Reflection On The Book Of Negroes

The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill, 2007) is about a woman named Aminata Diallo. When Aminata was eleven years old, she was kidnapped from her little village, Bayo, located in a part of West Africa now known as Mali. After this incident, Aminata is then sold into slavery. Throughout the book, she had her heart set on returning home, which she eventually did. Aminata left Africa and went to England so that she could present the account of her life so it could help abolish the slave trade. In comparison, Solomon Northup, in 12 Years a Slave is known in for being an amazing fiddle player. Two men insisted that they would pay Solomon a generous amount of money for his services. He accepts, and then travels freely with the two con men to New York …show more content…
These two individuals were known as lucky and were blessed in many different ways for being literal. Aminata Diallo was taught to read and write from her father, who was a jeweller in their village. She explained, “He claimed that it was not the place of a girl to learn to read or write, but relented when he saw me attempting to draw words in Arabic with a stick in the sand. So, in the privacy of our home, with nobody but my mother as a witness, I was shown how to use a reed, dyed water and parchment. I learned to write phrases in Arabic, such as Allaahu Akbar (God is great) and Laa ilaaha illa-Lah (There is none worthy of worship except God)” (Hill 11). The rare inter-tribal marriage between Aminata’s parents benefitted her in the sense that she grew up with two languages. Aminata had many experiences where her reading and writing helped her. On the slave ship, almost immediately, the white crew discovered her ability to translate between two languages, and because of this, she was given the privilege of moving about freely in order to help communicate with the captives. When she arrived at the indigo plantation, she was taught the language Gullah and Buckra from a woman named Georgia. Aminata explained, “As it became possible for me to follow her speech, and talk to her, I came to see she was teaching me two languages” (Hill 128). After a male named Mamed …show more content…
These flashbacks include the remembering of his wife and children. The movie was shot in a way that made it appear that the beginning of the film was all a flashback. When he awakens and finds himself in chains is where the movie starts. The first flashback he had was his wife, and him intimate in their bedroom. Shortly after that, the wife, Mrs. Northup and Solomon Northup’s two children were seen leaving in a carriage. Solomon Northup also had a flashback of how he was taken, showing the two men and him having a celebratory meal after he accepted to work for the two con men. The last shown flashback is the two men putting him in bed, where the one is saying he will wake up as good as new the next morning. (12 Years a Slave) After all of these flashbacks, Solomon Northup awakens in chains. Throughout the timeline of the movie, Solomon Northup talks about his family often, as all he wanted to do was to return to them. When talking to Bass, the abolitionist, he specified this by saying, “It would be an unspeakable happiness to see my wife and my family again” (12 Years a Slave). Solomon Northup cared a lot about his family, and even though there were more flashbacks when he was first taken, he never let go of his family. All the risks he took, like saying he was a freeman, and writing the three letters proves that even though he had accepted his present life, he would do