The concept used to tell these Anansi stories is very original: the author does not relate the usual Anansi stories, but has instead set them in such a way that entwines them with the lives of Ashanti Africans from the slave trade to plantation life in Jamaica. Readers will follow Anansi on the journey from the interior to the coast of Africa with the enslaved men, and experience his horror at the Middle Passage, the auction block, plantation life and its many intrigues.