Name: The Book of Negroes
ISBN: 9780393351392

Lawrence Hill

Aminata Diallo is kidnapped from Africa as a child and sold as a slave in South Carolina. Fleeing to Canada after the Revolutionary War, she escapes to attempt a new life in freedom.

The Book of Negroes

this book broke my heart over and over and over again. and I let it.

sophie <3

Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle--a string of slaves-- Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic "Book of Negroes." This book, an actual document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own. Aminata's eventual return to Sierra Leone--passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America--is an engrossing account of an obscure but important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey. Lawrence Hill is a master at transforming the neglected corners of history into brilliant imaginings, as engaging and revealing as only the best historical fiction can be. A sweeping story that transports the reader from a tribal African village to a plantation in the southern United States, from the teeming Halifax docks to the manor houses of London, The Book of Negroes introduces one of the strongest female characters in recent Canadian fiction, one who cuts a swath through a world hostile to her colour and her sex.

Kayla 

A powerful book that should be on everyone’s TBR. .
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I’ve had this book for years and have only just read it! Wow this book offers a fascinating story about a girl from Bayo Africa who is forced to become a slave in America. Aminata goes through so much and what I liked about this novel is how it is written as a reflection. Aminata is now an old woman in England about to speak with the abolitionists about the slave trade. She is writing down her story and takes us all the way back to Africa when she was 12 years old. .
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What surprised me (and it shouldn’t have been a surprise) was that a lot of the slaves were Muslim. We are not taught anything about the culture, languages, traditions of slaves in school. We are not taught that they were doctors and landowners and scholars. I think this book gave a much needed sense of humanity to the people we forced into slavery. What was your idea of a slave before reading this book? I honestly cannot tell you because I was not taught to view them as having any sort of history before they came to America and Canada, that is where their history begins for us living in countries built by slaves and it’s appalling to say the least. .

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Shawna Gavas

What a fantastic read!

This book is set in the years 1757-1802, and follows a young girl named Aminata Diallo as she is abducted from her home, taken as a captive, sold into a life of slavery, and ultimately escapes. The author paints a vivid picture of life for Aminata...you can feel the fear, smell the ships and taste the desire for freedom.

The only rock I can throw at this book is the final chapter. Without giving it away, I felt an alternative ending might have been more in line with the tone throughout the story. As it was, the ending felt too coincidental to me and left me rolling my eyes and thinking "yea right".

That being said, I still consider this a 5 star book and would encourage anyone looking for a book of substance to read it! It is a story that made me think...and one I will soon not forget!

Sameer Vasta

Reading Aminata Diallo’s autobiography reminds me of reading Frederick Douglass earlier this year: stories of horror, atrocity, perseverance, strength, disappointment, hope, and sobering reality that tell us much about the experience of the solace, but even more about the inhumanity of the slave trade and how we were all complicit in its continuing effects. Hill’s notes, acknowledgments, and further reading lists that close the book are well-worth diving into and will serve as fodder for my reading lists to come.

(originally published on inthemargins.ca)

The Book of Negroes

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