The Book of Negroes

Taken from her West Africa village and dragged in chains to the coast, 11-year-old Aminata Diallo is sold into slavery. After a horrific ocean crossing to South Carolina, she uses her midwifery skills to survive while keeping at bay the attention of slave master Robinson Appleby. Though she finds some happiness -- she marries and has a child -- Aminata vows to return home after she and her child are sold to different owners. The onset of the Revolutionary War helps Aminata flee her new owner in New York. Knowing how to read and write, she lands a job registering Black Loyalists for escape to freedom in Nova Scotia. Though her heart longs for home, Aminata weighs desire against the need to help her people and end the slave trade.