Black History Month: A White Author Reflects on Crafting African American Characters

I do not have many African American characters in my books, but I do include some—notably a Black couple and their children who were part of the 1847 wagon train in Lead Me Home. This family also appeared in Now I’m Found. I spent a great deal of time thinking about how to portray these characters responsibly.

I wanted to be faithful to the pre–Civil War era in which these novels are set, while also depicting characters who would appeal to modern readers. That balance is not an easy one to strike. In an earlier post on writing about race in historical fiction, I wrote,

“I could ignore the topic by not having characters of different races in my novels, but I think part of the purpose of writing historical fiction is to show the time period of the novel in all its facets.”

African Americans—and people of all races—were part of American history. Leaving them out does not make a novel safer, more enjoyable, or more accurate.

Many white writers worry about misrepresenting the experiences of people of color, and that concern is understandable. Yet, in many ways, today’s white authors are as different from their white ancestors as they are from the non-white people those ancestors encountered. The world is a different place today than it was in the 19th century. If we can imagine the inner lives of people separated from us by centuries, by geography, or by culture, then it is not unreasonable to imagine the lives of people who are unlike us in race. And to ignore the stories of Blacks and Hispanics and Asians and Native Americans is as bad, in my opinion, as misrepresenting their experiences. Silence can erase just as thoroughly as stereotypes.

So how should historical fiction writers proceed? For me, it begins with context. Readers need to understand why people had limited access to education, why certain customs existed, and how law and social structure shaped daily life. It also means showing diversity within a race or culture rather than relying on easy or familiar depictions. No group of people has ever been monolithic.

In another earlier post, I wrote about the practical decisions involved—what language to use, how much legal history to include, and how to portray prejudice without imposing modern attitudes wholesale onto 19th-century characters. Making those choices required that I understand the world my characters inhabited, not just chronologically, but socially and emotionally.

Historical accuracy, however, goes beyond dates, laws, and customs. It also requires attending to the emotional lives of characters. People in the past—of all races—loved, feared, hoped, failed, and persevered just as we do. The fictional Tanner family in Now I’m Found had ambitions for the future, faced frustrations and losses, and experienced moments of joy as well as hardship and prejudice. In shaping them, I researched real Black pioneers to Oregon and used those historical figures to inform my story.

Moreover, race relations in the United States have never been monolithic. Even within a single time and place, there existed a wide range of views—from abolitionist thought to slaveholding and everything in between. Allowing white characters to hold differing opinions made it possible to reflect that complexity without pretending that nineteenth-century America shared modern assumptions.

When characters of all races are grounded in research and written with emotional attentiveness, historical fiction can reflect the richness, pain, and contradictions of the past rather than flattening them.

By basing the characters of all races and ethnicity on research and emotional sensitivity, it is possible for today’s historical fiction writers to tell stories that reflect the richness, pain, and complexity of the past.

How do you think authors should handle writing about people unlike themselves?