John Haggard, egotistical slaveowner and protagonist, romps through this story and the world he inhabits without a care for anyone-not his wife, his mistress, his slaves, or his children. This man's ego, juxtaposed against the backdrop of slavery in the Caribbean, and in England, sends us a chilling reminder that this brutal institution was fueled by brutal, brutish men just like Haggard.

Reader, Clifford Norgate, keeps you captivated with his spellbinding rendering of the characters. While there may be flaws in the writing, they are never betrayed by Norgate's subtle performance of this tragic, historical saga.

This is a must read if you are a fan of this genre. Highly recommended!

Absolutely Fantastic! This is a must read for anyone needing insight of the early days of Barbados' history. Sir Robert's vivid account will leave you in awe.

Having visited Barbados before and been drawn in by the culture of the island, I'm always a little wary about picking up picture books or tour guides, for fear they'll be nothing but tourist traps. But LaBrucherie's work is magnificent, full of images that depict the island's great variety of life--showing everything from men liming at a rumshop, to workers in the cane field, to a family standing in the door of their chattel house. Each picture contains details that tell a thousand stories, though some written documentation accompanies many of the images to help expand the viewer's understanding. LaBrucherie addresses many issues that confront Bajans, including tourism, literacy, and poverty. This goes far deeper than a tourist's journey: it shows a true love for the island, its people, and their culture.

In Chamberlain's use of ethnographic narratives, she shows how her informants reveal a deep attachment to the idea of "place," through one's familial ties, through relationships and kin systems, and through an extended sense of "belonging." For women, the impact has been doubly hard-leaving the homeland requires leaving connections to children, parents, and loved ones that the "solitary, single male" migrant does not face: "Women's migration was likely to be a more permanent, more searing experience for those left behind..." (p. 104). For both women and men, however, "the decision to go, the logistics of leaving were not isolated, individual events but the result of collective action. The family, for instance, through loans, through material support, through child care, enabled and supported the migration of its individual members" (p. 93). This community support allowed for a strengthening of the ties to the home community and the expectation of "return." But "return" carries with it the expectation of "success" for the individual and the community.

The economic pressures of migration, the revision of concepts of kin, identity (individual and communal, national and racial), and the reevaluation of situations in which Caribbean persons feel a sense of "belonging," need to be bound within all anthropological discourse about "place." The work of Chamberlain goes a long way toward a reexamination of these issues and contribute to a deeper understanding of how Caribbeans see themselves in the world.

Elizabeth Richards has written an astonishingly "alive" novel of Ireland and the West Indies in the mid-1700's. The story is built around the heroine, Medbeth, a girl growing into womanhood. It follows her adventures with the local Irish and English gentry, graphically depicting the oppression of the English regime in Ireland, and the reason for extensive Irish emigration. Medbeth's own flight across the Atlantic to Barbados is told in exquisite detail, as is the colonial regime of the sugar growers in the West Indies. The story is suffused with sensuality both of Medbeth's coming of age as well as the tropical climate of Barbados, not neglecting historically accurate accounting of the slave trade. Overall, a tour de force of story telling and historic "presence." It deserves a wide audience.

Am suprised that this book is not still in print. It got excellent reviews when published back in 1985 in the US and UK. Tells the story of a spoiled young woman who marries a older Bajan planter in 1664 and goes with him to his plantation. Slave revolts, hurricanes, Dutch naval attack plus a steaming love story makes this a superby story, one also carefully researched.

This text retells the story we think we know about Tituba of Salem-- you know, the black slave woman who got all that trouble started with her voodoo-esque witchery... this book traces the historical evidence for Tituba actually being a Native American, and the path she would have taken to get to Salem at the time, as well as the story of what happened after she was swept up in the drama of the Puritans' search for the devil in the New World. It's a well-written historical account that is academic, but not so academic that those who are studying this period for fun will be alienated.

The book was an eye opener. I thought I had an understanding of Irish history. I was astonished and outraged. The purpose of the book is to reveal the true outrages that caused the multigeneration enmity between the Irish and English and succeeds. No one can understand the present situation in No. Ireland without it.

The book was well referenced, even sighting English historical information to substanciate the truth. 50-100,000 Irish women sold into prostitution and slavery by the same English traders, god-fearing puritan's, who sold African's into slavery. No reference to this in modern history books.

I never knew that the Irish were made literal slaves by the English or the extent of the ethnic and religious hatred and the genocide perpetrated by the British against them. The slaughter and genocide perpetrated has been squelched in the press and media for centuries.

It leaves me with the question of what kind of a media do we have in the U.S. that has kept this imformation from us?

Numerous American's of many ethnic groups have told me that I was lying, it didn't happen just like the holocaust. I was dumb struck and had to bring in the book to prove it too them. It begs the question: What's with diversity in this country does if it only goes one way?

Its a book any one who believes in real diversity should read. You can't understand the present Irish situation between the IRA and the UDL without it.

EXCELLENT

Woody, let me know where you are, please. Earl Denha

Living on a beautiful island with a loving fiancee, Devora has a wonderful life until her rarely seen mother returns announcing that Devora is to be married to a Spanish don of her parent's chosing to make an alliance between families. Into the mix is thrown a charming English buccaneer, Bruce Hawkins who also happens to be masquerading as the very same Spanish don that Devora is going to be forced to marry. This of course is unknown to her, since if Bruce is found out, he will be executed by the Spanish as a traitor. Attracted to the charming Englishman, Devora joins him after a raid on the island she's staying at to liberate at friend of the pirates. Drawn to his mystery, Devora and Bruce embark on a tentative relationship only for him to have to leave at the end of the novel, vowing to come back for her.

Better than the average Christian romance novel, this book overflows with intruige and adventure. Bruce is kind, mysterious, stern and vengeful all at once and Devora proves to be more developed than the normal one dimensional romance heroine. This novel was surprisingly good and a good start for the series.

A friend gave me this book and I loved it. I hope one day to write as well as Linda does. Regardless of whether or not she got the crinoline skirt part right for the time setting, this book was very engaging.

Imagine being a young woman in love and being swept away by a mother--who's barely been a part of your life--who takes you to a place that's foreign to you, in order that you can marry a Spanish don to further the family? Well that's exactly what Devora's mother does. Out of the blue, Catherina Radburn shows up in Barbados to take Devora away from her beloved home and uncle, and the man she wants to marry--so that she can marry a man of her families choosing. Someone she's never met! Besides that, Devora wants to work alongside her uncle in Barbados.

Her world is suddenly turned upside down, her faith tested. Will it sustain her--even when she's thrown into a world she knows little about and toward a man she has decided in her heart that she wants nothing to do? Unknowingly, Devora has already met that man, only he's going by a different name and she is unwillingly drawn to him. Will she learn his true identity and will she find the strengh within to follow her heart? You'll have to read the book to find out! And I heartily recommend it!

I really enjoyed this book! Linda Chaikin did a fantastic job on writing about pirates, buccaneers, the Spanish Inquisition, life in Spain and conflicts that those people faced back then. The main characters Devora and Bruce were well-developed and realistic. I tried to put myself in Devora's slippers to discover how it felt to have a mother that abandoned me, then all of a sudden show up and turn my life upside-down. I really admire someone like Devora who uses her Christian faith to sustain her during her trials. I would like a husband like Bruce who unlike his father is a gallant, dashing, and somewhat roguish man, with a teasing nature. I wonder how it would feel to be a half-English and half-Spanish especially when the two countries were at odds with one another and to be rejected as a little boy by his ruthless father. I definitely going to read this series more than once!