Mixed race character in a historical

[valarltd]

We were bitten by the heterosexual Historical bunny.
So "Yellowstone River Blues" is in the works.

Basically, imagine a middle-aged Erroll Flynn falling for a slightly-less middle-aged Thandie Newton.

The problem is, Paz appeared as profoundly mixed in my head.

Her father is the son of a runaway slave and his Apache wife.
Her mother is the result of a wealthy Texas landholder's liaison with his Mexican cook.
Her parents were burned out and murdered by ranchers/US military who were trying to open the land to white settlers.

Is this too complicated? Is it too Mary-Sue or fanfictiony?


Also, what period appropriate term would she use for her grandfather?
I'm thinking Negro was the polite term in that era.

Would you, as a reader, hurl a book across the room if a sympathetic character referred to her ancestry in such terms?
(unsympathetic characters will have less polite terms)


And if anyone can point me to a website featuring prices in the 1890s, it'd be much appreciated.

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Yes and yes. You've got four different races and multiple family traumas all boxed up in one person -- this is what's ringing the Mary Sue bell, because one definition of MS is that she's an overloaded operator, she's Qui-Gon's daughter AND Obi-Wan's first girlfriend AND Palaptine's niece AND the fastest pilot in the galaxy AND speaks fluent Wookie. The character here is overloading, too, unless everything else is fleshed out to novel length to counterbalance her.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My top end is 30K
And I knew when I saw her, she was overloaded.

I just wanted her lovely, all golden, even to her topaz colored eyes.