The Book of Negroes

Looking back on her life, narrator and protagonist, Aminata Diallo, now an old woman, remembers her childhood in Bayo, a village in west Africa, when she was safe and free. She has known great suffering and has spent her life longing for the children she has lost. But although she is now dependent upon others to care for her, she is a survivor. There is a “reason” for this survival (1), she says: she now works with Abolitionists “to change the course of history” (2-3). Known now by her anglicized name, Meena Dee, she speaks publically to rally Britons to the abolitionist cause. We learn that Aminata was born in or close to 1745, to loving parents and a comfortable life. She was kidnapped at the age of eleven, and soon after stopped growing. Reflecting on that past life, she remembers her father’s Qur’an, the only book she ever saw in Bayo, and thinks about all the time she has for reading now. She also has time for her writing, and is determined to tell her story. She has asked her friend, John Clarkson, “one of the quieter abolitionists” (4) and the only one whom she trusts, to safeguard her writings for future generations.