The Book of Negroes

Book Three opens in a London church, where Sir Stanley Hastings has brought the elderly Aminata as his guest. As Aminata struggles to stay awake, she is roused by the song “Rule Britannia,” which she had first heard sung on the slave ship during her Atlantic crossing. The “medicine man” (238) would sing it after raping female captives, thus preserving the young Aminata from his predatory grasp. As the rousing singing awakens these terrifying memories, Aminata faints. Sir Stanley valiantly carries her out into the sunshine.

Back in Charles Town, Aminata sails to New York City with Solomon Lindo on the Queen Charlotte when she is thirty years old. On the ship, Lindo tries to socialize with her, but she keeps her distance. The only time they interact is when she defeats another passenger at chess, at Lindo’s urging. As they near “Manna-hata,” the native American word for “hilly island” (241), the weight of the past lifts slightly. During their carriage ride through the city, they glimpse “Canvas Town” (242) and the free blacks who live there, whom Lindo urges her to avoid. The arrive at The Fraunces Tavern, a ten-room, two-story hotel renowned for its food and owned by a black West Indian named