American slavery
American slavery is the subject of this novel, at least one of the main subjects; the Book could be said to have multiple topics for discussion, but it is framed as an analysis of American slavery with one precursor and one denouement. The original setting of the novel is actually Nigeria, the homeland of Aminata who is kidnapped by slave traders in the night. From that setting, she is transferred into the major action of the novel, her life's journey through American slavery, before she is warped forward in time (because she moves to a British community, and they rejected slavery long before America). She even gets to see her daughter become a teacher and a paid employee.
Plantation imagery
The concrete imagery of a plantation is deceivingly charming. At first, it might look like a powerful farm, but upon closer inspection, it is clearly a labor camp in disguise. The houses where slaves live are not nearly as nice as the property estate, and they are not "employees" of the farm that they should have fair labor practices and compensation; they are prisoners of the estate, sometimes tortured, sometimes abused, and always worked to the bone with meager provisions from wealthy people who don't even treat them like human beings.
Desire and domination
The mood of the novel is defined by moments of intense desire where the emotional pain comes to full volume. Two kids stolen from their homes find solace in each other's friendship, only to be torn apart by slavers who know better than to let slaves become emotionally attached to each other. What is truly instinctual is denied to the slaves so that they are driven to emotional extremes of jealousy, hatred, and frustration, because their desire for family and stability is rooted in their human nature, but slavery removes even that power from them, dominating them with horrendous fates of unpaid labor.
Education
Within the framework of the plot, the concrete imagery of education takes on unusual extremeness because slaves were historically not allowed to read or write. That was a major part of keeping them from organizing and keeping them subjected to their owners, so in this novel, education is much more than just learning trivia; reading and writing is a sacred skill that means salvation and freedom in many cases, like with May who becomes a teacher. As a teacher, she is a taught person now teaching, so education is also a social idea in the book.
