The Book of Negroes

I finished The Book of Negroes two days ago. It is a very good read, all about slavery and man's inhumanity to man, as you might expect. But what was especially interesting to me was the emphasis on Black Loyalists and how they were treated by the Brits. The only flaw that I noticed, and felt quite keenly, was that all whites are portrayed as awful human beings while all blacks are not--just some of the blacks are, and most of those have excuses made for them--they had to do what they did to survive. All whites are portrayed as weak or evil or pathetic. Even the abolitionists are described unfavorably. So that put me off a bit. Otherwise it is a fascinating work of historical fiction, obviously quite well-researched by the author.

The CBC has a good interview with the author, Lawrence Hill, here, in which he discusses various aspects of his book and how it relates to Canadian history.