The book of negroes

If you read or watched and enjoyed Alex Hailey's epic "Roots," you won't want to miss Lawrence Hill's equally ambitious book, The book of negroes. While "Roots" tracked an enslaved family through generations, The book of negroes is the story of just one woman, Aminata Diallo, from her earlier years in Africa, through her capture, enslavement, and the many journeys and experiences that follow from there.

Aminata is a very strong woman who refused to be cowed by slavery. Extreme losses put her in despair at times, but she always came back to fight against injustice, cruelty, and bondage. She fought for literacy and woman's rights, long before those were popular public discussions. Her fighting spirit made her a target, but she also earned the respect of many around her. It's too bad she's entirely fictional.

Author Lawrence Hill has poured huge amounts of research into this book. As well as reading and travelling widely to gain background information, Hill grew up with parents who helped pioneer Canada's human rights movement and who were themselves descended from Africans enslaved in the United States. I suspect Hill ate, breathed, and lived this story long before he even had ambitions to become a writer. The book certainly reads that way. It's over 400 pages long but still feels like it barely contains the story - it's bursting at the seams with more untold details - all those many events that you know make up a person's life but can't be told in a mere 400 pages. That's not to say this story is lacking. It's just that its main character is so real and interesting that you know there's got to be more to learn about her, if only you could sit down and talk to her.

The slave trade was (and in places still is) a harsh and cruel way of treating people and doing business. In looking back, we often focus on the horrible things that happened - the brutality, the deprivation, the family and community destruction - and temper that with reassurances that not everyone was that cruel to their "workers." We perpetuate the myth of "good" slave owners. One of the things that is made clear in this book is that there is no such thing. Literacy, education, health care, commerce, and travel were all touted as benefits to those who were forcibly removed from "the dark and savage continent," but none of them count for anything without freedom and the people you love. Just ask Aminata.

"The book of negroes" by Lawrence Hill. Published in 2007 by HarperCollins. ISBN: 978-0-00-22507-3.