She was but if you notice TVD completely negates slavery in general. If you go back to the 1864 flashbacks it’s not mentioned once, when Alaric is going over the Civil War in class it’s also not mentioned, and when Bonnie was talking about her ancestors from Salem again it’s not mentioned that they were slaves or even free slaves. It also makes no sense that Emily would travel from a free state to a slave one. Plus Damon was a Confederate soldier who left because he “didn’t agree” which was vague af and probably an opportunity to save the implications of that but chose not to because as far as Plec and Williamson were concerned slavery never existed and was a fairy tale.
TVD chose to set it’s show in Civil War era Virginia and completely ignore the context of that which is why Emily ended up being called “handmaiden” even though we knew she was anything but. Just look at how Katherine treated Emily, that’s not how you treated a handmaiden.
In fact, the only time Slavery is acknowledged is in TO with Marcel, but that was just to serve the “white savior” complex and even ignored the context of that from there after. When Marcel talks about his past it stopped being about slavery and about daddy issues to make Klaus seem like a good guy for letting Marcel have basic human rights. Which is very telling to Plec’s mindset.
The treatment of this character is probably one of the most overlooked and I understand why. A) he was a heretic, something everyone always saw as knock off Originals. B) he was in season 7 and by that point most people done with Plec’s racist bullshit had stopped watching the show. And C) No one really remembers him probably because he had absolutely no lines, you’d think they would at least have him use sign language, but naw–I’ll get into that later.
I remember him, and I remember being very uncomfortable with what they did to his character and not realizing exactly why beyond the fact that the only black Heretic is also mute and it’s completely gratuitous. After analyzing my thoughts more I realized it’s so much more.
For me the only really memorable heretics were Nora and Mary Louise, and Valerie. The reason for this is because a) a lot of screen time was given to them, b) they’re the only ones that made it past one episode and c) a lot of development was given to these characters. Then I remember Beau, he was one of those three things, and trust me it wasn’t screentime or development. He’s in more than one episode, but why isn’t he given the same treatment as the other heretics? Surely he holds the same exact importance as the others, but he isn’t and I think we all know why.
So a lot bothered me about how this character was written. First he’s the only black heretic which isn’t what bothers, what bothers me is there’s no context for this character. There’s lots of context for what Nora and Mary Louise went through as lesbians in the 19th century, but absolutely none for Beau. Lily, a white woman from the Confederate south meets Beau, a black man who can suck the life out of her quite literally, imma needs some backstory on him. They already had the “white savior” thing going, but I would have loved to know what his struggles were back then–his were a lot worse than Mary Louise and Nora (and I’m not arguing about that so don’t @ me)
Then there’s the fact that he’s mute. The only black one in the bunch literally has no voice, he has no say in anything, but what’s worse is that being mute doesn’t automatically make someone non-communative, that’s just what they did to his character. He rarely voices his opinions in any sense someone else is always doing it for him. There’s also how he lost his voice. The only reason we get this information is because Lily laments about missing his singing voice. He doesn’t get to voice or express any of his pain at losing his voice, it’s Lily, the white woman he’s been essentially an indentured servant for who does–it’s her pain that’s focused on (sound familiar). I seriously could not make this shit up.
But the thing that gets me most is that he is the only one treated as a slave to Lily and it’s all under the mask of “loyalty” which is the most reoccurring theme when it comes to black witches on this show. Bonnie “loyal” to the Elena, Emily “loyal” Katherine, Greta “loyal” to Klaus, Ayanna “loyal” to Esther, and the list goes on and on. Beau seems to be the only one who has to be “loyal”. All the other heretics love and respect Lily, but everyone has rebelled in some capacity, all except Beau. He does everything she says, never questions it, and is honestly the only one ordered to do things. The only other one who gets ordered to do something is Oscar, the only other minority heretic, but at least got to rebel, and choose his own path.
Beau honestly reminded me of Harper from season 1 which I know most of you don’t remember, he was the first tomb vampire to be introduced. He black and the only other thing known about him is that he “died” in the war as a soldier. Again due to TVD’s complete negation of slavery we’re missing context, and he’s the only tomb vampire loyal to Pearl. The only difference is a) he has a voice, b) he has opinions, and c) he isn’t forced to act outside of his own self-interest which are all pretty significant differences BUT why is there such a low bar when it comes to black characters?
Even with that small amount of agency, he, like Beau, ends up dead and forgotten. With as much as Lily stressed that they were a “family” or becomes inherently clear that Beau isn’t apart of it. He isn’t afforded the same amount of care as the other. No character of color is.
As a bisexual black woman, I find it odd seeing straight, white women in fandom headcanon black women as a wlw or, if she’s canon bisexual, focus so intently on their attraction to women. There’s not necessarily an issue with that in itself but I’ve seen a lot of “keep her as far away as possible from the white male fav” reasoning disguised as shipping. It’s happened with canon straight characters (Michonne, Bonnie Bennett) as well as canon bi characters (Valkyrie, Toni Topaz). And in the case of black bi women, there’s the addition of fandom implicitly or explicitly erasing their bisexuality. I don’t think shipping or fandom should be gatekept but it’s worth questioning the intent sometimes. In this case, are you using sexuality to remove a perceived undesirable/undeserving threat or because you see black women as too masculine/dominant/aggressive to be with a man?
This usually gets me the most with Bonnie when some people ship her with Elena. Her Magic negro/slave role which she mostly plays toward Elena is interpreted instead as unrequited love which I find worse because in either case it’s not reciprocal. It’s always Bonnie willing die for her and Elena saying she is but never following through. Their relationship in the context of friendship is bad enough, no need to add romance to that and fuck it up farther especially since it gives them a convenient excuse to ignore the anti-blackness of the whole situation.
POC of TVD 