During the course of the African-American slave trade, slaves experienced a significant loss of culture and customs native to their homelands. When abducted from their homes and brought to their new land, slave-owners often forced their slaves to take new names that were more recognizable to the Caucasian population. The main character in The Book of Negroes, Aminata, is referred to by several names throughout the course of her life. Her African name, Aminata Diallo, has several variations including Miss Diallo or just Aminata. While aboard the slave ship, the ship's doctor gives her the name Mary; while living as a slave, she is referred to as Miss Dee, Meena Dee, or Meena. Those who found themselves in captivity also adopted a new language …show more content…
Christian missionaries and owners of slaves tried to erase African religious beliefs altogether. As a result, "in the United States, many African religious rites were fused into one" (Blassingame, John). Aminata was influenced not only by her father's religion as a Muslim, but also from the religion of one of her owners. Aminata identified with Solomon Lindo's Judaism: "The Jews in Charles Town had taught one of their slaves to butcher meat according to their beliefs… Solomon Lindo and his wife also avoided pork. Perhaps he was right in saying that we were similar" (Hill 197). Both Aminata and the Lindo family did not eat pork due to their religious beliefs, however to slaves who did not practice the same beliefs, this would have come as a culture shock. Aminata was also immersed in the Methodist church because of her friendship with Daddy Moses, although she never converted to that religion: "'Have you taken Jesus into your arms?' he asked me. 'My arms have been busy, and Jesus hasn't come looking'" (Hill 317). Aminata, along with the millions of slaves living through the slave trade, were exposed to a diverse number of religions; it was difficult to identify with and strictly practice one religion. In her final years, Aminata admits that "I have not embraced a God as might be imagined by a Muslim, Jew, or Christian,"(Hill 233) and a majority of slaves felt the same. The refusal to conform to American or Caucasian religious beliefs, but the inability to practice their own purely out of fear, left thousands of African-Americans believing in no religion
Roediger, David and Blatt, Martin H. The Meaning of Slavery in the North. JStor. 1998. Vol. 18
Aminata Diallo is an eleven years old African girl, when her life changes completely, as she goes from a beloved daughter to an orphan that is captured and enslaved. Aminata is shown in the novel Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill as a strong young protagonist that is able to survive the odyssey around the world first as a slave and later as a free activist agent of the British. In the book, her various stages of her life are always connected with the clothes that she is wearing or the lack of clothes and show the degree of dehumanization that accompanies slavery.
"The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill is a story set in the 1700s during the Atlantic Slave Trade, where a massive number of Africans were transported to the New World as slaves. The story is told from the perspective of an African woman named Aminata Diallo, who recounts her experiences in slavery from childhood to adulthood. Aminata was taken from Africa and sold into slavery as a child, losing her freedom and human rights upon entering North America. She suffered from slavery for most of her life and witnessed many cruel events during her time as a slave. Aminata is portrayed in the book as an independent and clever woman with a strong sense of family values that developed since her childhood.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
These people are named Georgia and Mamed. Georgia is seen as a mother figure and guardian to Aminata. She teaches Aminata the so called rules that everyone must abide by in order to stay alive. One of the things she learns is that she must never call a white person white. Georgia says: “You call a white man white, he beat you black and blue.” (p.147). Georgia also teaches her two languages: Gullah and English. Gullah is the language of the slaves. Mamed and Aminata meet in a different manner though. He catches her praying which is forbidden and instead of punishing her, they become close friends. From Mamed, she learns how to read and understand the language of the slave owners. It is a serious offence if anyone were to find out but it is an asset for her to have in her difficult life. Both these characters play a crucial role in Aminata’s life and aid her in developing from a child to a young adult. These traits that are passed down to her help her live the best life possible under the most deplorable
Reynolds, Mary. The American Slave. Vol. 5, by Che Rawick, 236-246. Westport , Conneticut: Greenwood Press, Inc, 1972.
Beckles, Dr. Hillary, Verene Shepherd. Caribbean Slave Society and Economy. The New Press, New York. New York, N.Y. 1991.
Post, D. G. (2001, 07 02). Temple Universtiy. Retrieved 07 07, 2010, from Words Fitly Spoken: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/dpost/slavery.PDF
Abstract from Essay The reader can contemplate the passage of Du Bois' essay to substitute the words "colored" and "Negro" with African-American, Nigger, illegal alien, Mexican, inner-city dwellers, and other meanings that articulate people that are not listed as a majority. Du Bois' essay is considered a classic because its words can easily reflect the modern day. -------------------------------------------- The Souls of Black Folk broadens the minds of the readers, and gives the reader a deeper understanding into the lives of people of African heritage.
Boser, Ulrich. "The Black Man's Burden." U.S. News & World Report 133.8 (2002): 50. Academic
“The ‘Blessings’ of a Slave,” in Kennedy, David M. and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Spirit: United States History as Seen by Contemporaries. Vol. I: To 1877. Eleventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Between 1619 and 1862 it was very common to come across free men or enslaved blacks in America, however, it was something special to encounter a man both free and black during this time. Although, as Frado soon learned, “ Freedom from slavery did not mean equality of citizenship” ( Higginbotham 160). The mindset of the elite, white ruling class was to discourage free blacks in every conceivable way, “ not only have we created laws to expel them at will, but we hamper them in a thousand ways.” ( Tocquville). The communities of free A...
"The Debate over Slavery in the United States." The African-American Years: Chronologies of American History and Experience. Ed. Gabriel Burns Stepto. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 108-149. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 May 2014.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.