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Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

Someone Knows My Name

aka: The Book of Negroes

by Lawrence Hill
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (10):
  • Readers' Rating (51):
  • First Published:
  • Nov 5, 2007, 512 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Nov 2008, 512 pages
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BookBrowse Review

Hill exquisitely imagines the tale of an eighteenth-century woman's life, spanning six decades and three continents

The weight of one's name and who may speak it can not, perhaps, be fully understood in this present era of digital communication and social informality. But the proper name carried much significance in eighteenth century Europe: forms of address and etiquette of the name's use were part of a careful code of respect and hierarchy. Similarly, in Bayo, Africa, childhood home of Aminata Diallo, main character of Someone Knows My Name, one's name, rank and tribe carried great meaning. Such distinctions - individual heritage, familial spiritual beliefs, societal roles - begin to erode, however, the moment Aminata and several other villagers are stolen from their homes and families by slave traders and locked in naked, marching rows toward the sea. Thus, amidst horrible physical suffering, Aminata's interior battle begins: a constant tension between retaining the dignity of her own name and personhood and adjusting, for survival's sake, to the whims and mores of other lands. Through this weaving of opposites, author Lawrence Hill accomplishes a writing feat of admirable subtlety: illustrating the homogenizing influence of mutual suffering inside the theme of the distinguishing power of a name.

Someone Knows My Name is the story of a girl who becomes a woman, a wife, a mother, and a leader – all while under the ownership of white men. It is a novel that offers its readers not only a mesmeric heroine and expertly paced plot, but also a significant survey of the complexities of the pre- and post-American Revolution African slave trade. In this tale, the wrongs of human slavery spread across continents and people groups, perpetuated even by neighboring African villages and colonists who question the rightness of the practice. Progress, whether it be Aminata's or the British Abolitionists,' often depends on unholy alliances. As a result, the novel is a literary reminder of the pain caused by a culture's moral failures and the precarious fight to correct them.

Turning the pages of Hill's book is effortless in one sense and very difficult in another. Protagonist Aminata Diallo's desire for freedom is unquenchable, her drive inspiring and superhuman. The losses she experiences, however, are just as potent as her will. Brief joys of love and family are suffocated by mourning time and time again. Some scenes approach the threshold of heartache plausible for one soul to bear, requiring Hill to find or create a new purpose for Aminata's fight for life and freedom to continue. Most often, her rare literacy and gift for languages is her saving grace, offering a welcome nod to the power of reading and writing to change a life – or the direction of an entire nation.

Someone Knows My Name was originally published as The Book of Negroes in Canada, where it received wide praise. The pre and post-publication media in the USA were in general agreement, as were BookBrowse's members who voted it one of the top four books of 2007.

As always, each reader must judge the book's merits. This is a book that is definitely worth being given that chance. Despite the book's almost 500 pages, Hill has crafted a superbly focused narrative and has successfully blended the unforgettable story of an indomitable woman with little known, but important, historical events from Africa, America, Canada and England.


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Reviewed by Stacey Brownlie

This review was originally published in November 2007, and has been updated for the November 2008 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.

Beyond the Book

Did you know?

  • Original copies of the Book of Negroes can be found in England at the Public Records Office, in the United States in the National Archives and in Canada in the Nova Scotia Archives. It has also been transcribed in full and made available on the Black Loyalists web site. The Book is a 150 page record containing just under 3,000 names and brief descriptions of those blacks who were to be transferred to a smattering of British-held villages in Nova Scotia. The official proclamation of freedom to slaves who would aid the British war effort came from the Virginia colony governor, Lord Dunmore, who promised Black Loyalists freedom as a reward for service to the British during the American Revolution.

  • According to the Black Loyalists Digital Collection, up to 30,000 blacks responded to the call for help. The promise of freedom drew many more slaves to the British side than expected. The majority of blacks who assisted the British were never rewarded and many were re-enslaved by the victorious Americans. Only black loyalists who were in New York (the last British-held port) at the right time and successfully obtained a "Birch certificate" (a document signed by Brigadier General Birch) were recorded in the Book of Negroes and gained passage out of the harbor to Nova Scotia and elsewhere.

  • In Hill's fictional account, the real-life figure of Sam Fraunces assists and befriends Aminata after she is brought to New York City by her second owner. Fraunces's Manhattan tavern was restored just after the turn of the 20th century by the Sons of the American Revolution. Fraunces, who purchased the former Delancy mansion in 1762 and converted it to a tavern, was a free man, respected by both blacks and whites in revolution-era New York City. The tavern was home to gatherings of both rebel colonists and British military men. The tavern was also the site of a celebration marking the dismissal of George Washington's generals after the Revolutionary War concluded. Fraunces later became President Washington's personal steward.

  • Britain's Queen Charlotte (wife of the English King George III, 1738-1820), whom Aminata meets near the end of her life, has been proven to be a descendant of a "black branch of the Portuguese Royal House." The Queen's physical appearance fueled many rumors during her reign and earned her the nickname the "Black Queen."

  • Though cotton plantations are most often associated with slavery in America, indigo plantations were also reliant on slave labor. The prized blue dye was derived from the indigo plant only after a labor intensive harvesting process. The Special Collections Library of Duke University's 1995 exhibit "First Person, Third Person" contained a section on "Plantation America – the Work of Slaves," This illustration is a detail from a map from the exhibit that depicts slaves working on an indigo plantation, as Aminata does in Someone Knows My Name.

Interesting Links:

  • For more information about Olaudah Equiano, author of the famous anti-slavery autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano see British professor Dr. Brycchan Carey's site.
  • For the history of Sierra Leone, Africa, see the sidebar to Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna at BookBrowse.

Also see:

  • Author Lawrence Hill's article in the February/March 2007 issue of Canadian magazine the Beaver (fairly slow to open PDF file).
  • An excellent New York Times story about the Birchtown settlement in Nova Scotia.

Reviewed by Stacey Brownlie

This review was originally published in November 2007, and has been updated for the November 2008 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.

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