Butler Play Analysis

Florida Studio Theatre’s production of Butler by Richard Strand is witty, full of word play, and all too relevant. As a country embroiled in conversation around race, immigration, identity, and at the core of it all who has the right to humanity, this question is posed to us once again as with this play. Butler embodies both the past and present while presenting a unique opportunity to learn from it and change our future.
At the top of Butler, both Major General Butler and Lieutenant Kelly refer to Shepard Mallory as “The Negro Slave.” Neither man knows Mallory’s name. As their conversation about “The Negro Slave” continues issues of legality and more specifically the fugitive slave act are of the heart of the conversation as to what their
Underneath the hilarity of their interactions and the word play engrained in all of their relationships Shepard Mallory becomes a human being to both Butler and Kelly as they begin to learn more about him. But legality keeps them aiding him.
Later in the play as Major Cary, a member of the Confederate army, comes to retrieve Mallory, as well as two other slaves, language again plays a huge role. In a last ditch effort to save Mallory, Butler uses a loop hole within the Articles of War to claim Mallory as Contraband, an implement of war. As such he can be impounded by the Union Army. The shift in terminology from Slave to Contraband changes Mallory’s status. This shift in status put Mallory in a much better position than his original status as a Slave.
Terminology, language, and how we categorize people socially decides who has humanity, who has a story, and who doesn’t. Butler and Kelley in their interactions with Mallory, even the simple act of learning his name begin to gain empathy and even interest in his story. In today’s society with categories and identity constantly shifting how individuals identify themselves versus how society identifies individuals becomes just as important as the difference between Slave and
This often leaves workers without sustainable income and forces them to become dependent on their employers for basic necessities. Florida has been at the center of conversations around migrant farmworkers and modern day slavery. In fact in the past 10 years there have been six federal prosecutions of Florida Farmworker employers. Language has plays an instrumental in how these atrocities can occur and shifts in language can change how often these situations can occur.
The movement for Immigrant rights has fought take ownership of this language. Many in this movement refer to themselves as Undocumented Immigrants. What if we as a whole shifted our language? In referring to this demographic as Undocumented rather than Illegal we can start to move away from the negative connotations the word illegal holds much like the shift from Slave to Contraband changes Mallory’s