The Book Of Negroes (original 2007; edition 2007)

The horrors of the slave passage from Sierra Leone to North Carolina by an eleven year old survivor. This is Meena's story from slavery, escape, Revolutionary War from the Loyalist view point, transport to Nova Scotia, then Freetown, Sierra Leone and finally the English abolitionist movement in London. The story is well told with lots of detail which is heart felt. ( )

Crafting a story that is beautifully written and impossible to put down, Lawrence Hill has written the female version of Roots. Taken from her family at the tender age of 11, Aminata Diallo survives the journey from Africa to the American colonies. Throughout the story, the main theme is the importance of recognizing the humanity and individuality of other captives, how the sharing of names acts as both a memorial to those who are lost and as an anchor to those who survive. Aminata's journey from freedom to slavery and back to freedom is difficult and often frightening and painful, but also full of hope. Aminata's courage and strength in the face of truly terrible circumstances is amazing. She uses her strength to survive and her intelligence to improve her situation and eventually becomes the
"face" of slavery for an abolitionist group who founds Sierra Leon. Highly recommended.

Quotes:
I remember wondering, within a year or two of taking my first steps, why only men sat to drink tea and converse, and why women were always busy. I reasoned that men were weak and needed rest.

The abolitionists may well call me their equal, but their lips do not yet say my name and their ears do not yet hear my story. Not the way I want to tell it. But I have long loved the written word, and come to see in it the power of the sleeping lion. This is my name. This is who I am. This is how I got here. In the absence of an audience, I will write down my story so that it waits like a restful beast with lungs breathing and heart beating. ( )

Hill has created an incredible story and an incredible character in Aminata Diallo. The strength, endurance and perseverance she possesses are remarkable and I was engrossed from the very beginning of the book. I read this book two years ago and it has stayed with me ever since.

The book description reads as follows: "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."

Hill did enormous research and based much of the novel on extracts from diaries, letters and memoirs he uncovered. The story is so well woven and cause one who thinks their eyes are already open to open them even wider. I highly recommend it to everyone. ( )

This book should be mandatory reading for anyone living in North America. ( )

A page-turner, elegantly written and meticulously researched. An eye-opener. ( )