African American Romeo and Juliet, where art thou?

I recently published an e-single for Kindle that is a historical slave romance. I know you can find stories involving true love between slaves (Toni Morrison's, Beloved for one); however, historical antebellum romance always makes me think of slave/master-slave/mistress love stories. I don't purport to have read them all and so forgive me if this is not the case for you. I, on the otherhand, am left to ask, where is our Romeo and Juliet?

A few years back, I bought Pamela Newkirk's collection of love letters, A Love No Less. Let me tell you, to read a love letter written by a slave who has been sold away from his wife where he says, "if we cannot be together in this life, we will be in the next" (paraphrasing here) was one of the most endearing things I've ever seen. (And I'm a sucker for love. I see it everywhere.) I felt as though it was something we were not taught and I also felt a little angry that I hadn't seen images like this enough.

Of course, slaves experienced true love. Of course, there were broken hearts and hand-holding. Of course, there was someone telling them that they couldn't be together like Romeo and Juliet (even more so.) I felt as though the entire existence of black love could and should have been fortified with the foundation that yes, our ancestors loved hard. Furthermore, they may not have had the choice to try to keep a family together but now you do. Why mess up a good thing?

So, I am left to ask if we'd have as much baby-mama, baby-daddy drama today if images of black couples in love were around? I remember hearing people say that The Huxtables were not realistic. I've heard that James Evans was killed off of Good Times because there were no married couples in the projects. (Interviews with John Amos suggest he spoke out against the negative portrayal of black people in Norman Lear's hit and was promptly let go.) If the Waltons were the Watsons, would we continue to share our partners or accept various forms of abuse? Would more men have a goal of finding a wife and having a family instead of a goal of conquesting as many women as possible? Would more women seek love instead of provision?

In my short story, "Of Bondage and Freedom," Curly and Gus have that real ride-or-die kind of love that, though tested, never falters. I don't know if you would think of them as the African American Romeo and Juliet, but I hope you can appreciate their image. It is now available for Kindle. (And uh, parental discretion is advised.)