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.