Washington Black Proves That Black Stories Don’t Always Have To Be About Trauma

While there are so many noteworthy stories in film and television that portray Black history realistically — with all its pain, trauma, and suffering — Hulu’s newest show Washington Black (based on the novel of the same name) dares to show another side of the coin. While Washington Black recognizes the importance of telling Black stories rooted in trauma and resilience so that we never forget, its true message is that there’s also an equal need for historical Black stories filled with joy, hope, and adventure. 

Delving into the rich history of African settlement in North America, the show weaves a colorful tapestry of how Black culture flourished in Nova Scotia, Canada due to it being the last stop on the Underground Railroad in the late 1800s. The Underground Railroad was the largest anti-slavery movement in America, ferrying thousands of Black fugitives to northern states and Canada so that they could find freedom and build a new life. Washington Black tells the story of what came after. The series recognizes the pain of the time, but it also tells the tale of a hopeful, intelligent, and adventurous young Black man starting a new chapter — one of possibility and uncharted lands.

Even today, it’s rare to see a show like this featuring a predominantly Black cast. Starring Ernest Kingsley Jr. as the titular character of Washington (“Wash”) Black and Sterling K. Brown (executive producer, Academy Award nominee, three-time Emmy winner and newly minted nominee), it takes you alongside Wash’s journey as he dares to imagine a future for himself free of the limitations placed upon him by society. At its heart, it’s an epic, coming-of-age period piece that creator, showrunner, and executive producer Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, executive producer and showrunner Kimberly Ann Harrison, Kingsley Jr., and Brown discussed further on a Refinery29 x Hulu panel at the show’s recent screening event in Los Angeles on July 22. Keep reading for three main takeaways from the panel — and watch Washington Black, now streaming on Hulu.

Sharing stories is a powerful way to heal and Washington Black feels like a breath of fresh air. It recognizes the toll slavery took, while underscoring the breadth of resilience. In the show, Wash was born on a sugar plantation farm in Barbados, but he leaves his past behind to pursue a path of science and invention. “You have a young man who can see the beauty in things that seem broken to other people,” Kingsley Jr. said. “He can see the potential, the possibility, and the wonder. It’s imbued with so much heart that the team put into it and it was a no brainer [to be part of it].”

Wash meets life-changing characters along his journey that change the trajectory of his life. As the viewer, you’re able to witness the key stages of his life as he grows into someone enthusiastic about a path that he’d never dreamed of. “Black folks deserve whimsy, too,” said Brown. “The idea that all of our stories in American fiction have to focus on trauma or pain is not the only thing that we have to tell. We can come from painful circumstances, but we can transcend those circumstances through the power of imagination, the power of hope, and the power of our joy.” 

This was a unique project for the creators — a story they were excited to tell because it shined a light on the other side of Black history. “Reading and seeing this epic adventure, I’d never seen anything through the lens of a young Black boy in this type of scope,” Harrison added. “That was amazing to me. I look at my own boys and it’s something that I can sit down and watch with them. We can dream, discuss, and identify [with the characters]. This opens the door to have discussions.”

In the show, Medwin Harris (played by Brown) says, “The only way Black folks can climb this mountain is if we pull each other along.” Although the series takes place in the past, that statement still rings true more than ever today. According to Hinds, the project was also born from a deep personal connection to the source material. “I got into the book because I saw my story in Wash,” he said. “I’m from the Caribbean and on both sides of my family, we’ve actually traced our roots back to Barbados where the character is from…Between the ages of 14 and 19, I had my own odyssey of different ecosystems and different characters. There was something about Wash’s journey that felt really personal. And as any writer knows, you tell a universal story once you find your specific way in.” 

Growing up, Hinds was drawn to books that were transportive,  always featuring a voyage of epic proportions. Because of the universal themes explored during Wash’s adventures — resilience, resistance, hope — the show serves as something of an outlet for the Black community, one that can be related to by all. 

At a time when Black history is being questioned and banned, it’s more important than ever that projects like this exist. Telling Black stories through film and television creates an opportunity for art, but it also powerfully cements our history in a way that can’t be erased. “One of my favorite lines in the show is when Wash says, ‘I’m free, you can’t take it, even if you kill me,’ and that is the truth,” said Hinds. “That line is about one word, and that’s resistance. The show by its existence is an act of resistance and it’s an act of history. It’s a line in the sand that can’t be erased. It’s a manifestation of a particular desire that we all had as creators, so in and of itself, it creates history. The fact that a show like that was made by people like this is history. It says we were here, we did that, and they can’t take it away.”

The show was filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Brown noted that the dialect of the Afro Nova Scotian community was almost identical to Gullah culture, a group descended from enslaved Africans in South Carolina, thus proving the undeniable connection that the Underground Railroad produced. It created a space for Black people to flourish and be free, and keeping this connection alive is what drew Brown to the project.

“The idea that you have to erase us in order to appease other people just seems sort of strange and backwards,” Brown said. “There’s been this separation of, ‘We’re not like them, they’re not like us.’ But what I’m legitimately hopeful for is that we start to see the ties that bind, the things that make us common, [and] the things that we share with one another. As a spiritual being, I believe that we are all one…I wanted to show where folks from the islands, folks from the states, and folks from across the pond are able to come together and find solace and peace with one another through connection.”

While many of us might not be familiar with these deeper aspects of Black history, the show sets up opportunities for education — an invitation to dive deeper into the connections that have allowed Black culture to flourish today.