The Book of Negroes

[bibliogramma]

The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill
(published as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, Australia and New Zealand)

I cannot give high enough praise to Canadian author Lawrence Hill’s brilliant and multiple award-winning novel about the journey of one woman, Aminata Diallo, from her childhood as the intelligent and inquisitive daughter of a merchant father and a midwife mother in a small village in West Africa, to her old age as a freed slave invited to London by abolitionists who hope that her account of her life will sway Parliament to end trafficking in human lives.

Aminata Diallo is an unforgettable character. Her life encompasses the range of the experiences of slavery in North America, without once stretching credibility. The rich detail of every stage of Diallo’s life speaks of exhaustive research. The narrative rings with emotional truth.

The Book of Negroes is real – a document drawn up by the British during the last days of the American Revolution, listing the names and personal information of 3,000 Black Loyalist slaves and former slaves who rendered service to the British during the Revolution and who were transported to Nova Scotia as a “reward.” There, despite some initial assistance in establishing several Black settlements, they faced a pattern of official indifference and active racism from other settlers. Eventually, over a thousand of the Black Loyalists returned to Africa, where they founded Freetown, in what is now Sierra Leone.

Hill makes his indomitable Aminata Diallo a part of this story. Taken into slavery, she survives the Middle Passage to be sold to the owner of an indigo plantation. The story of how Aminata – or Mina Dee as she comes to be known - survives the brutality, deprivation and indignity of plantation and great personal loss of husband and children to become one of the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, and then one of the founders of Freetown, is a compelling and deeply moving story, and a testament to the courage and endurance of the real men, women and children whose names can still be found in the Book of Negroes.

Comments

[deirdre-nyc.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. I've seen books from Lawrence Hill Books, so I wonder if it's named after him.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but on the surface, it doesn't seem likely - Lawrence Hill Books is an imprint of the Chicago Review Press which was founded in the 70s (although I don't know when the imprint was established), and Hill is Canadian.

But... his father, Daniel G, Hill, was originally from Missouri, but moved to Toronto in the 50s, where he became prominent in the human rights movement (he was the first Director of the Ontario Human rights Commission, and later served as Ontario Ombusman). His mother, Donna Bender Hill, was also a human rights activist, and she was originally from Chicago. Both also wrote about the Black experience and Black history.

Which does make one think there ought to be a co-incidence, because Hill's family has been so closely associated with writing and with Black history and human rights - which I gather is precisely the kind of material published by Lawrence Hill Books.

If it's a coincidence, it's an interesting one.

Anyway, the book is very interesting, very well-written, and has been very important in Canada, because we have not been very good at looking at our own Black history.

[deirdre-nyc.livejournal.com]

This isn't precisely on topic, but I read a great book about the history of anti-slavery organizing in upstate New York, which was one of the gateways into Canada for people escaping enslavement.
http://deirdre-nyc.livejournal.com/2007/02/13/
It was clled North Star Country. I lived in Utica and the surrounding area until I moved to NYC. I found the book to be fascinating.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Thanks, it does sound interesting (alas, the number of interesting books I hear about just keeps growing).