Book of Negroes Journal

At the very beginning of the book, I could feel the warmth and love in my heart through what the character experienced while she lived in Bayo with her parents. I could relate myself to Aminata, a young lady with a whole life ahead her, multiple dreams to come true, the feeling of protection and love while around her parents. Afterwards I couldn't feel the happiness of the character anymore, the only feelings I could experience were grief and anger. So drastically her life changed, from a happy reality to a seemingly nightmare. When she was abducted and taken to a strange world under conditions that she didn't deserve to experience, when she was naked and humiliated, when she walked so much that her feet bled, when she was sent to the ship and glided over the unburied, when she stopped being the spoiled little girl and became the strong and fearless Aminata Diallo.

If I could talk to the author I would like to ask why he chose to reflect the life experiences and personal challenge through the eyes of a girl and why not through a boy, because he certainly achieved his purpose of communicating both history and feelings through a girl's experiences and I have no doubt that was the best choice. I would also ask why he chose to write that both parents of Aminata should die, because that evidently marked the character's life and I personally would have liked to read that the parents had a possibility to survive and made of Aminata a girl less traumatized, or that she had the hope of being free again and see her parents once more.

If I were a character in this book I guess I would choose to be Aminata. Despite the grief she experienced when she lost her parents and was taken away from her life, she was strong enough to move forward and live her life. I am not certainly sure if I could overcome the sadness of losing my parents, but I choose to be like Aminata was. There is always a point in life that we are meant to reach, no matter how many difficulties we...