Someone Knows My Name

Chekura is Aminata’s love interest and husband, and the father of both Mamadu and May. He is enslaved and apart from Aminata for most of his life. At the start of the story Chekura works for the slavers, though he is fond of Aminata. He cares for her throughout the journey to the sea by bringing her things she needs, treating her wounds, and giving her extra food. When he too is taken captive aboard the slave ship, he is ashamed for putting Aminata into slavery. Chekura exemplifies the story’s theme of identity in crisis and transition when he responds to Aminata, saying his name in the hold of the slave ship: “Someone knows my name. Seeing you makes me want to live” (65). When his name is spoken, he is reminded of who he is, which rekindles his motivation to survive.

Despite the physical distance between him and Aminata once they are sold into slavery, Chekura always manages to find his way back to her, and his interactions with Aminata are always tender and loving. For Aminata, Chekura represents her homeland, and she clings on to him for reasons beyond their love. He is the only one who calls her by her real name, and his voice reminds her of the sounds of her village. Chekura is a traveling man and never seems to stay in one place. Though Aminata is hopeful for their new life together in Nova Scotia, Chekura expresses his doubts in the promises of the British, saying that what they have is real and that she shouldn’t have high expectations for Nova Scotia. He has experienced false promises before—he was abandoned by the British he served, and he lost his fingers trying to board their ship. When Aminata is arrested because of Appleby’s claim of ownership, he tries to stay with Aminata but is told he will not be allowed to board another ship if he does. For years after her arrival in Nova Scotia, Aminata waits patiently for Chekura, placing advertisements in newspapers and even visits Annapolis Royal, his ship’s destination. She learns from John Clarkson many years later that Chekura perished when the Joseph went down.

John Clarkson is a British naval officer and abolitionist who becomes one of Aminata’s most trusted and closest friends. On behalf of the Sierra Leone Company, he offers the disillusioned free Negroes of Nova Scotia safe passage and a chance at self-governance in Sierra Leone. He immediately gains Aminata’s respect and trust through his interactions with the Negroes. He speaks to the Negroes with warmth and kindness, and he is confident enough in his venture to allow the Negroes to voice their concerns without taking offence. He goes as far as to say that the Negroes themselves can teach him much more about Africa than he can teach them. The colony of Freetown is Clarkson’s life passion. He dedicates every waking moment to the details of the venture, ensuring the Negroes are taken care of and the journey is well prepared for. Neither his tears during the day nor his night terrors deter him from his work. Although his plan fails and the Negroes never achieve self-sufficiency in Freetown, he makes every effort to support the Black Loyalists.

Clarkson is one of the few people Aminata feels comfortable sitting with in silence: “It was the first time in my life I had felt connected to another person, merely by dint of our sitting in the same space and reading together” (390). When Aminata informs Clarkson of her visit to Bance Island and her plans to travel inland, he shouts at her—the slavers are dangerous and are the same people who stole her away from her home. However, he respects Aminata’s stubbornness and as a parting gift provides the payment she promised Alassane for the journey. Clarkson believes that the abolitionist movement in London needs Aminata’s voice, and he welcomes her into his home when she finally arrives. In Aminata’s old age, Clarkson cares for Aminata as family, and Aminata entrusts him to look after her daughter May after her death.

Robinson Appleby is the owner of the indigo plantation where Aminata is first enslaved. He buys her cheap as a refuse slave and eyes Aminata often. He takes pride in Aminata’s cleverness and quick learning and shows her off to Solomon Lindo when he comes to inspect Appleby’s indigo. However, Appleby expresses disdain for her strong will and intellect. Appleby is angered when Chekura comes to visit Aminata often, and he rapes her to assert his dominance. When Chekura and Aminata marry and Aminata wears the colorful gifts she received at her secret wedding, Appleby humiliates a heavily pregnant Aminata by stripping her of her clothes and shaving her head, telling her that he owns every part of her, even her baby. When Aminata and Chekura’s son Mamadu is 10 months old, Appleby snatches him up in the middle of the night and sells him. This pushes Aminata into a severe depression, after which Appleby beats her until he is left with no other option but to sell her to Solomon Lindo. Years later Appleby shows up in Manhattan with a proof of sale to stop Aminata from boarding the ship to Nova Scotia with Chekura. He lies that Aminata escaped with Lindo, but he is asked to leave when Lindo arrives with the most recent proof of sale to set Aminata free.

Solomon Lindo is the Jewish indigo inspector of South Carolina and Aminata’s second slave owner. After first meeting Aminata and learning that she can secretly read, he offers to buy her from Appleby, who refuses. After Appleby sells Mamadu and Aminata falls into a severe depression, Appleby finally sells Aminata to Lindo. At the Lindos’ home in Charles Town, Aminata experiences a lifestyle more comfortable than at any time in her life. Lindo teaches her arithmetic and how to manage his accounts, and also asks her to write his letters. He allows Aminata to work as a self-hire midwife so long as she pays him a portion of her income.

Though he is kind toward Aminata for many years, the loss of his wife and difficult times in Charles Town send Lindo into a spiral in which he demands missed payments from Aminata. Aminata confronts Lindo when she learns from Chekura that he arranged her son’s sale. In an attempt at a truce, he takes Aminata with him to New York City for business, where Aminata escapes. When Aminata is arrested and prevented from leaving with Chekura for Nova Scotia, Lindo arrives with a proof of sale to set her free, and make peace with his past. With a mixture of reverence and shame, he tries to speak to Aminata, who refuses to receive his sorrow. Aminata acknowledges his character, saying, “Lindo was a better class of man than Robinson Appleby. But he was tainted by the very world in which he lived, and from which he too richly profited” (310).

Georgia is the Negro mother figure Aminata encounters in her first experiences of slavery at Robinson Appleby’s indigo plantation. She nurses an ill Aminata back to health when she first arrives at the plantation. Georgia is a skilled healer and midwife, and teaches Aminata everything she knows. She also teaches Aminata the ways of the Negro and how to speak the Gullah (the language the Negroes speak) and English. Georgia also protects Aminata from Appleby after he rapes her, keeping Aminata by her side at all times. Aminata learns several life lessons from Georgia, including that men don’t need to know everything, that she should not let the white people know how sharp she is, and that she should nurse her newborn until her milk runs dry to deter Appleby from selling him. Georgia dies in her sleep years after Aminata is sold to Lindo.