As a black American male. Just the subject alone in this well acted film is taboo. In the states, as in the UK during that period of the British Empire reigning supreme. Most mulatto off-springs were killed at birth anyhow. The shame & disgust that this act brought on families(both black & white) would turn them away from such inequities.
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In this case that didn't happen and the movie is based off of a real story.
shareHi disent1929,
I didn't understand your post. You say the film is absolutely terrible, but then commend the acting.
Where do you get your information that most mulatto children were not killed at birth? A child born to an enslaved woman would become a valued slave if the father was white. In much of the Indies, children of mixed race became the middle class, a bridge between the white ruling class and the enslaved. The British were quite enthusiastic where miscegenation was involved and you found children of mixed race all over the empire. As noted before, the film is based on a true story.
Where do you get your information that most mulatto children were not killed at birth?
A child born to an enslaved woman would become a valued slave if the father was white. In much of the Indies, children of mixed race became the middle class, a bridge between the white ruling class and the enslaved. The British were quite enthusiastic where miscegenation was involved and you found children of mixed race all over the empire
Thanks Sook-Yongsheng,
I can only assume the OP is a troll who stirred up the pot and ran away.
That is my understanding too, digitaldiva - I don't know the extent of 'most mulatto children were killed at birth' - but certainly not a universal truth, otherwise the Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain would not be the woman she is today. She is a direct descendant of the George III and his wife Queen Charlotte, who is herself believed to be of mulatto descent. So that would make the British royal family and most of the royal houses of Europe (via Queen Victoria) with mulatto blood....
Most mixed race children were killed at birth? That certainly explains why a group of African-Americans do not look like a group of West Africans. Not.
shareYou don't even critique the actual film, you just start ranting, coming from a black american male.
shareYou are a black American male troll.
shareIt's hard to believe that the offspring of white slave-owners and black slave women were usually killed at birth, since their worst fate was to be slaves, and slaves were worth money. In the American South, they were generally brought up as slaves, often as house servants, with their white parentage unacknowledged except by gossip. Recent DNA evidence has revealed that *most* African Americans have at least some European ancestry, which would argue against any policy of mass extermination of mixed-race children!
In the British and French colonies at the time this (essentially true) story takes place, what became of mulatto children probably varied according to what their owner/father chose to do. We do know that at least in some cases, they were cared for and educated to occupy some ambiguous role in their father's social world, and even provided with an inheritance. In Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair, there is a character whose social position is rather comparable to Belle's--a school fellow of the two main characters, apparently the child of a rich white planter in the Indies whose father has left her well provided for. Thackeray suggests (in passing, since this is not his main story line) this young lady's awkward situation in society; however, because of her wealth she is accepted in many circles.