Novel Review: Book of Negroes

“Some say that I was once uncommonly beautiful, but I wouldn’t wish beauty on any woman who has not her own freedom, and who chooses not the hands that claim her,” (Hill, 4). This quote signifies one of the many important messages that The Book of Negroes tries to convey. Lawrence Hill, the Canadian author who wrote this novel does a tremendous job to magnify an area of history that many of us have neglected over the years. He uses Aminata Diallo, as his main character who is abducted from her home in Bayo, West Africa. Aminata is taken away from her home when she is only eleven years old, and throughout the novel the readers are taken through her journey and watch her grow into an old woman who isn’t afraid to tell her story and speak her mind. She is very unique because she is both a static and dynamic character. During the course of her journey from Africa to slavery in the Western world, Aminata never stops believing that one day she will go back home. She always had the hope that her husband, Chekura, would come back for her and that she would reconnect with her daughter. Unfortunately, her religious beliefs take a blow during the hard times she faces in the US and in Nova Scotia after she loses her daughter May. She becomes a dynamic character when she says, “Daddy Moses asked if I was ready to let Jesus into my heart. I told him that I had faith when I was a young girl, that I had had to give it up, and that I wasn’t thirsting for another God in my life,” (350). This quote shows how at some point Aminata was about to give up and she just didn’t have any more fight left in her. With all the terrible things that had had happened in her life she started to lose her faith. Aminata is a very admirable character and she really signifies the struggles that not only people of colour faced at that time, but the pain and suffering that slave women had to endure during this horrible time that stains our history. Aminata herself is a symbol of triumph for all men and