the book of negroes. lawrence hill

There are some books you don't feel qualified to review. Here am I, a middle aged, Australian woman who, although I have faced gender discrimination in my life, have never remotely dealt with anything like the challenges faced by our heroine, Animata Diallo. Yet, I felt strongly connected to her. Her love of language, her dignity, her spirit and love of family - all these things I can relate to. To me, she was a strangely modern character, well ahead of her time, strong, outspoken, reflective but not once during the book did I feel that Lawrence Hill portrayed her unrealistically. On a side note, I find that the fact that Hill penned his protagonist as female is interesting in itself - he certainly "captures" the female psyche well! Lawrence Hill has done his homework and, in doing so, has educated and enlightened me. I had little knowledge of the African Slave trade. Sure, I knew that people were captured from different language groups, bound together and shipped to wherever they would fetch the highest price whilst facing unspeakable cruelties and indignities, but that was about it. I didn't know anything about daily life on the plantations, the Book of Negroes, the shipment of Loyalists to Nova Scotia and other destinations, the establishment of Sierra Leone. I had seen Slaves as wretched people and, undoubtedly they were but I hadn't realised the extent to which they were able to form communities, comfort and nurture each other and tenuously keep in touch with others through the underground "fishnet" system. To say that they often triumphed over adversity would be an understatement. Yet, their losses and the humiliations inflicted on them were mind numbing. On considering what Animata lost, gained back, lost again, all the while enduring uninagineable hardship, it was difficult to see her surviving and yet she did - magnificently so. At the risk of spoiling other readers' enjoyment of her story, I will only say that her survival is only one of the uplifting events in this book of sorrows. The writing is spectacular but never inaccessible. Lawrence Hill tells this epic tale simply. Written in the first person and in a narrative style (both styles I usually steer clear of), it is never dry or dull and doesn't intimidate the reader. And his writing is poetic. How could you not cry when you read something like "Englishmen do love to bury one thing so completely in another that the two can only be separated by force: peanuts in candy, indigo in glass, Africans in irons"? I did have a couple of minor issues with the ending of the story - it was a bit "neat" for me and felt a bit rushed (as if Hill had a publishing deadline to meet or something) but those issues didn't diminish my overall reading experience one little bit! In summary, to those readers who long to read something of substance, READ THIS BOOK. You will learn so much about the lives of the slaves ripped from their homelands and those born into slavery. You will also be uplifted by the resilience of the human spirit and what it's capable of accomplishing. But you won't just learn - you will also get to read a well researched, well written, rollicking good book! And those are few and far between!

This is undoubtedly a great book that will stay with me for a long time. Aminata Diallo is a powerful character—a woman who endured immense hardship yet emerged with a small but meaningful victory. While slavery is widely known, it’s rare to truly consider the experiences of the enslaved and the profound challenges they faced adapting to a new culture, separated from family and homeland. Lawrence Hill’s work on this book is exceptional, offering a deeply moving and insightful narrative.

This is a book that personalises the horrific history of the slave trade through the eyes of an inspirational, driven and larger than life character. I found myself being educated on the origins of the slave trade - I never knew that it began with Africans enslaving other Africans - and the role of the US and the UK in the horrors that followed. It's hard in 2011 to believe that so many people were treated worse than animals but this novel brings this to life in a wonderfully readable and descriptive manner. The Book of Negroes doesn't preach but it's remarkably easy to become enraged at what these people had to endure in order to make money for others. But it is all told by way of one woman's story making the whole thing easy to follow and allows one to unravel the complicated history of slavery by means of a touching and vivid narrative. While the protagonist is one of fiction all the events are unfortunately real. I learned so much about Africa, the US, Canada and ultimately the amazing story of the foundation of the capital of Sierra Leon, Freetown. All in all, a page turning, riveting and touching story. I found myself in a former slave fort on the coast of Ghana shortly after reading this book and found that experience all the more moving after reading The Book of Negroes. It's so difficult in modern times to try to comprehend the lives of those who have gone before us - this novel succeeds enormously in bringing the tragic experiences of the African people to a level that you can begin to start to attempt to comprehend. A beautiful, touching gem of a book.

Someone Knows My Name is an excellent piece of historical fiction writing. Aminata Diallo is abducted from her West African home at age 11, and brutally marched for months to the coast where she is sold by slave traders. Barely surviving the horrific ocean crossing, she is delivered to the Carolina Coast to work the indigo plantations. Her adventures and hardships, as she travels the eastern coast of the Americas and Canada, back to Africa and ultimately to England, are mesmerizing. It is always a surprise to me when a male author creates such a believable, authentic, unique and memorable female character, and Lawrence Hill has done exactly that in this riveting book. Meticulously researched, steeped in history and harsh reality, Someone Knows My Name entertains, educates and resonates. After finishing the book in a weekend marathon of reading, I scoured the internet for more details and facts surrounding this facet of slavery I knew little, if anything, about. British relocation of American slaves to Novia Scotia at the end of the Revolution, and their subsequent resettlement with other former slaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone was both fascinating and sobering. Observed through the intelligent eyes of Aminata, the irony of the American patriots' fight against British oppression is painful. Aminata carries herself with dignity, strength and pride through repeated and shameful acts of inhumanity, living to tell her story in her own words, on her own terms. This book is beautifully written, heart wrenching and deeply moving, and I recommend it highly.

Enjoying the books!

Excellent book, I love books where the narrator is a character as well. This was my second read for black history month. And I loved it.

Excellent bouquin qui aborde cette période particulièrement pénible de l'histoire américaine de manière totalement différence de Roots, j'ai nettement préféré ce livre-ci

No es la historia mil veces leida, tiene un alcance mucho más amplio y al ser basada en hechos reales tiene mucho encanto

I never knew this book existed until I started seeing the newly released book with the television show cover coming up across my Facebook news feed. At the very same time my daughter was reading Underground to Canada in her grade 7 Language class and she had heard about the television show and book. She came home from school and said she wanted the book. (she is an extremely advanced and avid reader). I ordered the book from amazon and added it to my goodreads to read shelf. I Noticed it had an exceptional rating. Now as far as ratings go you might love a book that I turn out to dislike, or I might love a book that you may dislike. So I try not to choose a book based solely on its rating. But I have several friends and family members who read this book and said it was well worth the read. It was very well written. First I should say that this book is a work of fiction, but even though the detail in this book does an excellent job of detailing what life was like as a slave. It is about slavery but even more then that it is about one woman’s journey from being snatched in Africa, to her journey into slavery, through slavery, and beyond. The story begins in a time where she is an older lady and wants to write her own autobiography. She wants to write it herself because she wants it to be accurate. Lawrence Hill does an exceptional job bringing her story to life with vivid details through Aminata’s eyes. Aminata Diallo was snatched in West Africa as an 11 year old child and forced to walk for months to sea where she would then board a ship and cross over to become a slave in South Carolina. Aminata proves to be an exceptionally talented person even from the young age of 11 she was already ‘catching babies’. As the story progresses she becomes more and more literate and more determined to fight for not only her freedom, but the freedom of all slaves. I won’t go into any more details, don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who has not read this book yet. This was one of the best books I have read in a long time and more than deserved the 5 star rating I gave it on Goodreads.

Fascinating history.

I’m a little lost for words at the moment. I think I have just finished the best book I have ever read so far. When my friend first recommend the book to me I did have my reservations as I wasn’t sure whether it would be my cup of tea as it is about black slavery and bound to be very historical and political which is very different from the fluffy romantic stuff I usually read! From the very first pages I knew this was going to be an amazing read and I would be taken on a journey. Indeed I was and I feel shattered just reading it! The story centres around a young woman, Aminata Diallo and her family, who is brought to London, England, in 1802, by abolitionists who are petitioning to end the slave trade. While she is there she is asked to write an account of her life story which included being abducted from her family at age 11, seeing the death of her mother and father, and being marched in a coffle of captives to the coast along with others from her village. Aminata manages to survive the passage to America because she is able to apply the knowledge and skills passed on to her by her parents, especially the ability to “catch” (i.e., deliver) babies and to understand some African languages. I don’t want to give too much away is it is a book everyone should read. The imagery in the book is just stupendous. I could picture every track she walked on, the ship she sailed on and the disgusting conditions she and her fellow slaves were made to endure. The book just flows easily from one chapter to the next and not once did I ever feel lost. I was there the whole way. The book is also home to some wonderful quotes that have really struck a cord with me. “Beauty comes and goes. Strength, you keep forever” “That, I decided, was what it meant to be a slave: your past didn’t matter; in the present you were invisible and you had no claim on the future” imagine that as your outlook on life? It’s so upsetting to read. ‘It doesn’t matter what we call your soul, what matters is where it travels and who uplifts it’ The book is full of them but I especially love the last one. As long as you keep your strength and your faith the rest will sort itself out. It’s all about inner beauty which Aminata clearly displays throughout the book. A fantastic read that won't disappoint!