
My Review: Aminata’s story is heart-wrenching and amazingly
told. It’s a difficult story to read, as
she holds nothing back from what she has experienced. Hill described the conditions of the slave
ships in a way that made my stomach turn.
He details the abuses that were levied on those captured and sold into
slavery, and uses Aminata to illustrate how difficult it was for Africans
uprooted from their homes, sold across the ocean, and trying to survive in a
completely new world.
Hill focuses his story on the British Loyalists and the
struggles and injustices they had to face.
What I found most interesting was the accounts he gave of Freetown and
of Aminata’s work with the Abolitionists in England. It’s a period in history that is unfamiliar
to me (we didn’t cover it in World History), and it was a part of the book I
felt deserved more attention than it received.
While this book is very well-written, and is single-handedly
responsible for my falling behind in my housework (I've been promising my family
fresh bread for a week… but who can bake bread when Aminata is witnessing a
revolt aboard the slave ship?), there are parts I wish were fleshed out much
more. Years of character development are
brushed over, “before I knew it, thirteen years had passed”, relationships
develop and fall apart without any real explanation, and it detracted from the
book.
Rating: Three Stars.
Educationally, wow. The writing
is great, but its failings were just a little too much.
For the Sensitive
Reader: This is one to stay away
from. While it was handled with the utmost delicacy, there are numerous
instances of relations between either married or not yet married couples, instances
of slavers or slave owners brutalizing women and Aminata, and some
brutality. It was very difficult to
read.
3 comments:
I have this book. And I've been wanting to read it but I haven't for the exact reason you noted in the last paragraph. I did some heavy reading last year and I just didn't want to go there again. Next month I will read "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander. Maybe I'll follow with this one.
Great review...and understand where you are coming from...but I loved this, warts and all.
This looks like an interesting read - I've found it difficult to find much 18th century historical fiction about slaves, much less books dealing with the Loyalists. It's a shame that it has such failings. I'll pick this up at some point when I'm out of my historical-fiction-is-depressing slump.
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