ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

Tom. Simon Legree was a puppet based on Groucho Marx. Richardson’s cast list was
only the first tier of a whole structure of bizarre artistic choices.
Parody and contemporary references mark the dialogue, producing a
transhistorical portrait of racial representation. To begin, Richardson parodies Uncle
Tom’s cries for mercy. Tom Careless enters and reflects on meeting Uncle Tom long
ago. He then falls asleep to the sound of “Negro spirituals.” Uncle Tom enters, kneels,
and begs: “Oh massa, massa, doan kill me.” 254 Richardson prepares his audience for a
humorous adaptation of the Stowe novel through the comedy of surprise. Later,
Richardson adds comedy of recognition as Mr. and Mrs. Shelby argue the merits of
enslavement. Mr. Shelby warns that it “is dangerous to offer the slaves a new deal now”
(4). Richardson continues this strategy at the slave auction scene, when Mrs. Shelby
promises to buy back Tom as soon as “Mr. Shelby gets work on the W. P. A” (4). The
verbal references target the politics of enslavement next, when Mr. Shelby fears that Tom
has been taught to read. Tom assures him that he “is just as ignorant as befoh” and it is
only due to a blow to the head that he has “been thinkin’ dif’untly” (5). The humor
provides a thematic interaction between past and present, between the mirror of Stowe’s
novel and contemporary thinking on enslavement, as well as contemporary conflicts
regarding social justice.
Fanciful humor gives way to more a radical antiracist use of transhistorical
references. Richardson’s play reaches the scene that, in Stowe’s novel, ends with the
beating murder of Uncle Tom. Tom Careless intervenes in the violence and he and
254 Antonio deLeon Richardson, Uncle Tom, unpublished collection scripts (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Majorie Batchelder Collection, 1968), 2. From this point on, I will use
parenthentical documentation for the lengthy selections from this play.
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