RAWSISTAZ Review of Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

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Reviewed: Feb 12, 2008

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
W. W. Norton, November 2007
512 Pages, Hardcover, $24.95
ISBN: 0393065782
Genre: Fiction

RAW Rating: 5.0 (out of 5)

Beyond Slavery

At the age of eleven, Aminata Diallo is captured into slavery from her homeland of Bayo in West Africa. Sold to Robinson Appleby in South Carolina, she works the indigo plantation and delivers the babies of the women who are enslaved. She marries Chekura, who is brought over to the states with her, although he was once a helper to the slave traitors, and they have a son. Chekura, a slave on a neighboring plantation, disappears right about the time her infant son is snatched from her in the middle of the night. This causes Aminata tremendous heartache as she contemplates the whereabouts of her loved ones.

Highly intelligent, Aminata quickly catches on to the English language, as well as the Gullah dialect. She is secretly taught to read by her mulatto slave master and is a very apt pupil. When Solomon Lindo comes to inspect the indigo at Appleby’s plantation, he is intrigued with Aminata’s knowledge and how well she speaks. Lindo purchases her at a very high price to both himself and Aminata. Lindo and his wife continue to teach her to read, write and to do math. He hires her to keep his books and she is also allowed to make additional money delivery babies. Being owned by the Lindos gives her more freedom, but without family and friends – she is still bound.

Aminata eventually escapes from Lindo in New York. She lives in a village of escaped slaves who assist the British army during the Revolutionary War. She teaches the former slaves to read and also works as a midwife to the women in the village and also the prostitutes for the British officers. She is briefly reunited with Chekura and they produce another child.

When given the opportunity to assist the British Army in recording the name of the Blacks who worked with them known as the Book of Negroes, Aminata accepts on the promise of freedom and the opportunity to own some land. Aminata experiences more disappointments, heartbreak and empty promises during the course of her lifetime. But when the British start to make effort to abolish slavery, she is the representative they chose to share her experiences. Treated like royalty in the latter days of her life, she is finally satisfied she has left her mark and someone knows her name.

Told in flashback, SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME is beautifully written narrative that captures the essence of the human spirit. Aminata’s resiliency is vividly portrayed with an element of respect not often given to African slaves. The most profound moment in the book for me is when she is in the market place and she realizes what it meant to be a slave – "your past didn’t matter, in the present you were invisible and you had no claim on the future". I felt her heartbreak, her fear of the unknown, and her refusal to give up hope. She is a character who will stick with me for years to come.

Reviewed by Paula Henderson, RAWSISTAZ.com
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Paula Henderson is an IT Quality Assurance Supervisor with a book addiction. She is the mother of three children and resides in Little Rock, Arkansas.

RAWSISTAZ Literary Group
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