A Community of the Curious - Writing and researching historical fiction

 I love research! My students question my sanity, but honestly one of the parts of writing historical fiction I love the best is the research--so much so that I need to forcibly stop myself from continuing to research and start writing my novel. I'm revisiting and revising my historical novel about the daughter (Joanna Vassa) and sister (name unknown) of Olaudah Equiano. In the process of conducting research, I came across three scholars/historians and Equiano aficionados. They are part of a community of the curious about Joanna Vassa. I'm a card-carrying member now, too.

Dr. Angelina Osborne's research uncovered documents about Joanna Vassa and information about her life, which she published in a book entitled Equiano's Daughter, The Life and Times of Joanna Vassa. Momentum Arts in Cambridge published the book as part of the Untold Stories Arts and Heritage Project designed to highlight the lives of Cambridgeshire's Black and Minority Ethnic people. Nine years ago I undertook a pilgrimage to England to visit the sites where Equiano lived and wrote, Joanna's grave, The Congregational Church in Clavering where her husband was minister, and William Wilberforce's museum in Hull. 

Dr. Vincent Carretta is another member of the community of the curious. His research led him to write a seminal biography of Equiano, Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man. 

Arthur Torrington, CBE, is a Guyanese-born community advocate and historian who co-founded the Equiano Society in London in 1996. He personally took me on a tour of the spots in London where Equiano is known to have lived and worked and brought me to Joanna Vassa's gravesite in Abney Park Cemetery. The Equiano Society recently hosted a Zoom event on Joanna Vassa, and Dr. Vin Carretta was one of the speakers.

The community of the curious about Equiano, his life, and his family continues to grow. I am honored and delighted to be part of this particular community of the curious about Joanna Vassa.

What kinds of wonderful people have come into your life through your research?

 

Centering the marginalized ... in fiction

 

According to Merriam-Webster.com, marginalized means "relegated to a marginal position within a society or group."

"Refugees are the world's quintessentially marginalized population: They are by definition located at the edge, beyond boundaries, on the outside."    — Tamar Mayer"… the domination and oppression of women and other marginalized groups within patriarchal culture."    — Susan M. Squier

Joanna Vassa's grave at
Abney Park Cemetery

Marginalized - the first image that comes to mind is a sheet of paper with margins. The margins are purposely blank. The important information is inside the margins. But what does it mean to be marginalized? Society deems certain people, certain groups, usually the oppressed, unfortunate, those struggling for equity and opportunity, and often people outside the bounds of "the norm" -- marginalized.Who says? Should we accept this relegation to the margins? No! I say let's shift our perspective. Maybe those who have been shuffled off to the margins should be in the center. And even more radical... maybe those consigning people to the margins should be marginalized themselves!Who is marginalized in American society today? Those who don't have a home or a job or hearing or vision or mobility -- they are identified by what they do not have rather than what they do have. Those who occupy an extreme... too dark, too small, too big, too flamboyant, too religious, too political. I've been thinking about the issue of marginalization in relation to the two novels I have written. My first novel, Remnant, a historical novel about the daughter (Joanna Vassa) and sister of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano wrote and self-published his autobiography in 1789 and became the richest African living in England in his day. He married a white woman, Susannah Cullen, and they had two daughters. By 1797 Equiano, also known as Gustavas Vassa, Susannah, and their firstborn daughter Anna Maria had all died, leaving Joanna Vassa a bi-racial two-year-old orphaned. Joanna could be the poster child for a definition of "marginalized" (except for the fact that her family had money and she inherited a tidy sum of £950 when she turned 21). Even the grave of Joanna Vassa was marginalized until Prof. Vincent Carretta discovered it covered in weeds and lying on its side, and brought it to the loving attention of the Abney Park Cemetery staff. He centered her grave. Additionally, Equiano's final resting place was unknown until recently, when Prof. Carretta aided by Equiano Society associate David Gleave found this record in church archives: “6 [April 1797] Gustus Vasa, 52 years, St Mary Le bone.” Equiano is buried in the cemetery next to the former Whitefield’s Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road (currently the American International Church). Equiano's gravesite location has been centered.Susannah Cullen married Olaudah Equiano - interracial couple #1. Joanna Vassa marries Henry Bromley - interracial couple #2 (these are both historical). Olu (Equiano's sister) marries Teddy - interracial couple #3 (fictional). I'm moving the marginalized (interracial couples) to the center. I'm centering the marginalized in my writing.In my second, contemporary novel, Expecting, the main character Michaela is traumatized when her mother dies in childbirth, leaving her with a fear of childbirth and determination to become an obstetrician, and preventing her from accepting Victor’s advances…the Deaf man with whom she has fallen in love. My Deaf characters in the novel are in the center of the action, not on the margins. In Expecting, it is normal to be Deaf. I center the marginalized.How do you "center the marginalized" in your writing?