Ira Frederick Aldridge was born on July 25, 1807 in New York City. His father Daniel, who was a lay preacher and straw vendor, and his mother, Lurone, were free blacks. Ira's mother died in 1818, when he was a boy. Ira attended the African Free School where he won many oratory contests. After Ira's father remarried, he ran away from home.
Ira worked on a ship and when it docked in North Carolina, a slave dealer offered to buy him for $500. The captain of the ship refused the offer. After this incident, Ira returned to New York and worked backstage at the Chatham Theatre. Aldridge received acting experience with the African Theatre group. His acting debut was as Rolla, a Peruvian in the Richard Brinsley Sheridan adaptation of August von Kotzebue's "Pizarro." Aldridge was unable to obtain major roles because he was African American, so he went to England in 1824 to pursue an acting career. Aldridge, who was 18 at this time, also studied acting in Scotland and Ireland. On October 10, 1825, Aldridge debuted at London's Royal Coburg Theatre for a six-week engagement. The first week, he played the lead role of Oroonoko in "The Revolt of Surina, or A Slave's Revenge. In the playbill, Aldridge was described as the "Tragedian of Colour, from the African Theatre, New York." During the week of October 17, he starred in Thomas Morton's "The Ethiopian, or the Quadroon of the Mango Grove." The next week he appeared in "The Libertine Defeated of African Ingratitude. In the weeks of October 31 and November 7, he played in "The Negro's Curse, or the Foulah Son," a play which was written expressly for him. During the weeks of November 14th and 41st, he played in "The Death of Christophe, King of Hayti."
The audiences loved Aldridge's performances, however he received bad reviews from the press. In order to improve his acting skills, he toured the provinces, including Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Lancaster and Liverpool. For seven years, he starred in the plays, "Oroonoko," "The Slave," "Othello," "The Revenge," and "The Padlock." Herbert and Stock, the authors of the biography "Ira Aldrige," explain the significance of Aldridge's Liverpool appearance:
"…the greatest centre of the slave trade in the United Kingdom, where only three years before he had landed as an unknown, penniless stranger. One can imagine the feelings of the pro-slavery elements at the presumption of this Negro to appear in anti-slavery plays like "Oroonoko," "The Revenge," and "The Padlock," and furthermore to see a well-known star like Vandenhoff playing his Iago and a white woman, Miss F.H. Kelly, playing his Desdemona! Such a leap in so short a time was indeed something unparalleled in theatre history, as well as a unique challenge to racial superiority."
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