There are rumors there's a fugitive slave in Amherst, which means the the threat of the slavecatcher hangs over all Black people in the town, including the Dickinsons' hired hand Henry. So how does Emily respond? By encouraging Henry to play Othello in her Shakespeare Club's latest production! George, having been rebuffed by Emily, decides to take the patriarchal route to get her to marry him. And in Boston, it's intimated that Sue may be sexually assaulted by the man who employs her as a governess for his children. It's a lot! (Probably too much.)

Learn what women dealt with in a world before consent was a thing, the truth about Emily and Austin's race and class prejudices (such as we can tell), and why Amherst is definitely not the town in Massachusetts an escaped slave would head to. Plus: Jericho's crush on George is definitively over.

Breezy, Jericho, and Aífe, joined by special guest, the poet and playwright Malcolm Tariq, talk back to Season 1, Episode 5 of Dickinson: "I Am Afraid to Own a Body."

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Poems featured in the episode:

"No Rack can torture me" by Emily Dickinson

"The Mother of Othello Comes Before Us" by Malcom Tariq