It’s a remarkable chunk of Canadian history that went widely unnoticed until the publication of Ontario author Lawrence Hill’s The Book Of Negroes in 2007.
The book refers to a historical ledger of over 3,000 names of black loyalists who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War.
They fought on the losing side but the former slaves found freedom nonetheless, having been promised emancipation in return for a year’s military service. The black soldiers fled along with the British and were evacuated to Nova Scotia. Offered passage home, over a thousand made the perilous journey back to Sierra Leone. The rest started the first black communities in Canada.
Hill’s book has been made into a six-part mini-series that airs Jan. 7 on CBC (followed by a U.S. run on BET in February). Directed by Toronto’s Clement Virgo (The Wire), the series features Aunjanue Ellis as Aminata, the novel’s heroine and eventual ledger-writer; Lyriq Bent plays Chekura, her husband. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr. also star.
Jamaican-born Bent never imagined being an actor while growing up in Toronto’s rough Jane-and-Finch neighbourhood. It took a job selling long-distance services door to door during college to prod Bent — “not really a people person” — out of his comfort zone. “I thought I was going to deal with a lot of racism and I had no idea how to act in that situation,” he says, “but that never really happened.” The fact that “even little old white ladies” were giving him positive feedback resonated with Bent, giving him much-needed confidence.
A co-worker introduced him to an acting coach. While working on his first student film Bent ran into Virgo in a bar in Toronto, drinking with Bruce McDonald. The young actor had studied pictures of the directors “so if I ran into them I’d know who they were and could introduce myself.” (Bruce was talkative, Bent says, Virgo less so.)
A career including a lot of roles playing police officers followed (Saw II, III and IV, the TV series Rookie Blue) including an upcoming starring role alongside Nicolas Cage in Pay The Ghost.
But Book of Negroes is his dream project. Bent shot a full day with Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. before it sank in: “I didn’t even realize until I got home and began to unwind, I started to get a little bit wigged out,” he says. Bent couldn’t even remember the day: he just hoped it had gone well. Gooding Jr, he says, was nothing but supportive and Emmy- and Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. took great care and time to talk to him about his career and his future. “He was incredibly giving . . . It did not fall on deaf ears, I promise you.”
All the negativity Bent has encountered in his years in the business was “wiped out” by the four months he spent shooting in South Africa, which he calls “a spiritual awakening.” It was Gossett Jr. on his last day of shooting who noted the significance of white and black South Africans, Canadians, Americans and people from other African nations working together on a movie about the slave trade in a nation only 20 years removed from apartheid. “You could hear a pin drop,” says Bent.
But it wasn’t just the role of a lifetime, says Bent, it was an education. While the actor had scant knowledge about Canada’s role in the slave trade, his American co-stars had none. “I think Americans were delighted and gob-smacked that Canada had such a pivotal part in history, and a hundred years before the underground railroad.”
Bent encountered racism in Canada – “I just thought it was my thick accent. It wasn’t until I became older that I understood things were going to be different for me, that I’d have to work extra hard and extra smart,” — but says Canada and the U.S. are night and day when it comes to owning up to history. Americans are constantly trying to make white Americans embrace the fact that it happened, but “that mental slavery is still there.” Canada, he says, is not afraid to shine a light on its past: “this is the part we played, let’s learn from it and move on. It’s what you do with those wrongs that determines what kind of country you are.”
Book of Negroes isn’t any more relevant today in the wake of Ferguson and recent police shootings than it would have been 20 years ago, he says. “Let’s ask the question 50 years from now and see if there’s any change.”
Bent is thrilled that the book is being re-released in the U.S. (where it was known as Someone Knows My Name) under its original title, with educational outreach to both Canadian and American schools and colleges in the works. Plus, Bent’s photo is on the cover. “It’s better than having my own action figure!”
“It doesn’t get any better for me right now,” says Bent. “2015, if you can beat that, bring it.”
