Conclusion

The Conclusion looks at Hollywood studios’ changing attitudes towards issues of race, from films like Lydia Bailey to Planet of the Apes, Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation and Black Panther. It also highlights the enduring inequities that give descendants of slaveowners and of enslaved peoples asymmetrical access to defining slavery in public culture. Nevertheless, given Black Panther’s success (and the addition of Haitian characters to bestselling video games such as Red Dead Redemption 2), the chapter argues that there is a greater market for content featuring Black heroes than studios once thought. It also suggests some promising concepts for Haitian Revolution films if funding were made available.