Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

I'm listing this book under the name it is published as in the Untied States. I don't find the Canadian name offensive because I am white and because the name of the book refers to an archival genealogy document, it is not meant to offend. Lawrence Hill lives in Manitoba and he is black. The Canadian name of the book is The Book of Negroes. For a first book it is absolutely amazing. My only disappointment was when I reached the end of the book only to discover that his main character was fictional. I grew very attached to her. I admired her courage, her intelligence, her choices and I cried with her disappointments and losses. Hopefully someone like her did actually exist even in a composite of different women.

She was kidnapped from her home in 1745 and sold in South Carolina. She eventually made her way to New York State. This was during the American Revolution. The English held Manhatten for many years before they surrendered. A part of the deal when they did surrender was that any blacks that had worked for the British for at least a year were given free passage, unmolested by previous owners, to Nova Scotia where they were promised land of their own. This is where the Book of Negroes comes into play. A list of names and descriptions was made of all those who were eligible to leave on ships going to Nova Scotia. The original document is in Kew, London, England and there are films available in archives in Canada and perhaps the US. Of course the promise of land never materialized in Nova Scotia however the people were free. They were then invited to colonize Sierra Leone in Africa. Again they were promised land... which never materialized but again they were free and they were back home where they belonged.

Our main character then travelled to Britain in 1802 to work with Abolitionists in London. This is where I so wanted her to be real. Her story was told to Parliament and in the book did make a difference. She was reunited with her daughter who had been taken from her many years earlier. It just was a very happy ending.

It was difficult to read this book because of the cruelty brought to light. But I believe it is good for us to read about these things, not in a straight history book, but in a novel where we can see how it affected an individual. It would be nice if a movie or series was one day made from the book similar to the Roots series.