The Abolitionist Movement In Lawrence Hill's The Book Of Negroes

Lawrence Hill 's The Book of Negroes is a heart wrenching tale that highlights the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. The push to abolish the slave trade, called the abolitionist movement, was headlined by the London Committee. This movement plays a crucial role in The Book of Negroes; they are the reason Aminata is able to go home to Africa and how she comes to tell her story. However, the information Hill gives the reader about the abolitionist movement must be looked at critically, as the novel is a work of fiction. While Lawrence Hill makes a clear attempt to accurately depict the abolitionist movement in The Book of Negroes, there are several areas where he deviated from history.

The accurate must first be examined, to highlight

As described in Simon Drescher 's "Public Opinion and Parliament in the Abolition of the Slave Trade," even though many abolitionists also opposed slavery, they were worried about losing the popular support for their cause by being associated with more radical movements such as emancipation (55). Drescher 's article also discusses the fear during the late 18th century of slave uprisings, such as that in St. Domingue, occurring in the British colonies (55). When mobilizing the abolitionists to gather public support and petitions, William Wilberforce, the abolitionist most involved in the politics of the movement, warned them to clearly draw the line between emancipation and abolition (55). We can see Hill echo this fear in his novel when Aminata wants to bring up emancipation during her presentation to Parliament and they react thus: "[T]he British people are still

The most glaring fictionality is Sir Stanley Hastings. In The Book of Negroes, he is the head of the London Committee of abolitionists; no such a person existed in history (Oldfield 332). This runs alongside the downplaying of Thomas Clarkson’s position in the movement. As demonstrated in both Simon Drescher’s article and J.R. Oldfield’s article “The London Committee and Mobilization of Public Opinion Against the Slave Trade,” Thomas Clarkson played a key role in mobilizing the masses in favour of the abolition of the slave trade and gathering evidence to be used in parliamentary debates (Oldfield 332). Hill does not really emphasize this, letting Hastings take the lead: “Down the hall, I can hear … the leading abolitionist. … His name is Sir Stanley Hastings” (Hill 141-2). Hastings takes a clear leadership position in the novel, with Thomas Clarkson only being mentioned as being John Clarkson’s brother, as seen through John Clarkson’s description of the Sierra Leone Company: “[T]he Company included some of the leading abolitionists in London, his brother Thomas Clarkson among them” (Lee 505). This significantly reduces Thomas Clarkson’s perceived importance. Furhermore, Drescher’s article notes the difference between the London Committee abolitionist movement and the anti-saccharite movement; the anti-saccharite movement was a “nationwide