booklet “Let’s Start Talking – A Parent’s Toolkit for Understanding Substance Use in Marin County Through the Middle School Years” at the San Rafael Elks Lodge 1108 on Tuesday, July 19.

The toolkit booklet was created with support from the Marin Prevention Network and the Marin County Office of Education. The booklet was also translated and published in Spanish under the title “Hablemos.”

The booklet begins by saying that although drug usage among 7th graders remains low, their substance abuse can increase as they grow older. Parents and caregivers can still lay the foundations to support preteens/teens as they grow and help prevent negative consequence from substances use. This involves knowing the facts, communicate openly, and focus on relationships and resilience.

Each middle school teen is different and there is no single right way to address their changes, experiences, and their transition to middle school. But the book endeavors to help parents more objectively understand and support their children.

The major life experience for middle schoolers is the start of puberty, where their bodies, brains, and social environments rapidly and dramatically change, along with their hormones levels and emotions. The booklet says, don’t joke about or dismiss the child’s puberty process as being unimportant.

Parents are still in charge and should also teach and model healthy coping skills. Accept the child even while they are investigating their own identities and their attraction to the other or their own sex.

Their adolescent brain is not fully developed until about the age 25, and they are still growing in its management of reasoning, decision-making, planning, and impulse control. Their peers become more important, their circle of friends may change, and need to become more independent from their parents.

All teens face a lot of risks. Social media gives a lot of unfiltered information that can be disturbing. Other risk factors include mental health issues, attention deficit disorders, trauma, bullying, family substance and drugs abuse, the family rejection of their same-sex identity and thoughts of suicide.

Teens can still be protected with parental monitoring and involvement, a positive self-image, community and school norms and behavioral expectations, positive coping and self-regulation skills, positive and healthy peer relationships, school and community connections, and a sense of belonging to a healthy group.

Peer pressure and social norms are powerful during the middle school age, and the child’s social relationships can tip the scale toward risk or protection. Parents or caretakers can still meet and know the child’s friends and their parents, and also ask questions concerning the safety of their children. Parents can also spend time with their teens to stretch their minds and find opportunities for their teens to meet and work together with other youths with similar interest in groups and clubs.

By Tamara Shiloh

Cornelius Vanderbilt, a steamship owner, sat in the dining room of Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a high-end restaurant that catered to wealthy Manhattan families. It was the summer of 1853 and working in the kitchen was George Crum (1824–1914), the establishment’s cook.

The meal being prepared was likely woodcock or partridge from the restaurant’s grounds, served with French fries. But when the dish was served, Vanderbilt refused it, arguing that “the French fries are too thick.”

This angered Crum so much so that he would prepare the potatoes again, but this time cut into slices as thin as he could make them. He dipped them in the hot oil, frying them to a crisp. He placed the browned and brittle rounds on the plate before sending it to the table.

To Crum’s surprise, Vanderbilt was “thrilled with the novel snack.” Crum’s dish soon became a regular part of the Moon’s Lake House menu. Crum was onto something and wanted more.

By 1860, Crum opened his own restaurant: Crum’s Place. There, millionaires like Vanderbilt stood in line for hours for what Crum dubbed Saratoga Chips.

During his youth, Crum, born George Speck in Saratoga Lake, N.Y., worked as a guide in the Adirondack Mountains and as an Indian trader. Over time, he began to realize his passion for cooking and focused on working as a chef. The restaurant and the success of his snack dish were a part of his dream; he had created a luxury.

Unfortunately, he never patented Saratoga Chips, and never distributed them outside of New England. This opened the door for others to claim to have been the snack’s original inventor, fueling the debate regarding that person’s true identity.

In 1895, William Tappendon began to make the first attempt to place potato chips on local grocery store shelves. In 1921, the Hanover Home Potato Chip Company was established. Soon grocers in numerous areas around the United States were selling chips in bulk. Laura Scudder began putting potato chips into wax paper bags in 1926, giving birth to the bag-of-chips concept.

Herman Lay founded Lay’s in 1932 in Nashville, Tenn., which led to phenomenal success not only for him, but also other potato-chip makers.

Historian Dave Mitchell researched those who took credit for the creation of the potato chip, including Vanderbilt, both of the Moons, Crum’s sister Kate Wicks, the restaurant’s manager Hiram Thomas, and various Lake House cooks.

His research included the possibility that the potato chip was not invented in Saratoga at all, though it certainly earned its popularity there. The potato chip’s true origin, Mitchell concluded, “will probably never be known.”

Crum closed his restaurant in 1890 and died in 1914 at the age of 90. More than 150 years later his delicacy has gone on to even greater fame. Today, Americans alone consume about 1.5 billion pounds of potato chips every year.

Kids can learn more about George Crum’s story in Anne Renaud’s fictional picture book “Mr. Crum’s Potato Predicament.”