Warning: SPOILERS for The Gilded Age Episode 4 - "A Long Ladder"

T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones) was a real person who becomes Peggy Scott's (Denée Benton) new editor in The Gilded Age episode 4. Julian Fellowes' prestige period drama centers on the societal conflict between Old New York and the New Money millionaires looking to upend New York's high society. But The Gilded Age, which is set in 1882, also rounds out its world by incorporating real-life historical figures like Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) and Clara Barton (Linda Emond), the American Red Cross' founder. T. Thomas Fortune is the latest notable person of the 19th century dramatized in The Gilded Age.

Peggy is a talented African-American writer who aspires to a career as an author but getting her work published has been easier said than done, thus far. Miss Scott, who was educated at the prestigious Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, did a good turn for Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) and was hired as the secretary of Marian's aunt, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski). Peggy wants to get her writing published but she was treated unfairly by the editor of The Advocate newspaper. Because of her skin color, The Advocate offered to publish Miss Scott's writing under demeaning conditions. Peggy refused The Advocate but she was soon contacted by T. Thomas Fortune, the editor of the New York Globe, a prominent Black newspaper. Fortune was impressed by Peggy's work and by Miss Scott herself. He offered Peggy an assignment to write about her political perspective and convictions as an African-American.

Related: The Gilded Age: Clara Barton & The Red Cross Explained

The real T. Thomas Fortune was, indeed, a prominent writer, editor, and printer who worked for the New York Globe during The Gilded Age's 1882 timeframe. Timothy Thomas Fortune was born into slavery in 1856 Florida, which makes him 26 years old and a peer of Peggy's when they meet in The Gilded Age. Fortune grew up knowing the terror of the Ku Klux Klan, which fueled his activism as an adult. He was mostly self-taught working for various newspapers in his younger years. Enrolling in college for law in 1875, Fortune switched his major to journalism and began working for People's Advocate, a Washington D.C. newspaper, in 1876. Fortune and his wife,  Carrie C. Smiley, moved to New York City in 1879. Thomas became a journalist and editor of The Rumor, which changed its name to the New York Globe prior to Fortune meeting Peggy in The Gilded Age. By 1884, The Globe shut down and Fortune published The Freeman, which became the New York Age in 1885. By the late 1880s, T. Thomas Fortune was considered the greatest Black newspaper writer in America.

Thomas Fortune Gilded Age

Judging by Peggy's fortuitous first meeting with Thomas Fortune in The Gilded Age, they are going to have a monumental working relationship. Fortune is being primed to become a major influence in Miss Scott's writing career going forward. Thus far, Peggy has kept many secrets about her past. She had a falling out with her father, a Brooklyn-based owner of a pharmacy, and Peggy doesn't want to be bound to her family. In spite of the limitations placed on her as a Black woman by society in The Gilded Age, Miss Scott is admirably determined to make it as a writer on her own terms, and Fortune is the ideal alley and mentor to help Peggy realize her dreams.

Meanwhile, Peggy has only disclosed her secret to Marian's lawyer and suitor, Mr. Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel), but not to Marian herself. Perhaps T. Thomas Fortune will factor into helping Peggy reveal - and even write about - whatever the great mystery Miss Scott is holding onto about her past. Fortune's political stance may also influence Peggy and get her in trouble, especially if her writing raises her profile and places Scott in conflict with the beliefs of her Old New York employer, Agnes van Rhijn. T. Thomas Fortune died in 1928 at age 71, but in The Gilded Age, the writer and activist is in his prime and Fortune is bound to be a major player in Peggy Scott's life and career.

Next: Why The Statue Of Liberty's Hand Is In The Gilded Age (Where's The Rest Of It)

The Gilded Age airs Mondays @ 9pm on HBO and streams on HBO Max.