Sam Lucas (August 7, 1840 – January 10, 1916) was an American actor, comedian, singer and songwriter. His 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 year has also been reported as 1839, 1841, 1848 and 1850. 

Lucas’ career began in blackface minstrelsy, but he later became one of the first African Americans to branch out into more serious drama, with roles in seminal works such as The Creole Show and A Trip to Coontown. He was the first black man to portray the role of Uncle Tom on both stage and screen. James Weldon Johnson described him as the “Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage”. He was vocal about liberating himself from the minstrel profession and was the only composer of spirituals in his time to present them consistently within the context of jubilee concerts.

Lucas was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 Samuel Mildmay Lucas (or Samuel Lucas Milady) in Washington Court House, Ohio to free black parents. He showed a talent for guitar and singing as a teenager. While working as a barber, his local performances gained him a positive reputation.

Cover for Sam Lucas’ Songs

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Meanwhile, Lucas attempted to branch out into non-minstrel material. In 1875, for instance, he performed alongside Emma and Anna Hyers in Out of Bondage, a musical drama about a freed slave who is made over to fit into upper-class, white society. He followed this by another stint in black minstrelsy and, in 1876, was playing with Sprague’s Georgia Minstrels, alongside both James A. Bland and Billy Kersands.

In 1878, Charles and Gustave Frohman needed an advertising gimmick to help rescue a poorly performing comedy troupe. Their answer was to stage a serious production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin with a black man in the lead role. Lucas’s reputation as an actor was well known, as was his wealth. Gustave wired Charles: “Get me an Eva and send her down with Sam Lucas. Be sure to tell Sam to bring his diamonds.”

Lucas rejoined the Hyers Sisters for The Underground Railroad, only to go back to blackface acts after its run. He also continued to write. Much of this output shows a more African American perspective when compared to work of other black composers, such as James Bland. For example, the lyrics to “My Dear Old Southern Home” say:

In 1890, Lucas served as an endman in Sam T. Jack’s The Creole Show, often cited as the first African American production to show signs of breaking the links to minstrelsy. He married during its run, before he and his wife played a succession of variety houses, vaudeville stages and museums. In 1898, he performed in Boston in A Trip to Coontown, produced by Bob Cole. This was the first black production to use only African American writers, directors and producers, And the first black musical comedy to make a complete break with minstrelsy.

From 1905 to 1906, he starred in Rufus Rastus, which was directed by Ernest Hogan. In 1907, Lucas starred in the second showing of an original musical comedy from Cole and Johnson, The Shoe-Fly Regiment, which ran from June 3, 1907, to August 17, 1907. This production showed at the Grand Opera House in New York City from June 6–8, 1907 and at the Bijou Theatre, which was also located in New York, from August 6 to 17, 1907. The Shoe-Fly Regiment was a three-act musical, with Acts One and Three taking place in the Lincolnville Institute in Alabama and act two taking place in the Philippines. Lucas played Brother Doolittle, who was a member of the Bode of Education.

Lucas later performed in another original musical comedy The Red Moon, portraying Bill Webster, a barber. The Red Moon ran from May 3, 1909, to May 29, 1909. The Red Moon was also a three-act musical, but set in fictional “Swamptown, Virginia”.

In 1908, Lucas became a charter member of the professional theatrical club The Frogs, participating in 1913’s The Frog Follies.

Lime Kiln Field Day (1913)

In 1913, Lucas starred in the unfinished film, Lime Kiln Field Day, produced by the Biograph Company and Klaw and Erlanger. The footage of the unfinished film was assembled in 2014 by the Museum of Modern Art, which had rescued the film cans from a Biograph film storage vault in 1938.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1914)

In 1914, Lucas revived his role of Uncle Tom in William Robert Daly’s film adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He is generally credited as the first black man to portray Uncle Tom, a character that had typically been played by white actors in black face. The film was released on August 10, 1914, by the World Film Company

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After completing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Lucas died in 1916 from pneumonia, following liver disease for many years.