Wake : the hidden history of women-led slave revolts

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Title:

Wake : the hidden history of women-led slave revolts

Author:

Hall, Rebecca, 1963- author.

ISBN:

9781982115180

9781982115197

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : chiefly illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm.

General Note:

Written "for my grandmother Harriet Thorpe Hall (1860-1927), for all the women who fought slavery, and for all of us living in its afterlife."-- Acknowledgments, Rebecca Hall.

Subject Term:

Enslaved women -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Slave rebellions -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Genre:

Graphic novels.

Historical fiction.

Added Author:

Martínez, Hugo (Comics artist),

Bao, Sarula,

Summary:

An historical and imaginative tour-de-force, WAKE brings to light for the first time the existence of enslaved black women warriors, whose stories can be traced by carefully scrutinizing historical records; and where the historical record goes silent, WAKE reconstructs the likely past of two female rebels, Adono and Alele, on the slave ship The Unity. WAKE is a graphic novel that offers invaluable insight into the struggle to survive whole as a black woman in today's America; it is a historiography that illuminates both the challenges and the necessity of uncovering the true stories of slavery; and it is an overdue reckoning with slavery in New York City where two of these armed revolts took place. It is, also, a transformative and transporting work of imaginative fiction, bringing to three-dimensional life Adono and Alele and their pasts as women warriors. In so doing, WAKE illustrates the humanity of the enslaved, the reality of their lived experiences, and the complexity of the history that has been, till now, so thoroughly erased. --

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	GRAPHIC HAL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	GRAPHIC HAL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	GRAPHIC HAL	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A Best Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post

Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the "powerful" ( The New York Times Book Review ) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall's efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record.

Women warriors planned and led revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. And then they were erased from history.

Wake tells the "riveting" (Angela Y. Davis) story of Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain's logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the "negro burying ground" uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere.

Using a "remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection" (NPR), Rebecca constructs the likely pasts of Adono and Alele, women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York. We also follow Rebecca's own story as the legacy of slavery shapes her life, both during her time as a successful attorney and later as a historian seeking the past that haunts her.

Illustrated beautifully in black and white, Wake will take its place alongside classics of the graphic novel genre, like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Art Spiegelman's Maus . This story of a personal and national legacy is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone, we still live in its wake.

Author Notes

Rebecca Hall, JD, PhD, is a scholar, activist, and educator. After graduating from Berkeley Law, she represented low-income tenants and homeless families for eight years before returning to get her PhD in history. She has taught at UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley Law, Berkeley's history department, and as a visiting professor of law at the University of Utah. She writes and publishes on the history of race, gender, law, and resistance as well as articles on climate justice and intersectional feminist theory. Dr. Hall's work has been supported by numerous grants and fellowships, including the American Association of University Women, The Ford Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. You can find out more about her at RebHallPhD.org, and on Twitter @WakeRevolt.

Hugo Martínez is an independent comic artist focused on depicting narratives of struggle, identity, and resilience. He is based in New Orleans.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Hall's nuanced and affecting debut graphic narrative uncovers history that has either been assumed non-existent or rendered violently so by its almost complete erasure from official record. Blending present-day memoir and historical reconstruction, the story follows Hall as she strives to write her dissertation on women-led slave revolts, only to discover a handful of examples and obstructions from institutions seemingly invested in keeping these stories buried (such as being barred from accessing an insurance company's slave ship records). Hall must imagine how these enslaved women rose against their dire straits, filling in scenes such as one where a woman may have burned her enslaver's house down following the death of her friend, then attempted a mass escape. Hall's singular look at these women, along with her own experiences and resilience, highlight how entwined the past and present really are. Martínez's resonant black-and-white art cleverly integrates historical scenes into the present-day narrative. Plus, his roomy panels and full pages leave space to breathe, and to reflect. Readers will be left with plenty to think about. Agent: Anjali Singh, Ayesha Pande Literary. (June)

Kirkus Review

A vividly illustrated account of Black women rebels that combines elements of memoir, archival research, and informed imaginings of its subjects' lives. A former tenants rights lawyer, Hall pursued a doctorate in history to uncover America's warped justice system. "In order to understand our experiences as Black women today," she writes, "I had to study slavery." This collaboration with illustrator Martínez focuses on two women-led revolts in New York City and uprisings during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Of a 1712 revolt, Hall finds in court records the first names of four women involved and sentenced to execution; none are quoted in transcripts. "This is one way history erases us….You think you are reading an accurate chronicle written at the time, but if who we are and what we care about are deemed irrelevant, it won't be in there," writes Hall. The author also examines a 1708 revolt led by a woman referred to in documents as the "Negro Fiend"; she was burned at the stake. The granddaughter of slaves, the author seeks to honor her ancestors by filling in the silent record. Facing difficulty accessing records and digesting their information, Hall called upon her deceased grandmother for strength. In London, Hall delved into archives of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, reading hundreds of slave-ship logs. Revolts at sea were largely a suicide mission fueled by slaves' desire to "take their captors with them to the bottom of the ocean." Research shows that the more women onboard a slave ship, the more likely a revolt. Hall believes that this was because women were mostly kept unchained and on deck, where it was easier for crew members to rape them; this also gave them access to weapons. The black-and-white illustrations nicely complement the text and elevate the artfulness and the power of the book, which begins and ends with scenes depicting women-led revolts aboard a ship Hall calls the Unity. An urgent, brilliant work of historical excavation. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Educator and activist Hall, surrounded by stacks of books, tells readers on page nine of her first graphic novel, "I am a historian. And I am haunted." She's searching for records of the Black women warriors she knows participated in slave revolts, work that requires her to read between every line and follow every disappearing trail. Using historical documents, letters, and "a measured use of historical imagination," she reconstructs stories of revolt in New York in 1712 and aboard the slave ship Unity in 1770. She discovers that there were more revolts on ships with more women present. As Hall speaks to us, we meet her family, present and past--her partner and child, her Nana Harriet, born enslaved--and see her own experiences, such as when she tries to access the archives of Lloyds of London, the insurer whose fortune began in slave ships, and is met with cruel defiance. Martínez's dramatic woodcut-style illustrations are the perfect complement to Hall's clear-eyed, impactful storytelling. Underscoring Hall's insistence that we live in history's wake, a single frame often encompasses multiple worlds--an eighteenth-century gallows reflected in the window of an NYPD van, a contemporary construction site reminiscent of the sinewy, roiling sea people were forced to travel in chains. A necessary corrective to violent erasure and a tribute to untold strength, this awe-inspiring collaboration should find a wide audience.

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Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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