“The Book of Negroes” (2007), a book by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, is known as “Someone Knows My Name” in the US, Australia and New Zealand, and “Aminata” in French. It is a work of historical fiction that follows the life of Aminata Diallo from 1745 to 1805. At age 11 she is caught by slave traders in West Africa and winds up a slave to the Thirteen Colonies. Like Odysseus or Dorothy, she spends most of the book trying to get back home.
WARNING: Massive spoilers.
Her life takes her through the present-day countries of
- Mali,
- Sierra Leone,
- the US,
- Canada,
- Sierra Leone (again) and
- Britain.
It is a super-duper slave narrative with everything thrown in:
- an innocent, West African girlhood,
- a slave raid,
- a three-month death march to the coast,
- a slave fort (Bance Island),
- the Middle Passage,
- a failed shipboard slave uprising,
- slavery on an indigo plantation in South Carolina,
- rape,
- having your family torn apart for the profit of White people,
- secretly learning how to read,
- buzzards wheeling over the streets of Charles Town (Charleston, South Carolina) and the unmistakable smell of a slave ship coming into port,
- running away to freedom,
- Manhattan and its African Burial Ground,
- early Black New York,
- the (White) American Revolution,
- Black Canada: Nova Scotia and the Birchtown race riot between Black and White Loyalists,
- “Back to Africa” and the founding of Freetown, Sierra Leone,
- William Wilberforce and the British abolitionists fighting to end the slave trade.
And, of course, the Book of Negroes itself: a book containing a list of 3,000 Black New Yorkers who had helped the British during the American Revolution. The British promised them freedom and land and resettled most of them in Nova Scotia in 1783 – but without land! Of these, 1,200 went on to found Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1792 (soon to be joined by Jamaican Maroons). About 400 were like Aminata herself – returning to the continent of their birth.
From Freetown, Aminata tries to get back home to see her mother and father. But, at age 55, she finds that she is no longer young enough to walk for three months, much less avoid getting caught by slave traders.
Some characters are based on real people, like John and Thomas Clarkson, Alexander Falconbridge, Sam Fraunces, Thomas Peters and William Wilberforce.
Some of the English is very much from the 1900s, not the 1700s, like “never in a million years”, “community centres”, “heat wave”, “cause problems”, “pick our battles”, “front room” and “a complex man”.
Lawrence Hill has lived in Mali, Aminata’s homeland. His father is Black, his mother, White. Like Aminata, they came to Canada to flee US racism. His brother is Dan Hill, best known for singing the soft rock song, “Sometimes When We Touch” (1978).
Television: The CBC in Canada and BET in the US have made the book into a six-hour television miniseries starring Aunjanue Ellis (pictured). It debuts on the CBC on Wednesday January 7th 2015 and on BET on Monday February 16th.
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (2016): I saw part of the miniseries. The book is way better.
See also:
- The miniseries home page: BET, CBC.
- related films:
- Amistad
- 12 Years a Slave
- The Butler – Black history as autobiography, Lee Daniels style
- Mali Empire – once ruled the part of Africa she is from
- The Transatlantic slave trade
- American slavery
- Notes towards a Black history of George Washington
- Black Canada: A brief history
- Back to Africa
- William Wilberforce
I will have to read the book first but it looks to be pretty good.
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OOh! it airs tonight!
what channel is CBC? I have Optimum, a service of Cablevision. *_*
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CBC is Canadian. If you live in the US you probably do not get it.
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Reblogged this on [Modern Times].
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abagond:
CBC is Canadian. If you live in the US you probably do not get it.
I’ll check on my jail broken apple TV for the Canadian channel. perhaps i can stream it. -_-
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Aunjanue Ellis is a stunning woman. She’s beyond gorgeous. She is a very underrated actress. I will watch anything she is in. π
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Come on! Not even on Netflix?
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This gives me an idea about examples of historical fiction that includes characters that correspond to real persons. I am thinking about how to write a story like that.
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If you live in America you can get it . I’m downloading it right now.
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Abagond hit me up on Facebook Ill tell you where to get it. .
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http://www.zap2it.com/blogs/book_of_negroes_bet_miniseries_mipcom_cuba_gooding_jr_12_years_a_slave-2014-10
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Please share if you know how to stream from the USA that’s not spam or har boring any viruses (thanks)
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It can be viewed here:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2646401100/
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@DRB
Thank you!!
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I felt such sadness for Aminata/Meena and the other poor slaves. They were subjected to such cruel treatment. I just wanted to hug Aminata and comfort her. She had been through so much during her young life. My gosh, I can’t wait until the rest of the episodes air.
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I looooved this book, can’t wait to watch the series.
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I tried the link and it would not let me view it. π¦
I guess I must be patient .
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@Leigh
Do you mind giving a mini summary of the first episode?
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“It is a super-duper slave narrative with everything thrown in:”
——————————————————————————————
Abagond, its great that you have the “super-duper slave narrative” so codified and down to bullet points.
Did you make that up?
Outstanding work.
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..Love the book, the author seems to really, really like the name Aminata as it is used tons o’ times throughout the book. lol It is a pretty name, and so is the actress that is playing her role-hopefully, the film shall not disappoint..
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Aunjenue is a great actress last i saw her was on True Blood she was a very bad vampire. She played that role as she always does with everything she’s in. I want to see her more. I will be checking this out only because she is in it.
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..Yes indeed Mary, she always makes her presence Known when she is onscreen-both in True Blood, and the movie screen as well! π
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Folks, my sister was sent copies of the series as she is writing a study guide for it. She has offered them to me for my perusal. I watched the second episode.
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@Fans of The Book of Negroes
I just finished viewing the third episode of this new TV series.
Not being a history buff, I wouldn’t care if a more than a few things were out of whack (date).
I didn’t expect to see Cuba Gooding Jr., but even better than that nice surprise was how (((DIFFERENT))) the relationships between black males and black females were portrayed. I can’t remember anything as constructive on the small or large screen between our (BLACK) genders being shown in such wise strong, powerful and POSITIVE in recent memory.
I was blown away to see this sort of depiction regarding love/dedication/TRUST/moral courage/faith between black people performed for the masses – even on television. This was not Hollywood’s typical rendering of dysfunction between Black women and men!
Whomever wrote and/or directed this 3rd offering should be nominated for a Golden Globe award.
Aunjanue Ellis is super outstanding in her lead female role of a slave stolen from Africa dreaming about returning to her birthplace.
If the series is this good, the book has got to be… all that and then some. I look forward to reading it.
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@ sharinalr:
My sincere apologies for not responding sooner!!! As for the mini summary, we learn about Aminata’s early beginnings in her village. Her father was a jewellery smith and her mother was a midwife or catcher of babies as she was called. I say was because both of Aminata’s parents were brutally murdered in front of her by slave catchers and her village was burned down.
She was shackled in a coffle and then she trekked to the coast before she ended up on a slave ship bound for America. While on that journey, she met and befriended a youth from another village named Chekura who helped the slave catchers. Eventually, he ended up being on the slave ship with Aminata. There was also a failed uprising on the ship.
Aminata finally reached the American shores and placed on a slave auction block. She and Chekura were separated. Poor Aminata was bought by plantation owner and she was taken care of by one of his slaves named Georgia. This plantation owner was up to no good as he lusted after Aminata.
That’s all I can remember from that first episode, Sharina. I really enjoyed this series so far as it shows the resilience black people have under slavery. Oh, and FYI, whenever you finally watch this series, there are some scenes that are cringeworthy. I’m just putting it out there.
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“The Book of Negroes” will be shown in the US on BET next week, February 16th, 17th and 18th at 8.00pm Eastern time, 7.00pm Central time.
http://www.bet.com/shows/the-book-of-negroes.html
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Does anyone else want to leap through their screen and punch her master in the throat?!
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I am really enjoying this watching this on demand on BET Aminata Dialllo was an amazing woman
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Looks good.
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