Book Reflection : The Book Of Negroes

Its 1802 and Aminata Di all in all(a)o, straight an old womanhood, sits d hold to pen her purport fib at the asking of the Abolitionists in London. Abducted from her village in West Africa at the age of xi and marched in a coffle (a string of slaves) for three months before reaching the coast, Aminata survives the pilot to America and ends up sold to an indigo plantation owner in South Carolina. She describes herself as lucky, because compared to the tragic circumstances and end of so m either other black slaves, Aminata manages to survive using her wits, her skills as a midwife, her talent to pick up new skills quickly, and her strength of character.She witnesses numerous horrors and sorrows, and experiences them as well, that pull in her ponder the human nature and the hypocrisy of religions, level(p) her own. Yet by means of it all surprisingly she does non succumb to anger or detestation she wants only to be together with her keep up, Chekura, their children, who are all taken from her and her homeland.When Britain surrenders to the rebels they defy their promise to the Black Loyalists in a federal agency. With a certificate proving they rich person worked behind British lines for at least a year, they can bless their name in the track record of Negroes and be given passage to a British colony. Most are sent to Nova Scotia, including Aminata. She may have take flight the American slave owners but she hasnt escaped the prejudice, fear and hatred with which the blacks verbal expression invariablyywhere they go. The opportunity to return to Africa the dream shes al looks had comes her way, but if she ever wants to see her home village of Bayo again shell have to make a deal with the devil.out of all the books I have read about thrall this novel is by utmost the greatest. This book is going straight onto my favourites list. The Book of Negroes is a powerful story on many fronts its a in truth human story, sympathetic, h oneness(a) st, fair to the greys of storey, thought-provoking, poignant.One of the beautiful things about this book is how, as a reader, you feel more in tune with the Africans, while the unobjectionables seem strange, alien, bewildering, contradictory. I dont mean that Hill paints an uneven picture far from it, the rendering of history into something visceral, tangible, grants perspective and context. Its not a simple matter of white man, spoilt black man, victim. Thats what I mean by this book universe honest honest about human nature, about the complexities of history, without making excuses for anyone of any colour. I dont mean that there werent characters who enrage you, but that they are presented relatively free of the cloud of presentism.If youre not familiar with the term, presentism refers to our natural tendency to valuate history through the lens of the present, by our own modern standards, earlier than ac goledging and positioning things within a historical perspective. H ill has done an estimable job of completely immersing us in the 18th century, creating a protagonist who is a product of the time as much as one of circumstance.Hill has managed to write a convincing, wonderful female protagonist frankly, not many male writers are this successful. Aminata is unflinchingly honest with herself and others, and by being so thoroughly in her head, she gives us what the Africans needed most during slavery a voice, the sagacity that shes just care us, not some black beast from darkest Africa heathen, barbarian, ferocious. As in some other books, the irony comes through clearly which is the uncivilised race? Who is the barbarian? When Aminata arrives in London, the first thing she sees are the legless beggars on the street, the filth and crowds and pretensions. She doesnt even need to say anything.Another irony is the ascension in the American colony Aminata is in New York when things get nasty, and constantly hears the white Americans talking abo ut being slaves to the British, and fighting for their freedom. Aminata doesnt need to read out anything here, and I dont think I do either.Her own passel dont come off smelling of roses either. The book is thoroughly researched and historically accurate, and makes no bones about Africans enslaving each other well before the white peck came, and it isAfricans who capture Aminata, kill her parents, torch her village, and sell her to the white slavers. thralldom has a long, long history, and no race, it seems, is exempt. The Egyptians did it, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Israelites were famously enslaved, the Romans are guilty and what is feudal system if not a form of slavery, which the English and French and others used for a very long time?If nothing else, this book highlights the fact that, no matter what colour you are or what your diet is, we are all human and share this intangible thing called human nature. Cruelty exists everywhere, and cannot be simply attributed to yo ur race, though neither can it be excused. This is why I insist that the history of black slavery while it existed predominantly surrounded by the British slaving companies and the Americas is everyones history. For a comprehensive story covering three variant continents and exposing many of the situations black slaves, run aparts and freed slaves faced, you cant go wrong with this one.Its also beautifully written. Aminata has a simple, honest style, without embellishment or fanciful detail. She rarely passes judgement, but offers her own thoughts and perspective subtly. She is captured just before reaching puberty and so, ironically, escapes female circumcision, which her people practised (removing the clitoris and part of the labia, and sewing up the vaginal overtake extraordinarily painful and meant to make a woman pure for her husband Aminata isnt keen but doesnt judge I on the other evanesce believe it is the cruellest form of torture you can do to a woman and theres no excuse for it. Its an old African tradition, nothing to do with Islam, and mum occurs in some places like Ethiopia).There are moments of violence and cruelty, because that was largely the life of the black slaves, but while Aminata doesnt gloss over them, neither does she expect on them in such detail that you shy away from the book.I was walkway one day behind a yoked man who swerved without warning to the left. I had no time to react, and my foot sank into something wet and soft. Something like a tip cracked under my heel. I let out a scream. down the stairs myfoot was the body of a naked, decomposing man. I jumped away and ripped leaves from the nearest branch. In a frenzy, I wiped a mass of wriggling white worms from my ankle. I was shaking and wheezing. Fanta took the leaves and wiped my foot and held me and told me not to be afraid. But my hysteria escalated, even though Fanta barked at me to calm down, and I could not stop screaming. (p41)For all that Aminata and other slaves go through, she deserves the right to tell her whole story and not shy from the unpleasant details, or have her account censored. Remember her consultation white, genteel 19th century English men and women, the Abolitionist committee, the greet of law, the common people who can read the newspapers in which parts of her story are published. It is the early 1800s, Regency London the same time and place in which we love to read carefree romance novels that are free of the taint of black slavery and the English have no real supposition or any sympathy for what the black slaves endured. She argued to be the one to write her own story, by herself, and she refused to let the Abolitionists remove details that couldnt be be. Even though she is a fictional character in a fictional account, she deserves to be heard by us as well.Theres one other thing I just have to mention the ontogeny of the African-American expression. Ive come to appreciate it because of this book. I mean, I always dumb that it was their way of forming a new identity, one that couldnt be taken away from them, even now. But as they learnt English, as slaves, what would happen if they spoke like their masters? Aminata learns this, she learns the dialect that the slaves speak to each other, and the grammatically stronger but far from perfect English they use with the white people.They needed a way to speak to each other without the whites understanding, yet they all came from different African tribes speaking one of thousands of African languages, or they were born on plantations and dont know any African languages at all, and so they devise their own way of speaking, close to English but entirely of their own creation. After Aminata escapes slavery, she drops this dialect and speaks proper English, but I get the sense it is due to her index to learn languages quickly and well, and her desire not to be looked down upon, quite a than a form of pretension. It certainly makes her a bit of a curiosity with the white people.The Book of Negroes is a masterpiece of historical literature, capturing the contradictions of the human motive in graceful, honest prose, and gifting us with a new, entirely sympathetic protagonist.