Brown, William Henry (lived 1820s)

West Indian-born US theatre producer and playwright. In 1821 he established the African Theatre to allow all-black casts to perform mainly plays from the white repertoire, including condensed versions of Shakespeare. His theatre produced the first two notable black American actors, James Hewlett and Ira Aldridge.

Little is known of his early life in the West Indies before his move to the USA. However, he was evidently drawing on his own personal experience of the 1795 black Caribs' insurrection on the island of St Vincent, when he staged a sketch that dealt with slavery, and in 1823 produced his own play, The Drama of King Shotaway (1823). Brown may also have founded a theatre in Albany, New York.