Summery

Today I’m going to talk about the second third of this intense but thrilling book called, The Book of Negros, written by Lawrence Hill. Continuing from my last post, Aminata continued to struggle with living the life of being owned. She went through countless beatings, and emotions. Through it all, Aminata ended up getting pregnant at age 15, having a young son, whom she named after her Father. Appleby, Aminata’s master, ended up separating the two selling Aminata and her baby to separate, new masters. Aminata got sold to a man named Solomon Lindo.

He treated her with respect, never beat her and started teaching her the ways of the world, including reading, writing, money counting and math. She was called a servant not a slave, and got the chance to see a map on where she originated from. Over years, Aminata lost many friends, including Georgia, Fomba, Ms. Lindo and Dolly, as well as her son, from a world wide disease called pox. Aminata went on a business trip to New York with Lindo months later, where she received help from a gentleman named Sam, in running away as war broke lose. This is when Aminata ended up getting a job with the British army, in transporting “free” negroes to Nova Scotia, doing the books on all that entered the ship. Months later Aminata and Cheukua were about to get on a ship, as free negroes, Aminata got arrested, for Appleby claimed she was his property. Sam travelled to find Lindo, to prove her innocents, and Lindo ended up letting her go.

Archetypal View

When looking at the angle of an archetypal literary theory, you are focusing on the reoccurring myths, images and symbols. As well as looking at the different archetypes, each character takes after. There are multiple different archetypes displayed in this book, including a hero, a villain, the great mother, the wise old man, the mentor and the trickster.

Aminata takes the role of being the hero of her own story. Through every up and down from the beginning of the book till now, she has overcome many obstacles put in front of her. Including surviving the great crossing, to being humiliated, bought, owned, beaten, raped, to learning how to read and write, making money for herself and striving for freedom. All doing so, while she lost the ones she leaned on the most. Every struggle to a little bit of happiness, brought Aminata to take on the role of being the hero, and being the woman she is today.

The character that takes on the role of being the villain is Robinson Appleby. He is the man who bought Aminata, when she was 11 years old. His main goal in the book was to make Aminata’s life as miserable as possible. When she was formally a slave on his plantation, Appleby sold her son to another plantation, just to punish her. The battle continued even after, Aminata was sold to Lindo. When she was on the ship, Aminata got arrested. “Appleby told the justice of the peace that he still owned me. He said that I had only been loaned to Solomon Lindo, that Lindo had absconded with me and that I had run from Lindo. Therefore, Appleby said, I had never been freed, and was illegally in New York and still belonged to him.” (Hill 306)

This got me on my toes, when I read this part, and made me hate him even more. Later, Appleby got what he deserved when the judge said, “Mr. Appleby, you give a white man a bad name. You have one day to leave New York. If at noon tomorrow you are still in this city, I will have you arrested. And if you are not out of this room within thirty seconds, I will arrest you right now for perjury. Now get out.” (Hill 310) This burn, of success, and relief of her being free and done with the fight with being a slave, brought a huge smile to my face, proving that Appleby was the villain.

Georgia, the woman who took Aminata under her wing when she first got onto Appleby’s plantation, takes over the role of being The Great Mother. If you compare her to a godmother, she supplies and teaches everything she can for Aminata to survive.

Daddy Moses is the perfect example of a character that portrays the wise old man. Daddy Moses is a blind man who is a preacher of a christian church. Aminata attended a few of the services, even though she is muslim, just to talk and hear what he had to say. When Aminata first got to Charlestown, Daddy Moses was the man who helped her set up her hut. Even though he was blind, his kind soul and warm heart aided this girl, he had never meet before, in a time of need. Everything and anything that she learned along her journey, she passed on through her teaching in London, later in the book.

When Aminata was still on the plantation, she met a man that was Appleby’s right hand man, named Mamed. His role in this story, is playing the mentor for Aminata. Through her time spent on the plantation, Mamed saw the intelligence behind her eyes. He wanted to elevate her knowledge through reading, with his access to books. Mamed taught Aminata how to further her knowledge in any skill that she portrayed. He pushed her as much as he could behind Appleby’s back, making him the perfect mentor for Aminata.

Lastly, when it comes to the trickster, this character had always puzzled me on the way he acted, but in part two it all came together. The trickster in this book is Solomon Lindo. From the beginning, he displayed this aroma of kindness to Aminata, before he bought her. He stated once he brought her to his house, “I prefer the term servant. And we don’t treat our servants rudely.” (Hill 190). It was almost like he was trying to make up for something, since his true colours came out when, Ms. Lindo died, taking it out on Aminata.

At the end of this second reading, it was stated in court, “And to arrange the sale of Mamadu, son of Meena. Said sale to be effected in Savannah, Georgia, on terms suitable to Robinson Appleby. Proceeds of sale of son to be divided, three quarters to Mr. Appleby and one quarter to Mr. Lindo.” (Hill 309) Lindo had involvement in Aminata’s separation with her son, taking some of the profit. Then his character changes and allows her to be freed from slavery saying, “Mr. Lindo, you may take your property, the justice said. She is free to go, Lindo said. You came all this way to manumit your slave? It is a matter of making peace with my past, Lindo said.” (Hill 310) This change from good to bad to good makes him the perfect character to represent the trickster.

Symbol

One of the symbols that throughout the book, they keep identifying Aminata with is the half moons on each cheek. Sam stated, “From the moons on your face, I suspect that your journey began long before Charles Town.” (Hill 247) This symbol connects her back to where she originated from and her religion/culture she practises.

Another symbol that was forced upon each slave as they got pushed off the ship, was the brand that they put above each negroes chest. The branding showed who they belonged to and stripped them of their freedom.

Work Cited

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