The Book of Negroes, also known as Someone Knows My Name, is a novel written by author Lawrence Hill, which was originally published during 2007. It was later published during 2015 by W. W. Norton Company. This novel tells the story of protagonist Aminata Diallo. She was abducted from West Africa as a child and sold into slavery within South Carolina. Aminata is sold to an indigo trader who possesses disdain for her intellectual power and strong will. As a result, she is separated from her family and used as a tool in the Revolutionary War. While enduring the hardships of slavery, she has her mind set on returning to the comfort of her homeland.
Aminata assists in constructing the Book of Negroes while in Manhattan. This book contains a list of blacks rewarded the opportunity to migrate safely to Nova Scotia for service to the British king. Unfortunately, she faces racism there, which adds insult to injury. Yet after learning of the chance to create a new colony in Sierra Leone alongside British abolitionists, she works up the courage to call this new land her home. Yet she later ends up in London.
The Book of Negroes is based on a real historical record of slaves given liberation by the British. On the other hand, Aminata is a fictitious character brilliantly animated in the novel. Hill is a novelist and journalist who won multiple prizes for this creative work, including the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book.
