Westcotts & Dunbars & Petits by Robert Brophy

Join us to learn some Westcott Neighborhood history. The Street is named for early Syracuse mayor Moses Westcott; one block over is the Dunbar African-American Legion Post, named for the great Black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, once called, respectfully, the “Poet Laureate of the American Negro Experience.” Few know Paul’s father Joshua Dunbar was a “US Colored Soldier,” as then said in the Civil War. His wife, Paul’s mother, was twice a widow of Black American soldiers. Joshua Dunbar & the Westcott brothers, the mayor’s relatives, fought for the Union. So did Jewish, Irish, and Black Americans from Westcott Nation.
Thousands in CNY enlisted to save the Union, and free it of slavery. Among them were two young Westcott brothers Matthew and Mark, their friends two Jewish Light brothers, Solomon and Lewis, and later (when finally allowed) two Douglass brothers, Charles and Lewis, with Joshua Dunbar and Syracuse’s own Black George Washington. Most of the Westcott neighborhood, Jewish, Irish, German, Scots volunteered. There was even a Captain Petit—not a namesake, not a Librarian, but an artillery battery commander.
This play brings out their history. It also dramatizes an eternal conflict between the live-and-let-live, do your own thing attitude the “Westcott Nation” is known for; and sacrificing yourself and others to fight causes like slavery, to protect Black Freedom, and for your country. We cannot resolve which is fully right; A discussion will follow after the last song.

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Pictured
Bottom Left: Lewis Douglass - served in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry
Top Right: Charles Douglass - served in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry
Center: Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Clinton Square, An Incident at Gettsyburg - which features the 149th NY Infantry that Mark and Matthew Westcott and Solomon and Lewis Light were a part of