As mentioned above, the novel is based on the historical document, the
Book of Negroes, and related events of the period. Aminata is said to be
Muslim, as were some slaves taken from West Africa; others followed indigenous religions.
The history of Islam in Niger provides some context to this. When the
Patriots won the
American Revolutionary War, many
Loyalists, decided to leave the former
Thirteen Colonies. Some had already lost property to rebel confiscation and been subject to persecution and attacks. The Crown promised them land grants in Nova Scotia and other British colonies; some Loyalists went to Jamaica. Tens of thousands of these refugees came through New York City, where their evacuation was processed by the British Army, leading up to
Evacuation Day on 25 November 1783. The
Book of Negroes was created to document the former slaves who were eligible to leave; it was assembled by
Samuel Birch, the namesake of
Birchtown, Nova Scotia, under the direction of
Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester. (For more background, see
Dunmore's Proclamation, a 1775 promise by the royal governor of the British
Colony of Virginia to grant
emancipation (freedom) to slaves who left rebel masters and joined the Crown's forces.) The writers of the series based Aminata's first owner, Appleby, on a business partner of
Henry Laurens, who headed one of the largest slave trading companies in the
Thirteen Colonies. Solomon Lindo, the Jewish indigo inspector, was an ancestor of
Chris Blackwell (born 1937), the British-Jamaican founder of
Island Records. "Daddy Moses" was
Moses Wilkinson. One of Aminata's supporters in New York Town is presented as
Samuel Fraunces, owner of the historic
Fraunces Tavern. The naval officer who helped the Black Loyalist community in Nova Scotia was
John Clarkson, younger brother of the more well-known
Thomas, one of the central figures in the
abolition of slavery in England and the British Empire. Given the difficulties of former slaves in London and Nova Scotia, Thomas Clarkson and
William Wilberforce, along with other members of the
Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, had incorporated the
Sierra Leone Company, to resettle some of these Black Loyalists in a new colony in West Africa. Lieutenant Clarkson's charge in Nova Scotia was to find volunteers for this resettlement. He worked with
Thomas Peters, among other Black Loyalists. Together they gathered a group of close to 1,200 who wanted to leave for what they hoped were better opportunities in
Sierra Leone. After a harrowing transatlantic passage, the flotilla of 15 ships arrived at the colony's port in March 1792. This group, who became known as the
Nova Scotian Settlers, established
Freetown, the capital city. Aminata's journey to London and publication of her memoir have precedents in the life stories, known as
slave narratives, of such men as
Ignatius Sancho and
Olaudah Equiano. Her daughter's time in London as a
domestic worker was based on the history of the
Black Poor. ==Development and production==