Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes

Lawrence Hill is one of Canada’s great storytellers — confronting historical narratives of race, memory and history. The author of several books of both fiction and non-fiction, Hill is best known for his award-winning and bestselling novel, The Book of Negroes. Hill is the son of American immigrants — a black father and white mother — who came to Canada in the fifties. Growing up in a predominantly white suburb, Hill was greatly influenced by his parents’ work in the human rights movement. Much of his writing touches on issues of identity and belonging. For this Big Thinking event, Hill will reveal how he integrated his research about the Black Loyalists into The Book of Negroes, an epic story that imagines an eighteenth century African woman’s migrations back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, spanning Mali, South Carolina, Manhattan, Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone and London.

Lawrence Hill - Faction: The merging of history and fiction in The Book of

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Hill's Book of Negroes causes stir in Netherlands

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC News) reported on 15 June 2011: A Dutch group is threatening to burn Lawrence Hill's award-winning novel The Book of Negroes, because they oppose the use of the word "negro" in the title.


The Canadian writer's novel, which traces the life of a slave girl, was recently published in the Netherlands, where a group that represents slavery victims has threatened to burn the book if its title isn't changed.

This week, Hill received a letter from Roy Groenberg, the leader of Dutch group Foundation Honor and Restore Victims of Slavery in Suriname.

"We, descendants of enslaved in the former Dutch colony Suriname, want let you know that we do not accept a book with the title The Book of Negroes," he said in the letter.

"We struggle for a long time to let the word 'nigger' disappear from Dutch language and now you set up your Book of Negroes! A real shame!"

Groenberg's group plans to burn the book on June 22 just over a week before July 1 — which marks the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands.

But Hill said that the title has given him the chance to explain this piece of history, which he said is "fascinating, important and troubling, to many thousands of readers in Canada, the UK, The Netherlands and elsewhere."

"I have found that when given the opportunity to see what I am doing in this book and with this title, readers understand that the title is not intended to be offensive, but that it is used historically, to shed light on a forgotten document and on a forgotten migration (that of thousands of Blacks from the USA to Canada in 1783)," he said in a letter to Groenberg.

The award-winning book has raised controversy before. Publishers in the United States and Australia called the book Someone Knows My Name. While in Quebec the book is titled Aminata.

But Hill says context is needed. In this case, The Book of Negroes isn't just the title, it refers to an actual historical document: a British naval ledger charting the migration of 3,000 African slaves from New York, to Nova Scotia and then to Africa.

Copies of the actual Book of Negroes is available in places such as the National Archives of Canada, Great Britain, and the New York City Public Library.

"The title is used not to provoke or offend but to resurrect a forgotten history," said Hill. "Really it affects the very people Mr. Groenberg purports to represent."

Jane Pyper, the city librarian at the Toronto Public Library, said The Book of Negroes is one of the library system's most popular books.

"It tells a story about our history that many people don't know and the fact it's circulated so many times at this library and across Canada is a testament to the fact that people want to know that story," she said. (source: CBC News)

Lawrence Hill on "The Book of Negroes"

Slavery in Canada

From Province Quebec, "Slaves in Canada"

In New France many residents kept slaves since the early eighteen century. Reputable people and institutions, such as Governor Vaudreuil, Bishop Saint-Vallier, and General Hospital were slave owners.

When the British took over Canada in 1760 there were 6,604 slaves in New France. Most of them were Panis – representatives of First Nations. The rest were blacks.
British Governor James Murray made it clear that the Canadians would be permitted to retain their slaves. He even hoped to bring more. Thus he asked a friend in New York in 1763 to help him bring to Canada “two Stout Young fellows” and, so that they wouldn’t be lonely, “for each a clean young Wife”.

Reading the papers of the late eighteenth century we can see that they contain many advertisements for slaves for sale (for about 50 pounds each). We can find rewards for capturing runaways.

During the American Revolution, British offered emancipation to the slaves who deserted their rebel masters to serve with British forces. Thus George Washington saw his slaves desert and join the forces against him.

Governor Vaudreuil

Hundreds of American slaves joined up, and after the United Kingdom had lost the war, many of them settled in Canada, mostly in Nova Scotia, where Guy Carleton arranged for their settlement. But some of theses people fled to Quebec. Many more arrived in the possession of the Loyalists, as slaves belonging to Loyalists were not allowed to leave them.

The majority of slave owners, however, were French Canadians, - more than 85% according to a census of those times. Some notable Anglophones, such as Chief Justice William Smith, Henry Caldwell or George Allsop, owned several slaves.

There was another difference: the French preferred Panis or First Nations slaves, who were cheaper, while the British owned black slaves, who were considered stronger, lived longer and were most skilled.

Bishop Saint-Vallier

Prices were dependent as well over slave’s reputation, which was quickly known in a small community like Quebec. A runaway and captured slave was obviously a bad man who didn’t cost much because of his lack of discipline and loyalty. Why does he want to be free if his master feeds him well, anyway? Indeed, something is wrong with this slave.

It wasn’t just notables who bought slaves in Canada. Innkeepers such as Miles Prentice owned slaves who milked his cows, made the butter and waited at tables. Bakers and butchers owned slaves too, including George Hipps, the man who commissioned the statue of General Wolfe in front of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. Slaves operated the printing presses of Quebec’s first newspaper Quebec Gazette.

Finally, it was the Loyalists who had fled the United States who ended slavery in Canada. Not because of their moral or Christian convictions, but because they associated it with the new American Republic they hated. Sir James Monk, Chief Justice of Montreal and member of both the Executive and Legislative Councils declared in 1793 that slavery was unsupported by law in the province of Quebec, and warned that his judgements would reflect the fact. The authorities however stopped prosecuting the slaves from deserting.

British Governor James Murray

However, in 1799 Joseph Papineau presented to the Assembly a petition signed by Montreal slave owners for upholding legal recognition of slavery. The bill was defeated, as were several more like it.

Curiously enough, the Quebec Gazette began publishing antislavery poetry and stories in the 1790ies – the same paper which printing presses were operated with the help of the slave labour. But the last time the news-paper advertised a slave for sale was in 1798.

Officially, slavery only ended when Britain abolished it in 1834.

Finally, we must admit than in contrast with their former patriots, Loyalists’ slaves were in somewhat “better situation”. Indeed, they were baptized, given some education, and their families were kept together.  (source: Province Quebec, Outskirt Press)

Slavery in Nova Scotia, Canada

Although Nova Scotia was never a major slave colony, it was neither unknown nor unusual. Wealthy families in particular often had a few bound servants, and there are records of slaves being sold and inherited in Halifax. However, the land was unsuitable for most agriculture and African slaves had trouble tolerating the cold climate. The plantation economy was a nonstarter in Nova Scotia, and thus slavery was an accepted custom with no specific legal standing.

This changed with the mass influx of Loyalists. Many of the refugees were wealthy slave owners who had taken their slaves with them when they came to Nova Scotia. The word slave was rarely used however, the preferred phrase being servant or Negro servant. Of course, the reality of perpetual servitude was the same no matter what term was used. Brutal punishment was uncommon enough to be condemned by the community when it happened, but there were no legal consequences.

In one such case the slave of a Loyalist in Truro had a habit of running away frequently. After several escapes and recaptures the master cut a hole in the slave's ear, passed a rope through it, and dragged him on the ground behind his horse for several miles. Not much later, he died. While the people of the town thought the treatment was cruel and vicious, there were no charges brought against him.

Indenture was a more common threat. A form of temporary slavery, an indentured servant would sign a contract that took away their liberty for a year or more, in return for a lump sum payment on the completion of the contract. Indentured servants could be punished as slaves and sometimes were subject to the most humiliating mistreatment. Convicts who could not pay their fines were usually indentured in order to pay them. At other times indenture was part of the sentence for a crime.

Given the poverty of the Black Loyalists and the prejudice of the legal system, many became bonded servants either through choice or as a punishment for vagrancy. In 1784, when a list of indentured servants was drawn up in order to investigate corruption in the distribution of supplies, there were about 125 servants; around 10% of the blacks in Shelburne at the time. This occurred at a point when all Loyalists of any colour were supposed to be drawing supplies from the British crown. The list was written to investigate abuses of the rationing system, as it was common practice to indenture blacks and then keep their supplies. In effect you were paid with food and tools for the privilege of receiving free labour.

Other abuses were common as well. Many would find some excuse to release the servants just before the end of their term and so avoid the promised payment for their services. Others sought to trick illiterate blacks by promising a one year term but writing up a much longer contract. One woman was fooled into signing a 39 year contract. Others would arrange some way of getting their servants out of the province (exporting slaves was forbidden) and then selling them off to permanent slavery in the West Indies. Some people would forge ownership papers so as to hold their servant indefinitely. Since the word of a black wasn't given much weight in the courts, the master had little fear of repercussions. (source: Black Loyalist.com)