"When Aminata Diallo sits down to pen the story of her life in London, England, at the dawn of the 19th century, she has a wealth of experience behind her. Abducted at the age of eleven from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea. Aminata is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. Years later, she forges her way to freedom and registers her name in the "Book of Negroes," a historic ledger allowing 3,000 Black Loyalists passage on ships sailing from Manhattan to Nova Scotia"--Page 4 of cover.