THE BOOK OF NEGROES
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life of Aminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life. She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
Aminata remains positive all the time; even if she lost her first baby, she didn’t lose hope to find him; even if her owner robbed all her clothes off and whipped her in public; even if she lost her child again and it seems she was never going to find her. Aminata was a very independent female with strong morality and discipline. She refused changes from her nature. She knows exactly who she was. She resists the name “Mary” or “Meena”; after her son Mamadu was sold by Appleby, her owner, she refused to work for him. She resisted when Mr. Lindo wrote “Guinea wench” on her notice. “ ‘I’m not from Guinea,’ I said suddenly. The anger in my own voice surprised me…. “Guinea means nothing to me, so how can I be from it?” (Hill, 2011) They could not force her do anything she does not have aspiration to. She would never surrender under toubab’s whips, sticks, or any kinds of violence.
As a male writer, Laurence Hill perfectly describes everything from a girl’s perspective. She was one of three thousands slaves that were transfer from West Africa to America since 1700s. Among those three thousand lives, every single one had their own story, their lifetime long stories, and different ones. However, Aminata’s story was no doubt a particular one, a splendid one,
Aminata remains positive all the time; even if she lost her first baby, she didn’t lose hope to find him; even if her owner robbed all her clothes off and whipped her in public; even if she lost her child again and it seems she was never going to find her. Aminata was a very independent female with strong morality and discipline. She refused changes from her nature. She knows exactly who she was. She resists the name “Mary” or “Meena”; after her son Mamadu was sold by Appleby, her owner, she refused to work for him. She resisted when Mr. Lindo wrote “Guinea wench” on her notice. “ ‘I’m not from Guinea,’ I said suddenly. The anger in my own voice surprised me…. “Guinea means nothing to me, so how can I be from it?” (Hill, 2011) They could not force her do anything she does not have aspiration to. She would never surrender under toubab’s whips, sticks, or any kinds of violence.
As a male writer, Laurence Hill perfectly describes everything from a girl’s perspective. She was one of three thousands slaves that were transfer from West Africa to America since 1700s. Among those three thousand lives, every single one had their own story, their lifetime long stories, and different ones. However, Aminata’s story was no doubt a particular one, a splendid one,