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

The average rating for The Reaper's Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-11-12 00:00:00 Ryan West A masterpiece. This is without doubt the best work I've read on Atlantic slavery. It helps to show slaves as active agents in the construction of early modern Atlantic civilization, while simultaneously articulating how this agency was carefully negotiated in a system designed to dehumanize. It drags a touch in the middle, but it constantly brims with such passion and heat that even the dragging commands attention. I was extremely impressed by this work; it has certainly opened my eyes to a whole new historiography!

Review # 2 was written on 2009-03-10 00:00:00 William Thomas Sherman 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.