Having enrolled into the African Free School of New York City at the age of 13, Aldridge enjoyed a classic education alongside future luminaries of the abolitionist movement such as Henry Highland Garnet, George T. Downing and James McCune Smith.

Resisting pressure from his parents to follow in his father’s spiritual footsteps, Aldridge instead pursued his dreams of becoming an actor. Joining a traveling acting troupe called the African Company after he finished school, Aldridge is even believed to have played the male lead in Romeo and Juliet.

The British Chapter

With discrimination rampant, opportunities to flourish remained scarce and Aldridge sailed across the Atlantic to begin a new life in Britain.

Again, details of his early life in the U.K. are contradictory, though according to some he studied Latin in Glasgow for a time. Others say that it was in Liverpool that he sought to boost his profile by claiming royal Senegalese lineage.

More universally accepted is that Aldridge played Othello in London’s Royalty Theater in 1825.

The Public Ledger praised his performance: “Agreeably were we surprised to find the hero of the piece, so ably portrayed by Mr Keen [Aldridge’s stage name at that point], a gentleman of color lately arrived from America.”

Continuing, The Public Ledger wrote: “Some of his scenes displayed some fine natural feeling… His death was certainly one of the finest physical representations of bodily anguish we ever witnessed.”

According to some historians, this was the first time a Black actor had played a major role in a work by Shakespeare. What is beyond doubt, is that Aldridge would go on to become the first Black American actor to establish his name abroad.

Within months of playing Othello, Aldridge became the talk of theatreland after starring as Oronooko in the Royal Coburg Theater’s staging of The Revolt of Suriname.

Reviews were mixed, with many flavored by brazen prejudice. The Times, for instance, wrote that his “lips [were] so shaped that it is utterly impossible for him to pronounce English.”

For many, Aldridge was little more than a curiosity, with Tony Howard of Warwick University telling The Guardian that he was, at first, regarded as “a circus freak.” On tour, he was frequently promoted, adds Howard, as “a most extraordinary novelty, a man of color.”

Despite these obstacles, as well as his own lack of formal training, Aldridge’s ability won over the public. “[They] were utterly astonished by the skill of his acting. Critics said he was one of the two or three best they had ever seen.”

This talent would reap dividends – at the tender age of 21 he was appointed head of Coventry Theater, thus becoming Britain’s first ever Black theater manager.

Aldridge In Poland

In later years, Aldridge toured extensively abroad, becoming known as the African Roscius after the Roman actor born into slavery.

He enjoyed success in Prussia, performed as far afield as Mongolia, and is credited with popularizing Shakespeare in Imperial Russia. In particular, Aldridge is supposed to have enjoyed a close relationship with the Polish people; with Poland then under partition, Aldridge was more than a curiosity, but rather a figurehead for the oppressed – because of this, some claim he was placed under Russian surveillance.

Having already performed twice in Warsaw in 1862, Aldridge arrived in Łódź in 1867 where he was set to appear as Othello at the Paradyż theater. Before he could do so, he was found dead in his hotel room at 5 p.m. on August 7.

The official cause of death was given as ‘natural causes’ (Aldridge is known to have had a lung condition), but this did not stop the rumor mill running wild. Some gossips said that he was killed in a fight with a waiter, others that he was murdered by the Russians for his alleged contacts with Polish revolutionaries.

Whatever the case may have been, he was given a hero’s send-off by the people of Łódź. Buried on August 9, 1867, his funeral was defined by its pomp and splendor. Attended by the mayor, the cortege involved guards in ceremonial dress and local actors carrying Aldridge’s honors on velvet cushions.

Buried in the city’s Evangelical-Augsburg cemetery, years later Aldridge’s daughter, an opera singer, would visit to pay for a tombstone featuring a picture of her father in the role of Othello.

Considered a pioneer of the stage, the decision to restore his grave is a tribute to Aldridge’s lasting impact on both Poland and the world.