Ultimately, both Uncle Tom and Dred flattered but failed to change substantially the nature of the black image presented for popular consumption. The nobility of Oroonoko had been eroded by the continuing pressure of a culture still steeped in slavery until, a shadow of his former self and an anachronism from an earlier age, he survived only as parody. Othello towered over all, yet, despite his iconic status, he could do nothing to change the contours of a dramatic stereotype that, essentially, was set by Charles Mathews and T. D. Rice and became burnt into popular consciousness. Throughout it all, for over a quarter of a century, during this time of rapid social and political change, Ira Aldridge toiled up and down the country resurrecting the dramas of the past with their wider perspective on the black; choosing those serious melodramas that could offer scope for a fuller depiction of black potential ; playing in whiteface the despised Jew, Shylock; and even attempting to turn the old, old stereotype of the villainous Moor into a thoroughly Victorian hero. It was all to little avail.

In 1857, the year following Dred's advent, came a major rebellion against British colonial rule in India, and the language that was used of those rebellious natives echoed the language used against rebellious blacks. A continent whose culture had once been respected, in some circles at least, for its antiquity and subtlety became the home of ‘niggers’ whose barbarities knew no bounds.