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I promised myself I wouldn't do this but:
A major reason so many historical romances are whitewashed is because the minute you bring POC into your regency world, you have to answer this question:
How did your rich white hero make his money?
A major reason so many historical romances are whitewashed is because the minute you bring POC into your regency world, you have to answer this question:
How did your rich white hero make his money?
Was it via the slave trade? Does his family own plantations? Is he an 'absentee' slaveowner? Did he 'make his fortune' in the East India Company? No? He just invests in trade?
If he 'invests in trade' he is, at least, complicit in British Imperialism and colonial atrocities.
If he 'invests in trade' he is, at least, complicit in British Imperialism and colonial atrocities.
Or maybe his family just *checks notes* secured their wealth via the Enclosure Act of 1773 which caused huge displacement of people and forced them to the cities.
If he's a Scottish landowner/lord.... well. Google the Highland Clearances.
If he's a Scottish landowner/lord.... well. Google the Highland Clearances.
Historical fiction is always fantasy of a kind. But the fantasy of a landed gentry who *haven't* made their wealth off of the degradation of the working class and POC across the Empire, who *aren't* complicit in violence, falls apart when you write POC into the narrative.
Like, whoops, we suddenly can't ignore the monstrous elephant in the room! Very hard to have lust and love and hope with that elephant over there!
And look, I love historical romance. Love it intensely. I'm not saying 'BIN IT ALL'.
And look, I love historical romance. Love it intensely. I'm not saying 'BIN IT ALL'.
But I am saying: historical fiction's whiteness exists not because of historically accuracy, but in staunch resistance of it, and contending with colonialism in historical fiction of any kind is never an easy task, but one I'd love to see even more writers wrestle with.
And there are writers who do try and do this! In UK-set histrom Carla Kelly wrote a romance set in the Highland Clearances (Doing No Harm); Courtney Milan's new historicals contend with this. But this is applicable in many cases, across the genre.
