Black in Period Films

Verona's story is the typical mixed race period film story. Simply put she is a tragic mulatto. The "tragic mulatto" is an archetypical mixed-race person (a "mulatto"), who is assumed to be sad, or even suicidal, because they fail to completely fit in the "white world" or the "black world". Following the long tradition of mixed race period film/novel characters, Verona (Christine Ahanotu)  has a black enslaved mother and a slave owning father that refuses to grant her freedom. According to  IMDb the storyline of Verona is: A young woman in antebellum Georgia is, at birth, made a slave by her own father, yet is forbidden to love anyone, slave or free. Verona sitting for a photograph.  With that plotline you go into the film thinking it will be from Verona's POV, but it is not. From the 30 minute to 50 minute mark we follow a character called David Lee (Arthur Clark), her love interest. Because of this weird narrative choi...