By Bruce DeMara

Recently, a Dutch anti-slavery group followed through on its threat to symbolically burn a copy of Canadian author Lawrence Hill’s acclaimed Book of Negroes because of its title. A photocopy of the cover was burned in Oosterpark, which has an anti-slavery monument.

The Dutch group, the Federation for Honour and Reparation of Slavery in Suriname, previously announced it would publicly burn the book if the title weren’t changed. The book has only recently been published in the Netherlands under the title Het Negerboek.

The Book of Negroes is the title of an actual historical record that documents the migration of 3,000 African slaves who supported the British cause in the American Revolution and were allowed to go from New York to Nova Scotia. Many of them later returned to Africa. “The title is not intended to be offensive, but to shed light on a forgotten document and on a forgotten migration, that of thousands of Blacks from the U.S.A. to Canada in 1783,” Hill wrote in reply to the burning.

It’s not the first time the award-winning book’s title has raised controversy. Publishers in the United States and Australia insisted the title be changed to Someone Knows My Name and in Quebec, the book is titled Aminata, the name of a female slave who returned to Sierra Leone after being abducted as an 11-year-old.

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