Heroism And Villainy In Lawrence Hill's The Book Of Negroes

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Heroism and villainy are two things that every story has. There is no escaping it. Whether the story is fiction or non-fiction, there is always a protagonist and antagonist, hero and villain. What a lot of people might miss is the heroism and villainy in the history of humanity and our present day lives. I think Lawrence Hill was able to capture this commonly overlooked concept in The Book of Negroes. Although the book shows the evil villainy behind the slave trade, its main focus is on acts of heroism as the main character is a heroic “black” in a world made for “whites”. Before even reading one passage from the book, it is easily perceivable through history that the white peoples are the villains of the slave trade and the 1700’s in general. Hill magnifies this opinion while also creating a protagonist to show how the black …show more content…

Heroism is a rare quality found within the human race but most people can identify a hero or a hero type personality when they first meet someone. This is the quality that Aminata Diallo had upon everyone that she had met. Most of the time she would receive a good reaction from it but the times that she had received horrible reactions from white men who were afraid of her power, were the times that it truly showed her grand possession of heroism. Along with all the other slaves, she suffered from the mistakes of the white folk and was not shown any respect in return. However, Aminata was special from the rest and still managed to respect or act as though she respected everyone she met even if they had treated her badly. This lesson she learned from her father and in the midst of all evil, she intended to follow her father’s guidelines: “You must learn respect,” Papa said. “But I do not respect her,” I said. Papa paused for moment, and patted my leg. “Then you must learn to hide your

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