The Octoroon

Despite making clear the racial delineations between the characters and how they’re defined by even the smallest drop of another race’s blood, The Octoroon also shows how relationships can—and cannot—transcend these racial divides. The clearest example is the love between Zoe and George, who loves her despite her status as an “Octoroon.” The play also suggests interracial friendship with the friendship between Paul and Wahnotee and Mrs. Peyton’s fondness for her slaves: “Heaven has denied me children, so all the strings of my heart have grown around and amongst [the slaves] like the fibres and roots of an old tree in its native earth” (50).

The play also makes clear that while characters’ feelings may transcend these racial lines, they are still bound by the laws and prejudices of their society. Zoe and George love each other, yet they are still blocked by Louisiana’s miscegenation laws. As Zoe commits suicide, she says that her death is the only way that “no laws will stand between us,” telling George that he may only now “without a blush, confess your love for the Octoroon” (75). The friendship between Wahnotee and Paul also doesn’t stop the town’s white men from discriminating against Wahnotee by assuming he must have killed Paul, while Mrs. Peyton, who considers her slaves family, is still ultimately their owner and they are sold off when she loses her property.

The Octoroon debuted in the lead-up to the Civil War, when the controversy over slavery was at a fever pitch. The play deals heavily with slavery in its plot, character, and themes, but remains relatively noncommittal in its stance; as a result, the play was controversial on both sides. Abolitionists decried the play for not taking a strong enough stand against slavery, while pro-slavery advocates believed the play criticized slavery too much.

The play depicts slaves as being treated well and relatively “happy” for the standards of the day. Rather than depict the horrors of slavery, Mrs. Peyton instead loves her slaves and the other slave owners appear benevolent; Ratts, for instance, purchases both a slave woman and her children at the slave auction in order not to separate them. The slaves are controversially depicted as being content; Pete, in particular, is an “Uncle Tom” character who is very subservient and loyal toward his white masters. Before the slave auction, he tells the other slave to “look [their] best for de judge’s sake” and show that they’re “happy” (56) slaves, suggesting their gratitude for how they’ve been treated by the Peytons.

However, the play’s plotline with Zoe instead shows the horrors and imprisonment of slavery as an institution. Even though the slaves are treated well by the Peytons individually, the revelation that Zoe (despite being the judge’s daughter and only one-eighth black) is still a slave and can be sold to the villainous M’Closky suggests that slavery is an evil institution that can affect and imprison even “good” people and force them into a bad fate, with no way to escape.

The Octoroon’s plot is largely guided by a series of laws: the mortgage and debts that result in the Peytons losing Terrebonne; the law prohibiting slave owners with debt from freeing their slaves, which makes Zoe still a slave; and the miscegenation law that prevents Zoe and George from marrying. The laws serve as a catalyst for much of the tragedy that takes place in the play, from M’Closky buying Zoe to Zoe’s suicide. As such, the play depicts a rigid adherence to the law but also takes a critical view of them and their restrictions on race. Boucicault seemingly considers the laws to be over-restrictive and imprisoning to those bound by them, particularly “good,” predominantly white characters like Zoe.

When M’Closky purchases Zoe, Colonel Pointdexter says that although the characters do not like M’Closky, “he has the law on his side—we may regret, but we must respect it” (61). Scudder also criticizes the “lynch law” that would allow the characters to hang Wahnotee for suspecting he killed Paul, calling their automatic rush to assume Wahnotee’s guilt was a “wild and lawless proceeding” (65).