I think there was a justified basis for suspicion and skepticism from the one chapter given. the foundation a story is built on, and it's execution, determines the strength of the final story. even though I can think of ways this could have beaten expectations, this story was on shaky ground to begin with, starting with the setting and characters, and ending with the "I'm your slave" line.
it's not just one or two things in isolation, it's multiple choices adding up that leads me to conclude that there was some unconscious, subtle racism present in the formulation of this series, which wasn't a good sign that the creator would be able to do well in telling the story sensitively as it went on. ignorance by itself isn't a crime, but failing or choosing to learn and be informed is a problem, especially when it comes to the topics this series would have dealt with.
the underlying reasons that incited the civil war, the formal reasons the North and South fought, and the choices made to rebuild in its aftermath are all consequential in American politics today, so this time period was going to be a touchy subject and background for a bl romance, given that many people's defenses of bl rest on "it's not that serious" or "don't expect anything complex or well-written".
in the first place, the setting and synopsis: of all the kinds of people and stories you could tell about this time period in this place, why are these the ones chosen? what's the appeal of their dynamic? how is the setting and time period relevant to that? why frame the story in those terms?
as it stands, it looks like a very deliberate choice to write around the existence of Black people who lived during that time even though their presence and labor is integral to the livelihoods of the MCs. maybe the author thought they'd avoid the backlash they got by doing that, but that's still an expression of racism, by ignoring that Black people are also people who want their stories and experiences told and treated with respect. and if the author didn't want to include Black people, which they're ultimately not obligated to do, they would have been better off choosing another topic and setting to write about, because like it or not, when writing about American history, you'll have to grapple with the racial dynamics of this country one way or another, to say nothing of the civil war era (even postwar) where the crux of the conflict was "what are we going to do with Black people (are they even people?)". to then make the only Black people in the story be faceless mobs seemingly only with the intention of making the white MC look good and ethical, just rubs salt in that wound.
it's very suspicious to have a story where the civil war and its aftermath are significant to the narrative and characters, and then only feature Black people as background props to assure modern readers that the protagonist isn't a bad person by their standards. maybe there would have been actual Black characters done well in future chapters, but that initial presentation does not inspire confidence in the creator since they were not even aware of the implications of what they drew in chapter one. and if they were aware of the implications and making choices for shock value in the first chapter, like the "I'm your slave" line, then the response to those choices shows that the creator needed to reconsider their approach if they wanted better, more favorable reactions.
that's not even getting into how ezra, the ml, looks very ethnically and culturally vague... how was the creator going to handle the history of dispossession of indigenous lands and the violence inflicted on indigenous people by whites to settle their land and by indigenous people on whites to defend themselves? and that's not getting into how the ml is evidently mixed-heritage with blue eyes, which is its own can of worms in terms of visual design choices and how the creator would explore that character background. perhaps the creator would have given more depth and nuance on the power and racial dynamics between the mc and ml in this time period, but their handling of the setup in the first chapter gave me significant doubts.
if the author wanted an interracial cowboy romance with this particular dynamic, they had other options for time and setting (and not to mention that those power and racial dynamics are present in other times as well).
every choice a creator makes in their story reflects their knowledge and interests, which are not free from bias. intentional or not, there were many opportunities for missteps here.
racism isn't always direct insults and targeted violence. it's also erasure and exclusion, putting particular people in particular roles. it's often unconscious and not deliberately intended. similar to how bullying isn't always physical violence, racism can operate in all kinds of subtle ways that can be hard to explain to other people if they aren't the target of it. many explanations have also been given in these comments for why people have reacted negatively to this.
I liked these threads for more background info -
https://x.com/SPLover1863/status/2069382347972063697
https://x.com/SPLover1863/status/2069512321475465603

i dont get why people hate on the first chapter already, guy got rid of his slaves and gave them money to go to their families. whats wrong with that?? genuenly asking