#slavery – kindread spirits

In this retelling of the story of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn, Jim, or James, as he prefers to call himself, is a literate, enslaved man who has been sneaking into the library of his owner to educate himself and to find material to use to educate other enslaved folks around him. Upon learning he will likely be sold and separated from his family, he decides to run away, and Huck, fearing his own demons, follows him. Their journey takes them through crazy and dangerous escapades. Nevertheless, through it all, James believes there is nothing that can frighten him or debase him more than what he’s already experienced: being owned by another human being.

This is an odyssey, a whirlwind of an adventure – absurd and terrifying in equal parts. We learn about both James’ and Huck’s pasts as the story unfolds, and how their pasts have intertwined. More importantly, we learn so much about James’s character, which is deeply complex. He has an abiding love for his family, even as he develops a growing awareness of his fury toward his oppressors. We both love him and fear him, as his compassion for others in need can be compelling even while his rage can be blinding.

It is also a uniquely powerful story from the perspective of this educated, enslaved man. It is striking how everyone in the story, whether Black or White, reacts to James when he speaks in his normal manner vs his affected, “slave” manner. Everyone, including his peers, expects him to use incorrect wording, grammar, etc. Even when a White man is being threatened by James, with a gun pointed directly at him, all he can focus on is how James is speaking – it is such a shock to him. It is symbolic of how a command of words can signify education, influence, even power.

It’s a wild, frightening, and enlightening journey that we take with James. I daresay, a bit different from the “Jim” Twain had in mind…

someone knows my name

Aminata was born free, in the heart of Africa and learned early how to “catch babies” with her mother, who was a midwife in her village. On their way back from delivering a baby in a nearby village, Aminata was captured, dragged on a 3-month trek over land and then forced onto a slave ship, which she survived within an inch of her life. She was to go on to become a slave in the south and, like others of her time, become a pawn caught between the colonists and the British. All she wished for, her whole life, was to return home to Africa – and it seemed as if the Book of Negroes, the book in which she eventually was inscribed, just might be her ticket back. During her whole ordeal, she fought for freedom for herself and for all Negroes everywhere. Would she see it finally come to pass?

There are innumerable books about slaves and slavery during the time of the Civil War, but this takes the reader further back, to the time of the American Revolutionary War. This was a time when both the colonists and the British were inflicting the indignities of slavery onto the Negroes of the time and these people were essentially pawns caught between the two warring factions. It was unclear which side would deal more fairly with their race and who to trust, and each individual gambled with their life in choosing sides. We learn, through this story, about the British offer to those Negroes who had worked for the British for at least a year prior to the end of the war the promise of freedom and a new life in Nova Scotia. But were they really to be trusted? Would they really achieve the independence they were seeking?

This is a powerful story about the inescapability of slavery for Africans of that era, and how globally it was accepted. This story gave much historical context of the British practices and laws and the involvement of Canada and Nova Scotia as well. While it was fictionized, much of it was based in fact. Telling it from Aminata’s perspective highlighted how truly evil it was and her frustration with how she could truly almost never escape it now matter where she fled. She could not trust anyone and she could not know for sure she would not be taken away and sold back into slavery if she were freed. How terrifying.

This is an excellent book that truly grips you from the first page and doesn’t let you go until the last. Historical fiction at its best.