To celebrate Black History Month, Harrisburg is privileged to meet one of its adopted sons, Ephraim Slaughter, a Civil War Union Army veteran, community leader, and philanthropist who was born into slavery in 1846. Sankofa African American Theatre Company and Gamut Theatre tell his story through the poignant one-act play, “Ephraim Slaughter: Freedom’s Witness,” breathed into life by Director Sharia Benn, Pennsylvania playwright Teresa Miller, and several resident descendants who proudly claim lineage to their ancestor.
When we meet Ephraim Slaughter (Marcus McGhee), he is puttering around his living room dressed in a simple robe, listening to the staticky hum of an old-time radio. When he finds his way into his easy chair and sips from a delicate teacup, I feel ready to comfortably slide right along with him into the memories surrounding him. His bookshelf holds not only books, but mementoes like a brown globe, a canteen, and a leather urn, next to faded pictures and recently shined medals (Props Designer, Alex Winnick).
When he tells his life story, all comfort falls away. Slaughter escapes a plantation in North Carolina to enlist in the United States Colored Troops. He fought for our country’s freedom while finding his personal freedom. Then he changed into a bellhop uniform to fold napkins, meeting his wife in a hotel kitchen. Moving Slaughter’s life story through time and eventually to Harrisburg, McGhee deftly shifts his character’s age and various roles through simple costume changes (Costume Designer, Callie Lythgoe). McGhee, who shaved his head to embody the main character, creates an incredibly convincing Ephraim Slaughter.
Through his many life stations, Slaughter reminisces about the people alive in his memories, many of whom did not treat him well. Mystical voices from the past drift in and out of the hazy dream that memories and history become when they are cobbled together from historians and binders in dusty corners. The voices of Afrofuturism echo throughout, suggesting that Slaughter’s past of resistance is linked to the voices of the future. He stands as the embodiment of the sum of his memories, feeding his own experiences into future generations. Disembodied voices signify that there is more to his story than what we see right in front of us. (Voice-Over Cast: Clark Nicholson, Sergeant James McCall; General Benjamin Butler, Jeff Wasileski; Georgiana Slaughter, Leah Payne. Afrofuturistic Voice-Over Cast: Ursula Ayler, Weimy Montero Candelario, Lunden McClain, Najuma Norman, and David Payne. Sound Designer, Callie Lythgoe).
Each voice is channeled by Slaughter’s granddaughter, Yvonne Pittman (Melinda Anderson), who waves her hands to whoosh the voices in. Anderson also serves as the Narrator as the hands of time tick by. The symbolism of hands carries through Slaughter’s life story. He picked cotton with raw fingers, and later folded napkins while meeting his first wife, whose hands were caked with flour. Then he asked for the hand of a woman 43 years his junior to be his marital companion. These same hands passed the baton to the generations that followed, who press back at his likeness through museum glass.
The play’s dialogue is pure poetry. I find myself wondering if the humble, quiet Ephraim Slaughter spoke lyrically in real life, or if poetic license crept in. I quickly decide that I don’t care. I love the way the dialogue lilts its way into my brain, gliding across my ears first. Plus, the life story of a pillar of Harrisburg deserves flowery pomp and circumstance, with a little extra sprinkled in to compensate for the many times he was overlooked. And this play is focused on him, so he can hold the floor as long as he wants, and drop the mic when he decides.
“Memory is our greatest defense against erasure. This is truly a Sankofa piece, merging past, present, and truly, the future, bringing in elements of Afrofuturism,” Benn said of the two-year project. Research sources included members of Slaughter’s own family. His great-granddaughter, Dr. Sharonn Williams, shared her talents as historian and genealogist. You may be privileged enough to attend a performance with the real-life Yvonne Pittman. I was, and she shared wonderful memories of her grandfather’s pride and philanthropy surrounding homeownership during a time, according to Pittman, when Black folks didn’t own their own homes.
To me, up until this play, Ephraim Slaughter was just another statue at the National Civil War Museum, and the name on the placard of the Ephraim Slaughter American Legion Post 733, set at the entrance to Reservoir Park. Both tributes stand just as humbly as the man who, through 97 years and 19 presidents, “wrote down his life so we would know what it cost to get here.”
“Ephraim Slaughter: Freedom’s Witness” runs Feb. 14-22 at Gamut Theatre, 15 N. 4th St., Harrisburg. For more information and tickets, visit https://www.sankofatheatrehbg.com/ or https://www.gamuttheatre.org/sankofa.
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