The Book of Night Women

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to anti-Black racism, colonialism, and the history of enslavement.

While slavery was widely prevalent in the Western world and its colonies, slavery in Jamaica was notoriously brutal. The life expectancy for an enslaved person working on a sugar plantation in Jamaica was seven years. Whereas in the United States birth rates were higher than death rates among the enslaved population, in Jamaica starvation and deadly working conditions were so common that the death rate far exceeded the birth rate. In addition, as stated in the novel, the situation in Jamaica is unique in that enslaved Black people outnumbered white enslavers by 33 to one. In short, both enslavers and enslaved knew that the situation was unsustainable, only further proven by the continuous stream of rebellions. The book lists 27 attempts at rebellion before this date, but a turning point occurred in 1791 when enslaved people revolted in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), taking over the government and burning down the city. As in Saint-Domingue, white people in Jamaica knew that they were outnumbered and were therefore terrified of rebellion. This fear of rebellion and the brutal treatment of enslaved peoples became a self-perpetuating cycle, as enslavers used brutality to quell their fears, sparked rebellions by the way they treated enslaved peoples, thus heightening their own fears.