Someone Knows My Name: A Novel

this is going to be a long review because there are so many amazing things to mention, so bear with me... the history embedded in the story, the capturing of native Africans, forced to trek across their country and travel across the ocean in terrifying conditions to be sold into slavery, was meticulously researched and detailed. though a work of fiction, the book absolutely provided both a history lesson and a great read, and even though i was familiar with much of the historical context, there was still so much that i learned. for example, i was mostly unaware of the African and British involvement in the slave trade. i also had no idea that so many slaves were able to gain their "freedom" through British escort to Canada, or that some were eventually able to return to Africa in freedom, again supported by the British. these aspects of the history are less talked about within the landscape of slavery, but are certainly not any less important. through Aminata, we see the vastness of that history and the far reaches of its impacts. "Some say that I was uncommonly beautiful, but I wouldn't wish beauty on any woman who has not her own freedom, and who chooses not the hands that claim her." the scope of characters and plot really served to draw me in as a reader. Aminata is introduced to us as a free, black elderly woman, a survivor of slavery, recounting her story to help put an end to both the slave trade and slavery as a whole. in this way, we know very early in the novel that hers will be a story of immense struggles and small triumphs, because if nothing else, she is still alive to tell it. "This is my name. This is who I am. This is how I got here." the absolutely raw and vivid immersion style of writing really provoked a visceral response for me and never let up. Aminata is a complex character and narrator, stubborn and strong, compassionate and giving, and she seemed so very human that it was easy to forget that she was a fictional character (and one written by a man no less). i was actually surprised by the complexity of her various relationships with her owners and employers and though i liked some more than others, was simply surprised that i "liked" any of them at all. the supporting characters were all equally human, particularly Chekura and Georgia for me, and i found myself in tears several times throughout the book, sharing in every emotion, joyous, hopeful and often aching with sadness. the writing style, in many ways, mimics the oral tradition of Africa and helps to suspend the reader in the native African culture, particularly early in the novel. simple effectual phrasings, such as giving a child's age in number of rains, or time in number of moons, and distance in stone throws helped to provide the cultural context framing the entire narrative. additionally, by removing us from the familiar context of our own cultures and re-presenting it to us from Aminata's view, we see, for example, a white man, in an entirely new way. "He didn't have much of a backside, and he walked like an elephant. Thump, thump, thump. His heels struck the earth with the rudeness of a falling tree. this provided both comic relief and a sense of tragedy, depending on the situations, but always served to create the necessary imagery to invoke an emotional response." as expected, this is a story of immense suffering, for the individuals impacted by the slaves. Hill does an amazing job of providing the story in balance, showing the failings of both the native Africans who enslaved their own people, the British and American captors that transported the slaves in the most abhorrent conditions imaginable, and the American and Canadian political systems that perpetuated the trade of human lives. that story, all true, is not for the faint of heart and Hill doesn't step away, or try to shield the reader from the graphic details of the filth, disease, abuse, and massive amounts of death. "The stars were brilliant that night, and the cicadas were crying in endless song. If the sky was so perfect, why was the earth all wrong?" but, as i mentioned, the novel brings balance and every amount of suffering is outweighed and often overshadowed by beauty and hope. even among the brutality and suffering of being captured, Aminata was able to utilize what her parents had given her in the time that she had with them before she was made a slave. she often recalled their wisdom, their faces and voices, to keep her strong and allow her to survive. she loved deeply, vulnerably, and reading about it was more than just words on a page, it was an experience. lastly, i just want to comment on the title The Book of Negroes. this actually didn't mean anything to me until after i'd read the book. i was completely unaware of the historical book with the same title and received an entire education about it and felt rather enlightened by it all. that said, after having read the book, i LOVE the title Someone Knows My Name and i get a little choked up just thinking about it. the names of the various characters still echo in my mind and the significance of the story lingers with them. so, if it isn't glaringly obvious, i LOVED this book and think it should be required reading. it is both meaningful and lovely, and that is a rare and beautiful thing.

Someone Knows my Name" tells once more the story of man against man, the age-old conflict that nature's "thinking animal" cannot seem to stop brutalizing his fellows. As an abolitionist in 1805, Animata Diallo tells the story of her capture, shipment to America, and her life as a slave on three continents. Born to a midwife widely known for her knowledge of herbs and skill at"catching babies," by the time Animata is eleven years old she is also well versed in the art she learned while assisting her mother. It was in fact while just such an errand to another village, returning from a successful "baby catching" that slave traders kidnapped the girl and her mother, trussed them together, neck harnesses and ankle shackles, with a large band of others from many villages and forced them to march overland toward ships that would carry them to the new world. \ Their manacles cut through to the bone on the forced march of three months to the ships that will take them to slavery. Hundreds of the sick and dying were disconnected from the coffle and throw into the jungle to be devoured by animals and carrion along the way. During this time, Animata meets Chekura, a boy from a nearby village who is to become her companion, lover, husband, and faher of her child. In this book, we experience first hand the confusion and helplessness of the natives snatched from the only home they've ever known and taken away from their extended family communities - we also learn about the lash and the power of gunpowder carried in the "firesticks" of the captors. Lost, confused, faced with a world totally unknown, the slaves refer to fellow Africans as Homelanders and their captors as Toubabs. In these beginning pages, too, we see this brilliant and talented young girl's gift for languages, those spoken by different tribes, the slave dialect; Gullah, a polyglot language of the Carolinas; and English. Gulla and the slave dialect, a short of swahili-like combination of dialects and English, makes it possible for homelanders to communicate with one another without being understood by the buckra, Toubabs and their overseers. Although aware that this story is being told by an old woman of singular intelligence who has mastered the language and culture of her oppressors, I was often distracted by the author's description of events, animals, and topography for which I felt she would have had no vocabulary at the age of 11 or 18 or even later at age 30, etc. In the enormity of Lawrences's epic, I was able to set such distractions aside, but still in my opinion my question about the use of such terms slowed the narrative. In such cases, the frightened awe and wonder of a girl,a young woman might have been more effective. Adding to their fears, long before they could see them, the stench of death, and the bodily wastes of the living terrified the captives of what was to come. They were to live with those smells and that hell for the next six months. Author Hill describes their lot with a particularly apt metaphor: "aboard ship piled like fish in a bucket too close to move." They lived with that stench aboard ship despite the casualness with which the incurable and dead passengers were tossed overboard by the ship's crew. Later, Aminata visits that odor again, this time it emanates from the bodies thrown overboard that have washed ashore to decay on the beach. In the new world, once settled in the Carolinas on a plantation that raised and produced indigo dyes, because she was so intelligent and cruious, a kindly plantation overseer secretly teaches her to read and write and encourages her to read from his personal (hidden) library. Later, a kindly mistress teaches her acceptable pensmansh and her master taught her basic economics principles and bookkeeeping so she could keep his business and household books. Of great value in this book is the author's delineation of "community" the society in which slaves have bonded with one another, ways that denote more than simple defense against a common enemy. In that code, they perceive a difference between those whom they consider "pure" African vs. those born in captivity even though both individuals are held in bondage. The underground community formed a network they called the "fishnet" (the image of throwing a net out and catching what they could bring back). The "fishnet" supplied information from the furtherest reaches of slavery, stories of where loved ones and former villagers were held in captivity and family births and deaths. During the upheaval of the American revolution, Animata and Chekura made their way north and a break to freedom in New York. There they lived in the African tent city called Canvas Town on Manhattan Island. At the close of the revolutionary war, hundreds of former slaves had been promised passage, land, and beginning settlers' supplies in Nova Scotia as a reward for having supported the British during the war. As it turned out, the British were as treacherous as the Americans and the couple was separated and sent to different settlements. Furthermore, what awaited in Nova Scoia was no better than the country where the revolution had created the United States with words of justice and freedom but held out no such promise for its bonded citizens. Nova Scotia received slaves and indentured people, but created dual townships with blacks at the bottom rung of the ladder. There, Animata's second child, a daughter was born -- a daughter who was kidnapped by a wealthy white couple who had seemed to befriend her. Once more Aminata is alone, without husband and child. Then a young British Officer who has been struck by the sin the British have committed with their broken promise of freedom for blacks comes to Nova Scotia to organize colonies of black peole willing to resettle in Sierra Leone. For her literacy and celerical skills, Aminata is chosen to help with this work and she too joins the ship bound for Sierra Leone. There in Sierra Leone, they find themselves once more betrayed and Aminata comes to feel an overwhelming urge to return to her village. Unfortunately, only slave traders know the way. Althhough she pays the fees they ask, she doesn't completely trust them and so conceals her knowledge of the English language. A fortunate decision. On the trail, ostensibly headed for her village, she hears them discussing a plan to capture and sell her. Then, after she has escaped and made her way back to the port city, Aminata agrees to return to London to join the abolitionist movement and travel about sharing her story with others in the movement. Lawrence Hill's novel, Someone Knows My Name, is a wonderful novel, masterfully done, epic in its proportions and a scholarly masterpiece enabling the reader to see, to feel, to experience what slavery must have been like for so many on the planet. Particular pieces of the story, e.g., the settling of Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, were unknown to me. Although the book is often more reportorial than "writerly," facts, rather plainly expressed by a black woman in 1804, the sheer volume of this epic comamands us -- the cruelty, the hurt, the level of criminality carried out by huans on other human beings is near to overwhelming.

I'm giving Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill three great big "E"s for educational, entertaining and enjoyable, which is everything I want from a historical fiction. It truly was one of those books I couldn't put down and I really love when that happens. Set in the 18th century, we learn through our heroine Aminata Diallo, a young African girl about the terrible journey which slaves took through Africa and on to America. We learn about the joys and sorrows of the slaves on an indigo plantation, about the promise of freedom and land for the slaves who supported and aided the British and the difficulties which they faced when transported to Nova Scotia. Finally we learn about the colonies of former slaves in Sierra Leone. Lawrence Hill, created a story which is action packed and entertaining. Often when one reads a life history, there are parts that are sluggish but in Someone Knows My Name the story moves quickly without having the reader feel as if something has been forgotten. Much of what makes a novel enjoyable for me is that the characters are likeable and Aminata Diallo is certainly that. She is an intelligent, strong and deeply principled woman who is guided by the precepts given to her by her parents in her early life before she was enslaved. I was glad to follow along with her on her journey as I read and found each and every part of the journey moving. The only criticism I can imagine for the book is that it is perhaps a tad too much. Aminata is perhaps too intelligent, too gifted and too perceptive. She manages to be in the right places to experience so much in one life. I would recommend Someone Knows My Name to any history buff or anyone who loves a good story without hesitation.

This was pretty amazing, primarily in its ability to cover a huge amount of interesting history with a really comprehensive research background (listed at the end of the book), and somewhat in its emotional poignancy. SPOILERS: The story follows the main character, Aminata, as she travels from being kidnapped in her home village in Africa, to a slave ship to SC, to a first family in SC where she works on indigo production (and loses her son to another slave trade/kidnap), to a second family in SC where she works but also learns to read and write (Lindo), to New York (with Lindo), to escaping into "the woods" of Manhattan, to earning her way to Nova Scotia by working for the British, to laboring in Nova Scotia (and losing her second child to another kidnap, by a white family she trusted, during race riots), back to Africa ("Nova Scotians" in Sierra Lione), and finally to England to support the abolitionist movement and the British man who arranged their travel to Africa. (END SPOILERS) I found the history fascinating. It was really clear the author did a ton of research and that while the characters were obviously fictional, it was essentially very true to the times. I didn't really know anything about Black Loyalists during the Revolutionary War. (Blacks were promised their freedom by the British if they worked for their side - and eventually some were sent to Nova Scotia and then some back to Africa). I really liked how nuanced the characters and situations were. Some of the best characters, particularly Lindo, were neither all good nor all bad. They were truly human. I enjoyed the exploration of Lindo's struggle between his personal values but also being a product of his culture and time. I think I felt most personally struck by the account of (view spoiler) I feel like I've thought a lot about what slavery may have been like in the U.S., and maybe even about what the travel on the ships may have been like, but extremely little about what their lives were actually like before slavery. I felt embarrassed and ashamed by that! In this book, Aminata lives in a vibrant, self-sufficient village, follows Muslim religion, lives with her family, etc. and then is violently kidnapped away from her life. It was really difficult to read even a fictional account of what that was like. I'm glad I did, though. The story started out a bit slow for me, and I enjoyed it while I was reading it but didn't feel enough suspense to plow through it. That changed about halfway through, and for the rest of the time I was completely enthralled. Overall, I would call it amazing, if only for the sheer amount of political, social, and historical issues the author was able to cover and explore. I'm read glad I read it.

July 25, 2012 A Review of Lawrence Hill's book "Somebody Knows My Name" by Anthony T. Riggio Aminata Diallo, was eleven years old when she was snatched by the "Man Stealers" near her village of Bayo, a three month walk from the interior to Africa to the Atlantic Ocean. She was born in 1745 and was approximately eleven years old when she was abducted by slave traders. It was a walk wherein the captives endured great sufferings, deprivations, including child births and deaths along the way. Aminata suffered all of the physical and psychological trauma one could imagine with many dozens of other captives chained and yoked by the necks with no compassion or mercy shown by the slave traders. Aminata, the protagonist of this great story, is a person gifted with an enduring spirit for survival, who relies on the memories of life's lessons provided by her mother and father. Those lessons are remembered through out Aminata's difficult life. She survives the trans Atlantic slave ship journey amid the most horrible experiences one can imagine. Years ago I read Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and the images of the reality of slavery in America became so vivid in my mind. The human sufferings and the brutal separations of families for the sake of commerce were incredible to understand by anybody with half a heart and a love of a creator. Nobody Knows My Name elevated those horrors to a new level and that a human spirit was able to survive is beyond my understanding. Survive Aminatta did and became a leader of her peers and an object of admiration by many American, Canadian and British officials. She even became what she secretly wanted as a child to be the wise teller of stories for tribal people in Africa. Aminata becomes a hero for the abolitionist movement and both a unwilling and willing world traveler. This book is so good, the reader is pulled into her story and not let go. I believe this is a story everyone should read, including teenagers. It is a must for those students of history who have shook their head trying to understand the rational for slavery of human beings by other human beings. It is a clear message of this book is that slavery has always existed and unfortunately in some cultures continues. The author's passion for this subject is manifest and his attention to historical facts is comprehensive for those who love historical novels. Lawrence Hill did Herculean research to support his story and it shows. I read this novel on my Kindle!

I learned bits and pieces of Black history and of the effort to abolish the slave trade, but never put it all together. Hill's novel weaves it into a story you won't forget. If I were a high school English teacher, I would have my class read this book.

On so many levels this book is satisfying and motivating. Though a novel, the history is gratifying and will send me on to do more research. Decades ago a friend told me his family originated from Nova Scotia. As a Black person I couldn't wrap my head around that. This story explains how that occurred and I am now compelled to delve more deeply into that history. Well written. Great pace. I read this book greedily and I'm sure I'll read it again.

This is a story told in first person by a child slave all the way to her death. It takes place in the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th. I don't want to go into details, but the character development is so perfect that I found myself unable to forget about them, even when I put the book down for further reading. The author is a man, but his ability to perfectly capture the viewpoint of an intelligent, eager to learn and brave child abducted from her security and the only home she knows, is absolutely remarkable. His story absolutely jumps from the page into your heart and I find this story close to life changing. There is so much rich, although ugly information, in the story that it is absolutely captivating. The characters are round......the major players grow with each year and learn how to live in the monster called slavery. I highly recommend this book. It is difficult to read because it is so descriptive of the inhumane way human beings can treat their brothers, but it is a beautiful story of survival and what it takes to defeat the abhorrent realities of the times. I won't forget this story. It is embedded in my heart forever. It will shock you with the true ugly facts of early slavery and how the abolitionists tried to get them freed.

Das Buch ist super und sehr berührend! Allerdings habe ich ein neues Buch bestellt/bezahlt und ein offensichtlich gebrauchtes Buch bekommen. Es war nicht mal verpackt. 👎🏻

Very happy with purchase.