I finally got around to watching this yesterday and it was immensely powerful for me in understanding the human history surrounding slavery, racism, women, cruelty, survival, etc.. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in expanding their awareness regarding such things.
The mini-series is free to watch from the CBC website, there are 6 episodes, each is about 50 minutes in length.
I found the main character to be a huge inspiration. Her strength of spirit and determination given the struggles and circumstances she faced are a testament to the idea that change is an option. We can all learn much from Aminata Diallo. :)
The story is based on a book of the same name. From the wiki entry:
The Book of Negroes is a 2007 award-winning novel from Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. In the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the novel was published under the title Someone Knows My Name.
I found this note from the author interesting and also relevant regarding the
title of the book:
"I used The Book of Negroes as the title for my novel, in Canada, because it derives from a historical document of the same name kept by British naval officers at the tail end of the American Revolutionary War. It documents the 3,000 blacks who had served the King in the war and were fleeing Manhattan for Canada in 1783. Unless you were in The Book of Negroes, you couldn't escape to Canada. My character, an African woman named Aminata Diallo whose story is based on this history, has to get into the book before she gets out. In my country, few people have complained to me about the title, and nobody continues to do so after I explain its historical origins. I think it's partly because the word 'Negro' resonates differently in Canada. If you use it in Toronto or Montreal, you are probably just indicating publicly that you are out of touch with how people speak these days. But if you use it in Brooklyn or Boston, you are asking to have your nose broken. When I began touring with the novel in some of the major US cities, literary African-Americans kept approaching me and telling me it was a good thing indeed that the title had changed, because they would never have touched the book with its Canadian title."
I include the above quote as I also appreciate the sensitivity to labels and words that many people have. If I have offended anyone by using the original title, that is not my intent. :)
Here is a little more background on the story, from The Globe & Mail:
The Book of Negroes chronicles the dramatic journey and life of Aminata Diallo, a young West African girl, abducted from her village and sold into slavery in America. Eventually, she registers her name in the Book of Negroes, the British ledger of 3,000 Black Loyalists who declared their allegiance to the King and were allowed to leave America for Nova Scotia – and what they believed was the promised land. She lives her final years in England.
The Book of Negroes is an ambitious production – filmed in two countries, South Africa and Canada, on two continents, with an international cast of 120 and more than 400 crew members – but Hill, 57, who co-wrote the screenplay, says it is “very profoundly a Canadian story, but a very unknown Canadian story.”
That his book has even come to life on TV is a feat – almost as much creative energy went into financing it as writing it. It’s been a four-year process.
