Black in Period Films

Gloria Obianyo has been added to the season 7 of the Outlander series, based on the book series by Diana Gabaldon.  Obianyo will be playing a character named Mercy Woodcock. Mercy Woodcock is a free woman of color in colonial era South Carolina. She is connected to the storyline because of her relationship with Henry Grey, who is the nephew of the beloved character Lord John Grey. She appears in An Echo in the Bone and Written in My Own Heart's Blood. Book Mercy is a self assured woman, whose husband may or may not have died on the battlefield. As she nurses Henry Grey back to health, they fall in love with each other. I'm eager to see how much of Mercy makes it to the series.  Honestly speaking I'm not at all optimistic about how much we'll see of her (for various reasons). Chiefly because she is already a minor character. Secondly, because the character Phaedre was erased from the tv series after a brief appearance, even though her role in the books ...

Because of how few black characters there were in the past 3 episodes of Outlander Season 4, I have decided to put my quick recaps for these episodes into one post.  I knew that this quick recap series would be short and sweet; as IMDb had the actors for Ulysses, Phaedre, and Gayle (Colin McFarlane, Natalie Simpson, and Simona Brown respectively)   listed in less than half of the thirteen episodes for season four.   It was expected and I’m not disappointed because I like what I’ve seen from the characters so far. Outlander S4E3: “The False Bride” In episode three we only get a glimpse of Ulysses telling Mistress Jocasta that Jaime was bidding her farewell. Besides that, we see a few well-dressed people of color in the airport back in the 1970s with Brianna and Roger. Source: Outlander Wikia Page Outlander S4E4: “Common Ground” The beautiful Simona Brown made her first Outlander appearance in this episode. Gayle is Brianna’s roommate and friend. We first see t...

Before watching the newest episode of Outlander, I had already read some Tweets about the second episode of this season. I knew that in this episode the storyline would revolve around black enslaved characters. While of course this series ultimately follows the story of time traveler Claire Fraser, I was not disappointed by the attention paid to the experience of enslaved black persons. While the episode was gruesome and upsetting, I appreciated ‘Do No Harm’ for showing what life was like for enslaved persons in 18 th century America. Source: @Blacklanderz on Twitter  The episode starts with an enslaved woman winding up the clock for the day. I liked this included detail as it shows just how many tasks slaves were responsible for. Oftentimes media covers the field work that slaves were used for, but not the numerous other tasks they fulfilled to enable their owners’ lives of ease. In this episode we meet both Ulysses (Colin McFarlane) and  Phaedre  (...

Welcome to our first ever Outlander Episode Recap! As this is Blacks in Period Films, this recap will be specifically about any black characters that appeared in the season 4 premiere of the hit series.  Each week we  will discuss costumes, characterization, and the larger context of their place in history.   At the start of the episode we are told that we are in North Carolina 1767. I appreciate this timestamp, as it positions myself within the time and place of the story that I am about to watch unfold. 1738 map of North Carolina We get our first glimpse of black characters 44 minutes into the episode. They are enslaved servers. This is to be expected of a series taken place in 18 th century America. In 1767 there were about 40,000 slaves in the North Carolina colony. This was a sharp increase from the 6,000 enslaved persons that resided in 1729 North Carolina. Of those 40,000 slaves, about 90 percent of these slaves were field workers who performed...

According to Entertainment Weekly , we have two new Outlander castings to look forward to! The Starz series recently announced their casting of the show’s fourth season; which debuts in November.  Among the new additions are Natalie Simpson as Phaedre and Simona Brown as Gayle. Phaedra is Jocasta Innes's enslaved maid and seamstress   at River Run. I won’t talk much about her backstory as I’m not sure what will be considered a spoiler. However beyond noting that the character is soft-spoken and kind, I will also list her physical description from the novels (Phaedra first appears in Drums of Autumn and subsequently appears in The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and An Echo in the Bone). Phaedra is described as having thick, long, dark hair which is often covered with a headscarf, dark brown eyes, and cinnamon-brown skin. Based on Simpson’s looks I’d say they casted the role perfectly. We know and love Simona Brown from Roots (2016), where she played J...