Sparked by 鈥楽anditon,鈥� author creates nuanced Black colonial characters
Jane Austen鈥檚 unfinished novel 鈥淪anditon鈥� recently gained a fan following after PBS broadcast a series based on it. (The premieres March 20, 2022.) But when author Vanessa Riley encountered the novel, she became more than a fan. One of its minor characters not only stood out to her, but changed the direction of her career.听
Austen鈥檚 Georgiana Lambe is an elegant, wealthy, biracial heiress who travels from the West Indies to the fictional seaside resort of Sanditon. Miss Lambe is enigmatic, and Austen鈥檚 narrator describes her as precious, 鈥渁lways of the first consequence,鈥� and 鈥渃hilly and tender.鈥澨�
Dr. Riley immediately took notice. Her own heritage is of the West Indies 鈥� Trinidad and Tobago 鈥� and South Carolina. And along with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, she has a repertoire of novels in the romance and historical fiction genres that elucidate the stories and histories of women of color.听
Why We Wrote This
As historians unearth the stories of Black lives in British colonial times, novelists are lending imagination and romance to the effort. For author Vanessa Riley, creating full-blown characters is critical to righting the historical record.
鈥淲here are my people? And where鈥檚 the representation?鈥� Dr. Riley says she鈥檚 often asked herself those questions when reading Regency and historical fiction, especially considering the enormous financial underpinnings of commodities like sugar and cotton, and the labor of enslaved people, that fueled 18th- and 19th-century colonialism.听
鈥淎nd yet you read romance, you read a lot of historical fiction, and this is not mentioned,鈥澨齭he says during a recent Zoom interview.
As historians unearth stories of Black lives of the Regency and 18th and 19th centuries, novelists like Dr. Riley are adding works of imagination, with stories featuring adventure and love.听The combination offers not only a more accurate understanding of the past but a more three-dimensional view of human experience, both factual and fictional.听
When she encountered Miss Lambe, Dr. Riley says she felt driven by a pressing question: Was Austen being consciously progressive? Or was she simply describing the world she saw?听
While the answer contains a little of both, for Dr. Riley it was the search that mattered, leading to a discovery of real Black women鈥檚 lives from British colonial and Regency eras.
Getting to know Dorothy Thomas
For Dr. Riley, one life in particular 鈥� that of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas 鈥� stoked her imagination. She found that was born to an Irish plantation owner and an enslaved woman in Montserrat but had become a wealthy, influential person by the time she died in 1846, having lived at least into her 80s. Known as 鈥渢he Queen of Demerara鈥� (part of present-day Guyana), she鈥檚 thought to have had 10 children and multiple grandchildren, some of whom were privately educated in the United Kingdom.
The more she learned, the more Dr. Riley was hooked.听In fact, Thomas听is the basis for her latest novel,听鈥淚sland Queen,鈥� published in July, which spans Thomas鈥� life, encompassing her beginnings in slavery and chronicling her journey to achieve freedom and a business empire, all while shepherding a huge family across countries, islands, and continents.
鈥淭his woman is phenomenal,鈥� Dr. Riley says, 鈥渢hat she鈥檚 able to just restart her life in these various colonies. She does it with children!鈥�
鈥淪ome of us have struggles taking our kids to Walmart in the backseat of a minivan,鈥� laughs Dr. Riley, 鈥渁nd she鈥檚 taking 17 [children and grandchildren] from Demerara 鈥� all the way up to Glasgow, Scotland. Because of this world of money that has opened up the world to her, she wants her grandkids to see this. And to feel this. And she鈥檚 paying for the education of these children. And she鈥檚 funding schools for the education of colored girls in London.鈥�
An avid reader of Regency romance, Dr. Riley wondered why she hadn鈥檛 encountered entrepreneurial women of color beating the odds in colonial islands before.
鈥淚 mean, this is an enormously fabulous woman who rose against all kinds of odds,鈥� says Dr. Riley. 鈥淔or her to be completely wiped off the books just blows my mind.鈥�
That same bafflement drove Gretchen Gerzina鈥檚 research. The real-life stories of women of color in the Regency era are not always easy to find, even for trained historians like Dr. Gerzina, who has teased out histories from fragments and written books and BBC radio programs documenting Black lives in historic Britain.听
鈥淚 wanted to make people see 鈥� that these people are walking the same streets, we鈥檙e living in the same neighborhoods, and I wanted to make it a living, breathing history,鈥� Dr. Gerzina said on 鈥淭he Austen Connection鈥澨齣n July. 鈥淧eople didn鈥檛 quite realize that there had been a Black British history that goes back as far as the Romans. ... So it鈥檚 become quite a well-known issue now. Although there鈥檚 still a great sense of many British people wanting not to understand or believe that past.鈥澨�
Dr. Riley says Dr. Gerzina鈥檚 work inspired her as she dug for Thomas鈥� history, drawing on scraps 鈥� wills, historic newspaper reports, and legal records 鈥� to reconstruct her life. But there is much more work to be done in documenting the real lives of women of color, specifically in the West Indian colonies, she says.
Staking a claim to 鈥渉appy every after鈥�
Writing Thomas鈥� reconstructed life involves a lot of active words not usually associated with women of color under 18th-century colonial oppressions: words like entrepreneurship, manumission, agency, and status.听
Also present 鈥� importantly for Dr. Riley 鈥� are love, romance, and听鈥渉appy ever after.鈥�
Thomas鈥� life is adventurous, including her fascinating relationships with men 鈥� possibly even one with a sea captain prince who would later become England鈥檚 King William IV. Such experiences, woven into Dr. Riley鈥檚 book, make it highly romantic reading, and an awful lot of fun.听
But Dr. Riley says despite the adventure, she resists the urge to make Thomas superhuman. She wants readers to see a real person in all her complexity, including the pain Thomas endured and the compromises she made, like owning and profiting from enslaved people as her businesses and influence expanded.听
鈥淒orothy was very human,鈥� says Dr. Riley. 鈥淪he felt a lot of pain. She went through a lot of suffering, but she had a will to survive that I haven鈥檛 read about for a long, long time.鈥澨�
Readers looking for Regency adventures on the screen might not be surprised, especially after the record-breaking success of the Netflix/Shondaland series 鈥淏ridgerton,鈥� that 鈥淚sland Queen鈥� has been optioned for the screen. Dr. Riley confirmed听听that 鈥淏ridgerton鈥� director Julie Anne Robinson and star Adjoa Andoh have optioned the movie rights to the novel.听
A 鈥淏ridgerton鈥� fan, Dr. Riley says flipping the script of the usual narrative of pain, putting a free woman of color at the center of the narrative, and making that narrative romantic and joyful give the story its power.
She says she never thought she鈥檇 get a chance to tell this story, precisely because it鈥檚 a historic tale where pleasure overwhelms the pain. For a long time, she adds, publishers expected and seemed to commission stories featuring Black pain. But she feels a turning point occurred in May 2020.
鈥淪omething happened, something changed, and unfortunately we can trace it to George Floyd,鈥� she says.
Dr. Riley finds the publishing business more open to complex and true narratives now, so she is channeling her passion for Regency era stories into illuminating, through historical fiction, the real lives of historic women of color, even when those histories are hard.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I鈥檓 a big advocate of Black romance,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ecause you just need to be safe, and have a 鈥榟appy ever after.鈥� And I鈥檓 just so thankful that now听鈥榟appy ever after鈥�听includes everyone.鈥澨�
Janet Saidi is a journalist who鈥檚 assigned herself the Jane Austen beat. When not working on her podcast and newsletter, 鈥�,鈥�听she is producing at NPR-affiliate KBIA radio and lecturing at the Missouri School of Journalism.
