William Edgar Easton[a] (March 19, 1861 – January 10, 1936) was an American playwright, journalist, and political activist.

James was a veteran of the Revolutionary War—he planned the fortification of Dorchester Heights[6]—and a prominent figure in the Black community of Massachusetts in the early Republic.

[2] Beasley does not record which college this was, but the use of the French term Sainte Croix for "Holy Cross" suggests that Easton attended one of the several schools in Quebec organized by the Congregation.

[2] Price notes that was a momentous and somewhat unusual decision for Easton to have made, given that he was "a young man just out of a Canadian Catholic seminary".

[14] He also held a number of positions with the state Republican Party, beginning an activist career that would last long after he departed Texas.

[14][17] In 1911, he published an editorial in the Los Angeles Herald, denouncing the assault of Booker T. Washington that year in New York City.

[25] Easton wrote two plays that received wide notice at the time, both about prominent figures in the Haitian Revolution: Dessalines (1893) and Christophe (1911).

[30] Byrd and Twa note that the play glosses over Dessalines's "massacres" and "despotism" in favor of a focus on religious and romantic themes.

For the reasons, as above enumerated, has the author presumed to lay on the altar of race pride the dramatic tale of the heroic Dessalines.

[31] Hill and Hatch count two other runs of Dessalines: one in Pittsburgh in 1909, which Davis directed and starred in; and one in Boston in 1930, in a company led by Maud Cuney Hare.

The reviewer expressed some displeasure that Easton had not chosen a subject from American history, writing:… we sincerely hope … the splendid inspiring example set by Mr. Easton being emulated, will yet give us from the pen of some one of our many brilliant and growing crop of race writers, a drama purely American …[36]The Freeman later offered its readers a copy of Dessalines as part of a holiday promotion.

[37] Albion W. Tourgée reportedly stated at the time that Dessalines was "the highest evidence of literary culture thus far produced by an American negro".

[40][41] Besides Davis, cast members included R. Henri Strange, Lawrence Chenault, Frederick Douglass Hogan, Otis Sherman, and Blanche DeForrest.