Someone Knows My Name is an older historical novel by Lawrence Hill. After reading it, I am surprised that I'd never come across this novel before. It's the story of Aminata, an 11-year old African girl, kidnapped from her homeland by slavers in the mid-1700s. She is marched over many months to coastal Africa from her home further inland where she is put on a slave ship headed towards South Carolina. She started out as a slave on an indigo plantation, eventually gets traded to an administrative type in the indigo industry. She ends up in New York City during the Revolutionary War, and then gets rewarded for her service to the king of England with passage to Nova Scotia and hope for a fresh start. Life continues to be hard and full of prejudice. Meena agrees to join with British abolitionists who are determined to create a colony in Africa, Sierra Leone, which former slaves can become "adventurers" and experience freedom for the first time.
Meena, feeling like she'd lost everything that was every important to her decides that going to Sierra Leone will be her opportunity to go home. The home that she's longed for since she was first kidnapped many years earlier. Home is not exactly what she imagined, but she and the abolitionists realize the importance of Meena telling the story of her life. That brings her from Africa to England.
This is a sweeping saga in the life of a fictional slave. It was exceptionally told. It wasn't so much a novel about slavery as about the life of this one fictionalized woman. But I was either made aware of things in the history of slavery that I wasn't familiar with or that I'd forgotten all about. I'd highly recommend this novel.
Still on my TBR pile. I'm just reading The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts and have finished Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. This should be one of the next ones, I guess.
ReplyDeleteSame as I read books about WWII and how the Jews and others were treated, I read about slaves and slaveholding because I think the more we know about a certain kind of history, the less likely it is that it will be repeated. Hopefully.
I highly recommend this book. Meena's experience at the Castle reminds me of what I learned about that from reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Twelve Years a Slave is on my TBR list, but I'm unfamiliar with The Bondwoman's Narrative.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, so important to know about our history so we don't make the same bad mistakes again.
Well, I have the book already, so I will definitely read it.
DeleteThanks for reinforcing my intention. And I'll post about The Bondwoman as soon as I've read it.
Thanks for your answer.