The purpose of this blog is to highlight the presence of the people of the African Diaspora in period costume dramas. It is also to provide a historical context to the films featured.
Patina Miller is playing Charlotte Jenkins an abolitionist.
From the PBS website: Charlotte Jenkins is a smart, capable, feisty former slave-turned-activist who comes to Alexandria to help the growing population of refugees newly escaped from bondage (also called “contrabands”) in making the transition to freedom. She soon finds out that they need far more than education. Most contrabands have little more than the rags on their backs and few prospects for employment. The Union Army, tasked with their welfare, does little more than provide basic rations, and those are sporadic at best. (A little-known part of Civil War history, contraband camps existed in a sort of refugee netherworld between free and enslaved, with nowhere to go, no food and no money. Many died of disease due to overcrowding and starvation before ever learning what true freedom meant.) As soon as Charlotte arrives in Alexandria, she sees the magnitude of the crisis, recognizing the onset of a smallpox epidemic in one of the contraband camps. She comes to Mansion House Hospital seeking assistance and support, only to be met with prejudice and a cold shoulder from the administration. Undeterred, Charlotte turns to Mary Phinney and Samuel Diggs (McKinley Belcher, III) for help. Together they embark on a mission to contain the epidemic. Her alliance with Samuel Diggs sparks a friendship that holds potential for something deeper.
Patina looks great as Charlotte Jenkins and the prospect of seeing how the series handles the contraband camps is exciting!
Cora Unashamed is a 2000 movie based on the short story by Langston Hughes. Spoilers Following!! The film begins in 1916 Melton, Iowa. Cora is in labor. After she delivers the baby her mother tells her, “Ain’t no good come out of white and colored love, Cora” Cora has just given birth to a bi-racial baby. Instead of letting her mother's words upset her she says, “We don’t care what anyone says, we don’t care at all.” She names the baby Josephine “After her daddy Joe” Cora is a loving and engaging mother who works as a maid and nanny taking care of a white child named Jessie Studevant. Jessie Studevant Cora is a black woman named in a small town. She has put off many of her dreams. She wanted to be a writer but had to leave to work. Her daughter Josephine also has a love for words. She constantly asks Cora what certain words mean. Cora tells Josephine that she'll be able to go to school in the fall with Jessie. Grandmother
Based on the 2013 James McBride novel, The Good Lord Bird follows a young enslaved boy as he joins John Brown in Brown's abolitionist mission during Bleeding Kansas. Newcomer Joshua Caleb Johnson plays Onion (who is a fictional character) and can be heard narrating the trailer. Just like in the award winning novel, the series will be told from the point of view of Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson). You will also spot Daveed Diggs (of Hamilton fame) as abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass. The seven part miniseries will premier August 9th on Showtime.
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