Blog Post #5 - Book of Negroes

The Book of Negroes can be view through a Post Colonial literary criticism specifically looking at hegemony. Aminiata left New York to seek freedom and a new life in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. She arrived pregnant, knowing no one and no contracts to connect with upon her arrival. Aminiata ventured down the main street in Shelburne looking for someone to talk to "I saw no familiar faces. Most of the people were white, and they walked passed as if I didn't exist". (Hill pg352) Aminiata spoke to a white women who was walking down the street towards her. She asked the women if is was in Port Roseway, however the women walk straight passed her without acknowledging that she was there. Aminiata then decided to enter a merchants coffee house to ask about work and a place to stay. In there a man "...took me by the arm and pulled me to the door."We don't serve niggers here"". (Hill g352) She was then told that Birch town was the place for "your kind". As she continued on her way down the main street in search of someone to talk to, Aminiata was further disrespected by two ragged British solders who were throwing peanuts are her. Aminiata had travel there in hopes of a better life as a free women, but her first impression of Shelburne re-enforced that thing were not that much different than where she had come from. To further the hegemony concepts the black people were forced to lived in there own town segregated from Shelburne where the white people live. In order for the white people to maintain dominance and power they humiliated, physically abused, and disrespected the black people. Most of the white people through that Aminiata would be less intelligent and therefore would not give her the time a day. This made it difficult for Aminiata to get a job and left her feeling helpless and unsure of what the future would entail for her and her unborn baby. The white people sought to oppress the black people in all aspects of there life to assure that they would not lose there power and dominance.