PASADENA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

This Black History Month BET launches its first-ever event miniseries “THE
BOOK OF NEGROES,” a six-part historical drama in the tradition of Roots,
based on Lawrence Hill’s award-winning, Oprah Winfrey-listed novel
(known in the United States as Someone Knows My Name). The highly
anticipated television event will run over the course of three
consecutive nights in two-hour installments starting Monday, February
16, 2015 at 8 PM ET/PT.

“THE BOOK OF NEGROES” depicts the extraordinary life journey of
Aminata Diallo (Aunjanue Ellis) – an indomitable African woman
who cuts a swath through a world that is pre-disposed to underestimate
her. Kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa and subsequently enslaved
in South Carolina, Aminata must navigate her way through the American
Revolution in New York, the isolated refuge of Nova Scotia and the
treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone before ultimately securing her
freedom in England at the dawn of the 19th century. Produced by
Conquering Lion Pictures, Out of Africa Entertainment, Entertainment One
(eOne) and Idelwild Films, the star-studded cast features lead actress Aunjanue
Ellis (Ray, The Help), Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr.
(Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men), Oscar and Emmy winner Louis
Gossett Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman, Roots, Boardwalk
Empire), Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue), Oscar nominee Jane
Alexander (The Cider House Rules), Ben Chaplin (The
Thin Red Line) and Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle).
The highly anticipated event miniseries of THE BOOK OF NEGROES
from Conquering Lion Pictures, Out of Africa Entertainment,
Entertainment One (eOne), and Idlewild Films is executive produced by
Damon D’Oliveira (What We Have), Clement Virgo (“The
Wire”) who also served as co-writer director, Carrie Stein and
Margaret O’Brien.

The Book of Negroes is a historical document which records
names and descriptions of 3,000 African-American slaves who had to work
for the British army during the American Revolution in order to qualify
for their freedom and were evacuated by the British by ship to points in
Nova Scotia. The book was assembled by Samuel Birch under the direction
of Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester. African Americans who escaped to
the British during the American Revolutionary War became the first
settlement of Black Canadians. Other Black Loyalists were transported to
settlements in several islands in the West Indies and some to London.
Recorded in 1783, this 150-page document is the only one to have ever
recorded Black Americans in a large, detailed scope of work. Learn more
about this seminal document from the author Lawrence Hill at http://www.bet.com/video/the-book-of-negroes/2014/exclusives/what-is-the-book-of-negroes.html.

EPISODIC BREAKDOWN OF THE BOOK OF NEGROES MINISERIES:

Hour 1 Premiering Monday, February 16 at 8 PM
ET/PT

On her way home from delivering a baby, twelve year-old Aminata Diallo
is kidnapped and her parents killed. Forced to march across West Africa
to the Atlantic Ocean, she is looked after by Chekura (Lyriq Bent),
a young boy sold to help the slavers. They grow close and are put on the
same slave ship. Due to her language and midwifery skills, the Ship’s
Doctor values Aminata, though she quickly falls in with the other
slaves. Aminata relays information and weapons from above deck to the
men, leading to a failed uprising. Upon her arrival in Charleston, SC,
she is separated from Chekura and sold to Robinson Appleby, an Indigo
Plantation owner. Georgia, a caring older woman, nurses her back to
health.

Hour 2 Premiering Monday, February 16 at 9 PM
ET/PT

Aminata, now grown beautiful, healthy, and literate, is the flower of
Robinson Appleby’s Indigo plantation. After several seasons of
deflecting Appleby’s advances, Aminata marries Chekura and has his
child. Appleby, infuriated, sells her and her child to separate owners.
Her new owners, a Jewish Indigo Trader and his wife, Solomon and Rosa
Lindo, are more trusting: they treat her as a servant rather than a
slave. But after Rosa’s death and the revelation that Solomon brokered
the sale of her child, Aminata’s trust is broken. Lindo, desperate for a
distraction to ease his grief, sets sail to New York with Aminata, who
plots her escape to freedom.

Hour 3 Premiering Tuesday, February 17 at 8 PM
ET/PT

Soon after arriving in New York, the American Revolution breaks out,
allowing Aminata to escape Solomon Lindo with the help of an influential
Black innkeeper named Sam Fraunces (Cuba Gooding Jr.). She soon
settles into a Black ghetto called Canvas Town and befriends several
locals, teaching them to read and write, while also delivering babies
for the British. Chekura arrives in New York, only to leave again after
the British Forces offer freedom to any man who fights the Americans.
When Aminata finds Chekura has been injured at the Battle of Saratoga
she enlists Sam to help smuggle him across enemy lines. Although she
succeeds, she returns to find that, with American victory in New
England, Slave owners will be returning North to look for escaped slaves.

Hour 4 Premiering Tuesday, February 17 at 9 PM
ET/PT

As peace is declared slavers return to New York in search of runaway
slaves. Aminata is offered a job by Cpt. John Clarkson of the British
Navy to help recruit Black Loyalists to join them in Nova Scotia as free
citizens. With renewed vigour, she begins registering thousands into The
Book Of Negroes. When it is finally her turn to go, authorities stop
her, as a slaver has made a claim upon her. Convinced it is Solomon
Lindo returned to New York, she lets Chekura go ahead and is held for
trial. In court, it is revealed that Robertson Appleby has made the
claim against her, but she is exonerated at the last moment by the
testimony of Lindo, who vouches he gave Aminata her freedom. After being
freed, she arrives in barren Nova Scotia to find no sign of Chekura.

Hour 5 Premiering Wednesday, February 18 at 8
PM ET/PT

Aminata arrives pregnant in Shelburne, Nova Scotia and is taken in by
Daddy Moses (Louis Gossett Jr.). She is surprised to find that
work and food are scarce, with the British failing to deliver the land
they promised in New York. After losing her baby to a cholera epidemic,
she writes an appeal to the British abolitionists on behalf of Daddy
Moses and the blacks of Birchtown. Then Aminata manages to find a job as
a Printing Assistant. As the open hostility towards black residents
comes to a head after the death of a white citizen, Cpt. John Clarkson,
a key abolitionist, arrives offering an escape for the black community
to a settlement in Sierra Leone. Just as Aminata begins to recruit her
community, Chekura arrives and is reluctant to embark on yet another
long journey. A violent race riot breaks out in Shelburne, and Chekura
is convinced to join his wife on her homeward journey. They set sail
with Daddy Moses, bound for Africa.

Hour 6 Premiering Wednesday, February 18 at 9
PM ET/PT

After arriving in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the Loyalists discover that a
previous group of settlers had been sacked and raided by the local
ruler. As a result Aminata becomes more engrossed in the idea of
returning to her village of Bayo. The local tribes, however, are
unwilling to support her and Aminata must enlist the help of Dr.
Falconbridge, a longtime resident of Freetown, to approach a group of
slave traders to guide her and Chekura inland. They are soon
double-crossed and Aminata is forced to flee for her life. After a local
tribe takes her in and nurses her back to health, she realizes she must
let go of her dream of returning to Bayo, and sets out to London to tell
her life story to the world.

For more information on THE BOOK OF NEGROES go to
bet.com/bookofnegroes. Join the conversation on Twitter by using the
hashtag #bookofnegroes.

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), is the
nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and
public affairs television programming for the African-American audience.
The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can
be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom
and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer
brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading
Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news;
CENTRIC, the First Network Designed For Black Women; BET Digital
Networks – BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for
cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection
of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and
video-on-demand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management
and production company with festivals and live events spanning the
globe; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for
wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the
United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for
global distribution.

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