ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives

Articles

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2025): ILN Journal: Indian Literary Narratives

Reweaving the Slave World with an Abhorrent Eradicator in Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes

Submitted
26 February 2025
Published
2025-03-30

Abstract

Sixteenth and seventeenth-century pandemics have deserted the villages and plantations of various parts of the world. Smallpox has erupted the persons of all age groups with great harshness. Smallpox is a serious, communicable disease categorized by the hasty onset of legitimate symptoms. Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes explores the impact of smallpox among the slaves in the plantation through the characters of Georgia and Aminata. The process of variolation is formed to save the lives of the slaves from death. It also highlights the harshness and the symptoms of the infected persons and how it transmitted from one place to another through the slave trade.

References

  1. Alden, Dauril, and Joseph C. Miller. “Out of Africa: The Slave Trade and the Transmission of Smallpox to Brazil, 1560-1831.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 18, no. 2, 1987, pp. 195–224.
  2. Behbehani, Abbas M. “The smallpox story: life and death of an old disease.” Microbiological Reviews, vol. 47, no. 4, 1983, pp. 455-509.
  3. Beula, T.K. Angelin and A. Evangeline Jemi “Symbols and Images as a Positive Force in Reclaiming Jewish Identity in Dara Horn’s In The Image.” Language in India, vol.19, no.4, April 2019, pp. 9-13.
  4. Blakemore, Erin. “How an African Slave in Boston Helped Save Generations from Smallpox: In the early 1700s, Onesimus Shared a Revolutionary way to Prevent Smallpox,” History. Feb 2019. https://www.history.com/news/smallpox-vaccine-onesimus-slave-cotton-mather
  5. Bouche, Pierre. La côte des Esclaves et le Dahomey: sept ans en Afrique Occidentale; ouvrage accompagné d'une carte. Nourrit, 1885.
  6. Fenn, Elizabeth A. Pox Americana: the great smallpox epidemic of 1775-82. Macmillan, 2001.
  7. Hill, Lawrence. The Book of Negroes. Random House, 2009.
  8. Jemi, A. Evangeline. “From Fissured Consciousness to Awakening Consciousness: A Reading of Jeannette Armstrong’s Whispering in Shadows.” International Journal of Scientific Research, vol. 2, no.12, Dec. 2013, pp. 294-295.
  9. Jenner, Edward. Vaccination against smallpox. Prometheus Books, 2010.
  10. Jeslin, J. Packia and A. Evangeline Jemi. “Social Exclusiveness in Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.” International Journal of English Language, Literature in Humanities, vol.7, no.4, April 2019, pp. 65-72.
  11. Martin, Joseph Plumb. A Narrative of some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. Masters & Company, 1830.
  12. Morgan, E. S. “The Fastest Killer.” The New York Review of Books. 2002. pp. 22-24.
  13. Nunn, Nathan and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian exchange: A history of disease, food, and ideas.” Journal of Economic Perspectives. vol. 24, no.2, 2010, pp. 163-88.
  14. Ranlet, Philip. “The British, Slaves, and Smallpox in Revolutionary Virginia.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 84, no. 3, 1999, pp. 217–226.
  15. Sampaio, Ribeiro de and Francisco Xavier. Diario da Viagem no anno de 1774 e 1775. Lisboa, 1825
  16. World Health Organization. “Evolution of public health security.” World Health Organization, A Safer Future: Global Public Health Security In The 21st Century. 2007. pp. 1-11.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.