"Erna Brodber provides a lucid and literary social history of the village of Woodside in St. Mary, Jamaica, from slavery to 1944. The work is informed by a variety of official sources, community meetings and oral histories. The range of the sources interpreted deftly makes this a path-breaking book in the social history of Jamaica." "Brodber's work is a pioneering contribution to the study of the ordinary people of Jamaica and can be used to stimulate and inform community development. The book will appeal to historians and anthropologists, Africans of the diaspora, and general readers."--Jacket.