HBO'S ‘THE GILDED AGE’ ACTUALLY DEPICTS THE 19th-CENTURY BLACK ELITE WITH HISTORICAL ACCURACY (AND THAT'S DOPE)

There's an episode in Season 1 of HBO's The Gilded Age, a period drama set in late 19th-century New York, where the young, new to New York Marian Brook (played by Louisa Jacobson, who I literally just learned is the youngest daughter of one billion award nominations holder Meryl Streep) makes an unannounced visit to the Brooklyn home of her new friend, Peggy Scott (played by relative newcomer Denée Benton), hoping to surprise her with a gift, of sorts: a bag of old, used shoes.

Historically, mainstream media has often relegated Black characters to roles defined by struggle and subjugation. But the Scott family, who are Black, wealthy, and educated, epitomize the upward mobility achieved by many Black Americans post-Reconstruction. Peggy’s parents, Arthur (played by Till's John Douglas Thompson), a pharmacist, and Dorothy (played by queen, icon, Tony award winning Audra McDonald), a pianist, live in an opulent Brooklyn brownstone with its own staff. And they are definitely not in need of old shoes.

You Will Not Say ‘Can’t’ to Me.

If you've never watched The Gilded Age, let me give you the rundown. The series, created by Julian Fellowes, chronicles the lives of wealthy families during the late 1880s. The show centers primarily on two wealthy families in particular who live in neighboring mansions on Fifth Avenue and represent opposing forces in New York society: the Old Money Van Rhijns, who proudly tout their pre-Revolutionary roots, and the nouveau riche Russells, who are determined to use their railroad fortune to conquer Manhattan.

But in an unusual twist for this kind of high society tale, The Gilded Age also follows the Scotts, a prominent Black family in Brooklyn.

If you're a period drama enthusiast (some would say fanatic) like myself, by now, you've come to expect a certain kind of grandeur from Fellowes. Best known for Downton Abbey, his dramas deliver corseted intrigue and plenty of silver service. But when The Gilded Age premiered on HBO, something unexpected happened. Right in the middle of all the New York high society, amid the marble staircases and diamond-studded soirées, there was Peggy Scott: a young, ambitious Black writer, and secretary to the prickly Agnes Van Rhijn (played by the fabulous Christine Baranski), whose presence isn't just a narrative footnote, but a centerpiece.

What's interesting is, unlike what you were probably taught in history class, the existence of an elite Black population in this era of the city—Black men and Black women who had careers, money, and influence—is a factual reality, though one not often explored in pop culture.

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a professor of history at Rutgers University whose work focuses on Black American women of the 18th and 19th centuries, was actually enlisted as the show's historical consultant and co-executive producer to help ensure this authenticity. Of her work Dunbar said: “What does the average person know about the Black elite in New York in the 1880s? The answer is very little if anything.” To look at how film and television have generally treated this era of Black history, she added, “There’s this huge gap between the Civil War and slavery and then, maybe, the Harlem Renaissance—as if nothing happened in between.”

But for the people who produce and perform in The Gilded Age, the Scott family represent an opportunity to dramatize this overlooked chapter—to transcend enduring stereotypes and give these characters inner lives and a surrounding world as rich as those of their white counterparts. The Scotts are not only affluent, but respected, and that’s the point.

Revolutions are Launched by People with Strong Views and Excess Energy.

Ok, mini history lesson: The era known as the Gilded Age is dated between the 1870s and the 1890s. This brief period in U.S. history saw the end of Reconstruction, the expansion west, and the massive accumulation of wealth by a small group of the population due to industrialization and the growth of railroads. Only a few years after Emancipation, the Gilded Age also ushered in the new Black elite, also known as “the colored aristocracy,” the “black 400,” the ‘upper tens,” and the “best society”, as noted by Willard B. Gatewood in his book, Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880-1920.

But to be part of the Black elite during that time, didn't just mean wealth. It meant education, influence, and political connections. Members of this small community attended schools like Oberlin, Fisk, Harvard, and Yale. They were doctors, educators, entrepreneurs, and belonged to exclusive social organizations like “The Social Circle”. It's a really fascinating topic within the history of Black people in America and is still an understudied piece of American history.

That Woman Has the Resilience of a Cockroach.

Inspired by real Black elite of the era, Peggy ain't your typical period drama side character. Played with quiet intensity by Denée Benton, she’s smart, stylish, and deeply principled. It would’ve been easy for The Gilded Age to use Peggy as a foil for its white characters, a moral compass or a token of diversity. But Denée Benton wasn’t about to let that happen. From day one, she pushed to make Peggy complex. She’s not perfect. She makes hard choices. She hides painful secrets. She dreams big. And sometimes, she fails.

And that’s where things get really interesting. Because through Peggy, we’re asked to think about more than just racism (though that’s obviously a central theme); we’re also invited to consider Black ambition, Black intellectualism, and Black femininity in ways we rarely see in mainstream period dramas. Her friendship with Marian isn’t just a cute cross-class subplot—it’s a slow-burn examination of allyship, ignorance, and the emotional labor that often comes with navigating interracial friendships.

Peggy is a writer, because its one area where women have been pretty successful for a long time. Women—Black or otherwise— were allowed to be novelists. They were allowed to be poets. And it didn’t seem to offend the masculine sensitivity the same way other professions did.

She isn't based on a single historical figure but is inspired by many real Black female trailblazers, some of whom were writers too. These include the renowned author and activist Ida B. Wells, who documented lynchings across the country and became one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Julia C. Collins, a Black teacher and writer from Pennsylvania whose incomplete book, The Curse of Caste; or the Slave Bride, is often cited as the first novel published by a Black American woman; and Susan McKinney Steward, the first Black female doctor in New York.

But Whoever Achieved Great Things Without Taking Chances?

One of the most radical things about The Gilded Age is how casually it treats Peggy’s family’s success. There’s no elaborate backstory explaining how they “overcame” adversity. They’re simply… successful. It’s an unspoken reclamation of space, a refusal to justify Black excellence, and a nod to the fact that Black wealth isn’t new, even if it’s accuracy is new to TV.

And that’s what makes this story feel so fresh. It’s not about exceptionalism. It’s about visibility. We’re not watching Peggy prove herself; we’re watching her be herself in a world that isn’t ready for her, but can’t look away.