The Reaper's Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery Book

The politics of power and control negotiated through death, to me is the main theme of the book. For enslaved Africans death might have disrupted their social lives but it also provided the avenue through which new customs or even old customs could be adapted to suit the prevailing circumstances. Brown's emphasis on the fact that death in colonial Jamaica was not an equalizer but yet another opportunity to prove their superiority was quite interesting. I like the effective use of primary sources to give faces to the story. Indeed the story of death cannot be impersonal.