Blog Post #6 - The Book of Negroes

The literary theory type that gave me the most insight into The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill was the post-colonial perspective. Because slavery is such a huge idea in the novel it makes the post-colonial view quite straightforward, it reveals why everything happened the way it did. The ties between the post-colonial perspective and the events in the book were the way that women were mistreated, the lack of education depending on one’s gender or culture, and for the most part slavery. The division between the genders and races can be more understood from this point of view because of it’s time period.

Thesis: “Analyzing The Book of Negroes based upon a post-colonial perspective gives the reader insight on why the author does not put luck in Aminata’s favour, and also how she makes the best of what she is given.” My points of argument will roughly be because Aminata is an African American women and a victim of slavery she was at the bottom of the hierarchy, which from a post-colonial view she had very little individual identity but managed to bring it upon herself to learn how to read, write and teach which was nearly unheard of under her circumstances. Another point of argument will roughly be how Lindo who was Aminata’s slave owner forces Aminata to pay a portion of her earnings as a midwife, she later escapes from him and works as a midwife and teacher. To make the best of what she is given beyond herself she helps other black people learn how to read and write. My last point of argument will roughly be that when Aminata proves that she did go to hell and back by serving in the American Revolutionary War her name is put into the actual historical document of freed African American slaves called “The Book of Negroes”, despite her overall hardships she was repaid in the end and also acknowledged for her abilities to read and write and was hired to record names in the book.

The Book of Negroes Blog Post #5 - Feminist LIterary Perspective

After reading the fifth section of The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, I analyzed the story from feminist literary perspective. I'm noticing that as the story goes on the author is giving the main character the best outcomes of the worst situaitons. She starts it with a character who is a female American American during a time around the American Revolution, this type of situation gives the character next to no chance at an equal life.

Aminata is taken into slavery, but takes it upon herself to learn how to read and write and eventually teaches others, turning this negative situation into a positive. It was very, very unlikely for an African American women who is a slave to be educated on any level, but Aminata beat the odds.

When Aminata gets to Sierra Leone for a "better life" she stays for a bit but knows her heart is still back home in her village. She tries to make a deal with her trader to get back home but he states "I don't trade with women (Hill 451). The author sets up a negative situation for Aminata but she uses her own abilities and negotiates herself a deal, turning the situation into a positive by giving Aminata what she finally deserves. Her trader just about rejected a business deal just because Aminata was a women, and women were quite limited to what they were capable of to other people.

Aminata worked very hard for respect, but little she got. She learned how to speak proper English, math and ability to read and write efficiently which was an unbelievable accomplishment for someone of her race, gender and situation. Aminata's hard work really shows how much she just wants to gain some respect.

After viewing the story from a feminist literary perspective I really gain a lot of respect for the women back in times of slavery, but tried to bring the best outcomes out of the worst situations.  

The Book of Negroes - Blog Post #4

During the fourth part of the Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill the literary theory type I focused on was Post-Colonial. In this section of the book the main character Aminata has another child who is taken away by her previous owner, after Aminata decides to start fresh in a little colony back home in Africa  in a place called Sierra Leone.
In relation to Post-Colonialism, the Western world believed men were more superior to women and those who were part of the European descent. It was also known that in a Post-Colonial world there was a loss of individual identity. Aminata is an African American women and a victim of slavery who brought herself to learn how to read and write and eventually teach others. Her great ability to read, write and teach was rare for someone in her situation because of the strong superiority towards men. Also her loss of personal identity ties in with when she was taken into slavery at a young age, she was stripped of her freedom and sense of ones-self.
In the story there is a cast difference between the standards of different cultures. For example Aminata was both African and a women which was very unique to the people there because she could read, write and teach wonderfully. "Would you point me to Mr. Meena?" (Hill 371) this quote was said by an army officer named John Clarkson, as Aminata stepped forward to volunteer for his offer as an assistant. He was looking for someone who was well educated and was astounded at her abilities. The reason he was in such shock at her response was because she was an African American women which was essentially the" bottom of the food chain" of culture decent status, it is incredibly unlikely for someone like her to be as privileged as she is. It would not have been quite a curve-ball for Clarkson if someone of a different origin had stepped forward.
Overall throughout the book the differences of the world of colonization's are bold between the operation of slavery, levels of superiority due to the differences between cultures and ethnicity, who is educated and who is not based on your origin and the list goes on.

The Book of Negroes - Blog Post #3

In the novel, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill it is solely based on slavery around the American Revolution. When Aminata is taken to New York by her slave owner Solomon Lindo it is a crucial part in the novel. Aminata escapes from Solomon Lindo because of rioting from the outbreak of the Revolution. She then begins to work as a midwife as her mother did, but also as a teacher on how to read and write. During the Revolution, there was a book called the Book of Negroes which was a list of all the American slaves who were freed and left the United States to resettle somewhere else. The American Revolution resulted in the Declaration of Independence, the Americans who served in the battle were slaves that earned their freedom by fighting, where other slaves freed themselves by running away. The Declaration of Independence states reasons for the British colonies of North America wanted independence in 1775. The American Revolution had a big impact on the slavery in the the 1700s and ties into Aminata's need for freedom because of the Revolution.

Blog Post #2 - Literary Theory Feminist Perspective

While reading "The Book of Negros" by Lawrence Hill, it has been quite obvious that the literary theory of a feminist perspective is one of the main literary theories. Starting with having the main character and the perspective of the story being a women back in the 1800s. A women named Aminata who was taken as a slave by white men from her village where women were treated with a little bit more respect than majority of places. After the capture we see how cruel the men were to the women when Aminata is raped , has her head shaved and her baby is sold by Appleby. It shows how strong of a women Aminata is to be able to overcome all the hardships and leads others and inspires them as well. On the way to America, the women were treated a lot better by those who captured them than the men were, although the women were still used as sexual objects it was the still improvement from how they were before. Most of the women were never educated either, especially as a slave. The fact that Aminata took it upon herself to meet someone who was willing to teach her to read and write really shows how she turns a negative into a positive.

1st Blog Post - The Book of Negros

While reading the first fifth of "The Book of Negros" by Lawrence Hill I can already tell how much I am going to enjoying reading it because of how interesting the story is. The main character is a very strong and bold girl named Aminata Diallo, she was taken from her village in Africa at 11 years old and brought into slavery and named "Meena Dee". In the beginning of the story we learn all about her childhood and her parents, she thought very highly of her parents and wants nothing more than to have them back. Her mother helped deliver babies, which I believe helped aspire Aminata's want of children and grandchildren to increase as she aged. Towards the beginning of her life story the "theme" is life, towards the end t become about death and "I should not have lived this long".

The story is told in Aminata's point of view but in a child's perspective giving the story an innocent affect as apposed to an adult's point of view who might be more reflective and experience based. Giving the story more of an child's innocence feel it hits the readers right in the heart of their emotions and they instantly feel connected to the character. I think that the audience the author had in in mind was young adults and older because of the history portion of the story and the level of understanding of racism needed to be able to comprehend why or how certain events occurred.

Aminata in a way can be stubborn, she knows exactly who she is and does not change her beliefs under any circumstance. She sees her abduction as a time which she has to overcome to return to her happy life. During her new life as a slave she meets a woman named Mamed who teaches her to read and write after learning that she is Muslim just like her mother. Aminata's actions reflect on how she was raise greatly and also on what kind of people her parents were, Aminata would do anything to have her parents and her life back the way it was before so she a lot of the things she does now or when she was a slave mirror her childhood or her mother.

Aminata meets someone during her time as a slave named Fanta, they are not exactly the best of friends or friends at all really which impacts the story in a positive way because Fanta is an adult as Aminata is only 11 years old. It gives the reader more of an idea of the similarities and differences of how the abduction and slavery affects each age group of people.

I am looking forward to reading more of this book I am enjoying it so far mostly because it is so interesting how different things were many years ago.

Strengths & Weaknesses

     When writing an essay I find that I struggle with the strength of connecting my reasoning's for my supports. When I am trying to connect my support to my reasoning for it I have a hard time wording and fully explaining what I am trying to relate to. I believe that I struggle with this because of lack of being able to make those deep connections between different supports or details. Another weakness I have when writing an essay is time management, I struggle with procrastinating my essays because I dread writing them. I tend to have some preparation done like the thesis and my supporting points done early, so then I think that I am good to leave it for a bit because I have so much time left before it is due. Usually it just screws me over until about 2 days before it is due when I have to rush the rest of the writing process.
     When writing an essay I find that my strengths are coming up with a thesis that I can really work with and come up with strong supports for. I believe that this is one of my strengths because of how a always try to start early on things so that I don't have to worry about them later, usually when I first start my essays I put a lot of thought into making a thesis statement that I can make the strongest supports for. Once I have those ideas down I feel a small weight has been lifted off my shoulders temporarily.
     My goal as an essay writer to improve on my weaknesses is to manage my time better by setting smaller goals each day to accomplish little bits so that the night before or 2 nights before I am not cramming to make the connections between the supports and details. Also, by giving myself more time to think I should have an easier time wording and fully explaining what I'm relating to.

Maggie Over Here

Hey I'm Maggie! I'm in grade 12 at IDCI, I play volleyball, baseball, field hockey and hurdles, in my spare time I like watching Trailer Park Boys on Netflix. I have two younger brothers, one is in grade 11 and the other is in grade 8 and we all have basically the same face (Ill add a picture of us from the summer). My favorite color is blue, I just recently painted my room a darker shade of blue. My favorite food is Thai spicy noodles with chicken from Mango Salad (their spring rolls are real good too) and tacos of course! I desire to be an oncology nurse as next year I am thinking of going through for Pre-health Sciences or Practical Nursing Sciences at either Conestoga or Fanshawe, I really need to decide soon. I decided I wanted to be an oncology nurse from watching Grey's Anatomy (my favorite show). It showed the nurses taking care of the cancer patients and that really interested me because I do a lot of fund raising for cancer research as I am a captain of a Relay for Life team called FBI (Fight Back Ingersoll). My favorite artists are Odd Future and Nicki Minaj. I would say that Nicki Minaj is pretty much my role model. She makes some good music and isn't like the typical artist, she does what she wants and does not care about people thinking she is weird. My favorite song by Nicki is called "Only" it's from her newest album called "Pink Print" which is my favorite album from her. Here's the link to her song that I love! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXtsGAkyeIo