“The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic and social change, when empires were built, but no victory came without sacrifice.” That’s the opening line in the description for The Gilded Age Season 3, premiering this Sunday, June 22 at 9/8c on HBO. The tagline from the trailer is, “Love can conquer all, or cost you everything.” Love and money (or lack of both) do come at a steep price for just about every character this season. And impacting every interpersonal dynamic are historic events that shape society.
The Gilded Age Season 1 included historical figures such as Clara Barton (Linda Emond) and her Red Cross efforts, and Season 2 featured Booker T. Washington (Michael Braugher) and the Tuskegee Institute, Thomas Edison illuminating the New York Times building, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House (and the subsequent decline in popularity of the Academy of Music), and more. The Gilded Age Season 3 is jam-packed with historical references and some of the most important political issues of the time.
The Gilded Age Seasons 1 and 2 were set in 1882. The Gilded Age Season 3 picks up in March 1883, when an unexpected late-winter snow has fallen. Here’s a breakdown of historical topics covered in The Gilded Age‘s third season, in no particular order, with commentary from the show’s creators.
1. The Temperance Movement
Ada (Cynthia Nixon) inherited a mountain of money from her late husband, Reverend Luke Forte (Robert Sean Leonard), in Season 2. With Agnes (Christine Baranski) and Oscar (Blake Ritson) now as broke as it gets following Maud Beaton’s (Nicole Brydon Bloom) scam, Ada’s the head of the house (or so she says… it’s an awkward adjustment for the upstairs and downstairs crews). Ada dives more into philanthropic work to honor Luke’s memory, and she throws her weight behind the Temperance Movement, of all things.
The Temperance Movement was a political and social movement dedicated to abstinence from alcohol, or at least moderate consumption. It gained popularity in the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the movement eventually succeeded in making Prohibition the law of the land in January 1920 (it was repealed in December 1933). Supporters of the movement believed alcohol ruined lives and families. They took sobriety pledges and encouraged others to do the same.
Imagine what fresh hell awaits Agnes if she can’t have her wine as she copes with losing her fortune. Heads have rolled for less!
2. Divorce (and the Struggle to Get One)
HBO
No-fault divorce wasn’t legalized until 1969 in the U.S. That meant it was nearly impossible to get a divorce before then, no matter how rich you were. The only legal reason for divorce in this time period was adultery. More than one wealthy couple will face the threat of divorce in Season 3, and the subject will ring throughout the eight-episode season.
The Gilded Age creator, executive producer, and writer Julian Fellowes tells TV Insider, “When a couple seeks to get divorced, the first thing they have to find out really is are they in possession of a good relationship where there is a problem, or is the problem that their relationship is no good?”
Certain couples in Season 3 will be questioning if their romantic partnerships are enough, or if they want something more out of life. Executive producer/writer Sonja WarfieldSonja Warfield says that Kelli O’Hara’s Aurora Fane will face this conflict.
“I see the season as coupling and uncoupling,” Warfield tells TV Insider. “So we’ve got a lot people coming together and people coming apart. Nowadays, we take divorce for granted, but back then divorce was rare and taboo. You were shunned by society if you got divorced.”
It doesn’t matter if you were the innocent party in a divorce caused by adultery in this time. Divorce was a massive scandal regardless, “as you’ll see with Aurora Fane, a cousin of the old money van Rhijns,” Warfield says. “In the patriarchy, if the man initiated the divorce, it didn’t really matter, because a woman’s place was tied up in being Mrs. George Russell or Mrs. Charles Fane. That was your identity.”
History tells us that the Russell marriage could be at risk in this season of splits.
Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector‘s George and Bertha Russell are loosely based on Alva Vanderbilt and William K. Vanderbilt. Alva divorced William in 1895, citing adultery, causing a huge shakeup in Manhattan society. Getting divorced at this time period, even if you weren’t the one who committed adultery, was extremely taboo and basically a social death sentence. With Bertha seemingly promising to marry daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) off to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb), Bertha and George will be more at odds than we’ve ever seen before.
3. Women’s Suffrage
Women’s right to vote has been a topic of interest for Gilded Age fans since Season 1, given that the women’s suffrage movement began in the U.S. in the 1800s. The movement first gained traction in 1848, decades before the start of The Gilded Age‘s plot, when the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted in Seneca Falls, New York. The Gilded Age Season 3 is finally addressing this topic head-on, and it’s doing so through an intersectional lens.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the famed Black suffragist, will be a character this season played by LisaGay Hamilton. Per HBO’s character descriptions, Frances inspires Peggy (Denée Benton) to become involved in her cause, in spite of the dissenting opinions of those around her. With white and Black people debating the topic, discussions of including Black people in the suffrage movement are bound to arise. Certain people in Peggy’s personal life will disagree with her feminist views.
Many women from this time period were anti-suffragist in real life. Ashlie Atkinson‘s Mrs. Fish, for example, is based on Marion Graves Anthon Fish (a.k.a. Mamie Fish), who was vocally against women getting the right to vote.
“When we got the history and the research back about these specific women in the upper class being anti-suffragist, I was surprised, but we wanted to portray that because that was real,” Warfield tells TV Insider. She adds that Phylicia Rashad‘s new character, Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland, will be “at odds” with Peggy “about many things, including women’s right to vote.” Mrs. Kirkland is the mother of Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), Peggy’s new love interest in Season 3. Her husband/William’s father is played by Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Warfield says that Mrs. Kirkland is effectively the “Newport’s Black Mrs. Astor.”
4. Colorism Among the Black Elite
Colorism (prejudice against people with darker skin tones) is a major topic in Season 3 in Peggy’s storyline. The series has frequently covered topics pertaining to the racism of the time, including unintentional racism from Marian (Louisa Jacobson) that caused serious discontent in her and Peggy’s friendship. Season 3 introduces viewers to the real-life history of community of wealthy Black families in Newport, Rhode Island. This is where the colorism storyline begins.
Karolina Wojtasik / HBO
“The great advantage to us of women’s suffrage was that it cuts across everything,” Fellowes tells us. “Class, color, religion, everyone was involved in this fight, and there was no predicting which side they’d be on. And so you have families split down the middle and so on. That’s always good for television, to have reasons for people to be that aren’t predictable, that aren’t just class-based or whatever it is. This was an issue that really cut families in half, and we wanted to explore that.”
Fellowes says another “motive” to add colorism into the storyline was to show the fact that “the Black community could be just as divided and split up about different issues as the white community, that any community of human beings is capable of division.”
5. The Transcontinental Railroad
The railroad industry is massively expanding this season — or at least trying to. All of the robber barons with skin in the transcontinental railroad game will be competing to get a piece of the action as locomotive transportation moves westward. A business venture of this scale comes at a great price, one even George Russell may struggle to pay.
The Gilded Age, Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, June 22, 9/8c, HBO
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