I really looked at
the definition and use of injustice and found that it is a major issue in The Book
of Negroes. “Something unfair that happens, often in violation of a basic human
right” is the way that vocabulary.com defines injustice. Some examples of injustices
of the world are poverty, gender equality, orphans, racism, abuse, and war.
Each one of those injustices that I just listed, some more than others, are
explored in this novel.
Aminata is judged
so often based only on the colour of her skin. Hill shows the injustice when
Aminata is almost raped by a white man in the street. Aminata Diallo is
probably one of the most educated people and only because of her skin colour
she doesn’t get any of the opportunities that a white person does. The only
reason that she cannot climb the ladder to a better life is because her skin is
the “wrong” colour. Her problem is that not only is she just black, she is also
a woman. Women are disregarded as people and only seen as toys to be played
with by most of the men, with the exception of Chekura.
Hill also shows us
injustice when he brings in the characters of Lieutenant Waters and Rosetta. They
come into the story because Lieutenant Waters wants Aminata to help Rosetta
have her baby. It is revealed to us that Rosetta believes Waters loves her, but
as outsiders we can see that he cannot lover her only because she is black. He
asks Rosetta to leave with the baby so that no one, that he would deem
respectable, can ever find out he had a child be a black woman. Rosetta’s
character as an individual brings to light yet another injustice; she is a
thirteen year old prostitute. She is forced into this form of work because she
cannot do anything else and she has no one to take care of her. She then
believes that Lieutenant Waters loves her because he takes care of her.
The character of
Miss Betty emphasizes another injustice, that of the fact that to be free in
New York was just as bad as being a slave in New York. We see that being a
slave was almost better, as Miss Betty points out; at least she has clothes on
her back, food in her belly and a roof over her head. The people living in
Canvas Town have a harder life than if they were still slaves. This seems
almost opposite to the way that we think of history. When slaves were freed
they were all happier, but the white men controlled so much that even when they
didn’t have any actual control over the Negroes; they were still a huge
influence on their lives. Miss Betty’s death highlights that influence, because
even the “freed” slaves must carry their dead deep into the forest to bury
them.
Obviously slavery
is a huge issue in The Book of Negroes but I think that slavery is only the tip
of a huge iceberg. Aminata has so many more problems than just being a slave,
if that were the only problem when she became free the story would have ended.
I love how Hill shows us that there is more to slavery than we think at first
glance. I love the way that he explains where these terrible actions and
beliefs come from, without have to spell it out for us. Everyone is able to see
different things in this book because he is guiding us to make our own
discoveries. Injustice is the biggest problem that I see.
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