Book of Negroes

Aminata’s wide experience is crucial for the abolitionist movement, her unique knowledge and skills resulted to a vast field of experiences of the heartless African slavery. Her skills and knowledge that she got from her parents made a huge role on her survival that brought her to a unique experience of slavery. She grew up with the influence of a strong mother and a knowledgable father.”Mama is strong… Beauty comes and goes. Strength you keep forever.”(19). They shaped Aminata to grow strong and intellectual.This let Aminata develop skills and abilities that was then crucial for her survival. Aminita is a strong weapon to the abolitionist movement firstly because she is skilled enough to share and explain herself. Secondly the unmeasurable pain she experienced and witnessed.

From the moment she was taken and got her parents killed, her hellish life until sometime before she died. Lastly, her determination. Aminata fought through the struggles life has thrown at her. As she live most of her life in slavery, Aminata pursue and learned. She was a special slave that made her encounter countless acts of slavery throughout her life. These characteristics and experiences Aminata have are important for the movement. “We need you, Meena. The abolitionist movement needs you. We need your story we need your voice”(425).

Aminata’s skills and unique abilities she developed in her life made her see different perspectives. With these she can express the feelings and hardships African slaves had been through. She had seen and been part of countless of problems of different characters. From slaves, owners, friends, parents, and herself. The ability to catch babies made Aminata encounter different African women. Aminata’s ability to catch baby comes from her mother. Her mother took her when she was catching babies and was then taught.

“… my mother taught me how to reach inside a woman after coating my hand with warm oil and to touch in the right spot to tell if the door was suitably wide. I became adept at that, and Mama said it was good to have me along because my hands were so small.(15) This ability turned out to be a lifesaver for Aminata. It made her useful enough for her life to be spared. It is a very important skill that she have, as important as her ability to speak different languages. She was able to speak Fulfude, Bamanankan, butit doesn’t stop there because Aminata is a fast learner. “I have never seen someone from Africa learn so fast.”(143) says Georgia, Aminata’s accompany at Appleby.

Aminata learned how to speak buckra with the help of Georgia. Aminata’s skill had lift her importance as a slave which led for her to be taken by Lindo Solomon. Lindo had owned Aminata because she caught his attention with her talent and potential. Lindo educated Aminata about the monetary system. The potential of Aminata that amazed the owners just shows how African people doesn’t look at them human like, but as animals who isn’t capable of anything. With Aminata seeing different people’s struggles because of her talent, she can narrate their stories and show how torturous slavery is.

The unfairness and discrimination Aminata experienced and witnessed shows the importance of her to the abolitionists. With her ability to translate, she was asked to work for the toubabu when she was in the slave ship being transported to South Carolina. Doing her job, she witnessed the pain, hunger, thirst, molestation, the abuse and deaths of her fellow slaves. ” I watch the toubabu throw the dead homelanders over-board. Over screeching protests, they also grabbed the badly wounded homelanders went overboard, they cried out again. ” (106) When Aminata arrived at South Carolina, the slavery didn’t stopped but became worst for her. She was put in to work at an indigo plantation owned by Robinson Appleby.

Unlike the treatment to Aminata on the slave ship, she was raped by Appleby ripping her clothes on several incidents. Aminata was tortured but the worst had yet to come. Aminata give birth to her son and was sent away from her. Her son later died of disease. Aminata found this out, she had lost her parents, husband, and her son. Her strong faith and determination was put in to test. These struggles were all thrown at Aminata. It took away Aminata’s dignity and beauty, but Aminata kept on fighting.

Aminata’s determination to live pushed her through. Through the deaths of her love ones, the physical and mental abuse that rained onto her, losing her dignity, and losing every part of her. She past through countless obstacles that no other slaves have done. Her perspective is the best way to look onto and use for the movement. At such a young age Aminata had already lost her parents. A kid’s guide to life. She learned to live by herself with the help of wise lectures from her parents that she kept in her heart. The agony of losing someone didn’t go away but was refreshed throughout her life. She lost her husband, her son that died, her daughter, and many important persons that had been part of her life. She might have seen her daughter by the end of her story but she didn’t know. Until then she endure the pain of losing her daughter, the fruit of her love with Chekura. Aminata had passed hardships. The determination she developed through her slavery became stronger over time. This rock-like perseverance is the reason she survived the slavery and live upto her age. Aminata’s perseverence serves as the ideal concept for the movement.

To Conclude, Aminata’s experiences of slavery is too valuable for the abolitionist to pass. Her knowledge and skills made her understand various stories of slavery that had poured onto Africans. Her own experience of intolerable pain would be and important piece for the abolitionist to have. She would be the sharpest sword to have for the movement. Aminata’s strory carries many of her fellow African slave’s voices. Aminata her self is a movement, her determination to live through it all is the most powerful weapon that she have and that the movement needs.

Work Cited
Hill, Lawrence. The Book of Negroes. Toronto: HarperCollins Publisher Ltd, 2007. Nhuyen, Michael. “ENG4U Presentation (The Book of Negroes)” Prezi.com

Nhuyen, Michael. “The Book of Negroes Characters and Quotes” Prezi.com
http://prezi.com/sjch_ez145cx/the-book-of-negroes-characters-and-quotes/ Heather “D is for Aminata Diallo, Heroine of The Book of Negroes” epochtales.blogspot.ca, Thursday January 21, 2010