In The Book Of Negroes, Aminiata really starts to focus on the injustice of slavery. Aminiata comes to this realization when her slave owner Appleby fines her six months pregnant, and instead of helping her, he uses her as an example for all of the other slaves. Appleby stripes her naked and makes her burn all of her clothes including a fancy head scarf given to her by her husband Chekura. He then states that slaves should not have "white people"clothes. After all of her clothes were burnt he shaved her hair until Aminiata no longer recognized her self,noting that she had lost her clothes her hair her beauty and her "womanhood". Aminiata gave birth to a little baby boy who she named Mamadu after her father who she could always depend on and keep her safe. Once the baby was ten months old Aminiata was woken one night by his crying and realized that Appleby had sold her baby, she now felt like she had nothing. Aminiata was depressed and refused to work because she felt like she had lost everything, Appleby continued to beat her but he still work not work for him. So eventually he sold Aminiata telling her she was stupid and no good.
This relates to the world issue today of men wanting to control, abuse and sell women in the sex trade industry. Some men feel the need to have power and control over women in work places and personal relationships. In the work place the men could feel that they need to be a higher authority which could lead to emotional abuse and harassment. Women who try to move up in there work places are sometimes put down and told that they are not good enough to fill a certain position. In personal relationships some men feel the need to control some aspects of there partners life. They often control the finances and and how much money they can spend and all of the decision making including deciding whether there wife/partner can work or whether she strictly has to stay home. Sometimes the control can include physical abuse and be extremely painful for the partner. This is a long historic battle that was a problem during slavery and is still a problem in relationships today. Aminiata's life in slavery was extremely harsh and very inhuman and she spent her whole life trying to abolish slavery.
Great post Sarah! I definitely noticed how the book could relate to this real life issue. In the case of The Book of Negroes do you believe that Aminata is treated this way only because she is a women or do you think that men may also be treated in that fashion?
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great post. This book definitely discusses a very horrible real-life issue. Living in Canada allows us to be free from slavery and therefore we are not truly aware of what happens in some countries. I am always so shocked when I hear things like the issue in your blog post. I really see how this issue connects to your novel.
hey Sarah, really great post! you did a really good job of explaining in short how brutal Aminata was treated by Appleby. I was disgusted reading this ( as I was for the majority of the book) it is truly sickening as to how blacks were treated back then. I found myself torn between not wanting to read in because of how horrible it sounded and then wanting to never put the book down as I wanted to find out how she could have possibly gotten through each painful experience. Its mind blowing to think this is just one story out of millions that had to go through the same, if not worse things everyday of their lives.
ReplyDeleteReally great job
-Kristen Kirschner