Brodber's work relates the long connections between black Jamaicans and blacks in the United States from the late eighteenth century well into the twentieth century and aims to foster understanding and self-respect among these people brought without their permission to the Americas.
This work makes a vital contribution to the history of the African diaspora and is essential reading for students and scholars of the New World. Brodber employs a variety of disciplinary methods - historical and anthropological, most notably - in presenting and interpreting this long history, and her skill as a novelist makes this scholarly work equally compelling for the general reader.