The Book of Negroes

The crossing takes nearly two months, and as they sail into St. Georges Bay on March 9, 1792, Aminata recognizes the mountains—Sierra Leone means the “Lion Mountain,” because the range resembles the “lion’s back and head” (375). She realizes that, thirty-six years earlier, she had left Africa from this very place. She is in Africa, but she is still not home. Instead she is near Bance Island, “a hive of slave trading” (377). And even if she does make it to Bayo, people will ask where her husband and children are. She fears having to “confess that in the land of toubabu, I had managed to save only myself” (376).

The Nova Scotians are dismayed to discover their new colony is located near Bance Island. Clarkson explains that there were few choices for land. He assures them they will thrive there, and be free. But when a slave ship passes by, and its captain gives them supplies, Aminata stares transfixed at the enslaved Africans. Thomas Peters, who is among the colonists, demands to know why Clarkson does nothing to stop the slave ship. Clarkson insists he has no power over the slave trade here, as he had warned at the start of their journey.