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Wake
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts | Rebecca Hall
26 posts | 29 read | 24 to read
Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Halls 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 slave 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 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 captains 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 in-depth archival research and a measured use of historical imagination, 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 Rebeccas own story as the legacy of slavery shapes 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 Satrapis Persepolis and Art Spiegelmans Maus. The story of both a personal and national legacy, it is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone, we still live in its wake.
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Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

This is less a history of women leading slave revolts and more a graphic memoir of Hall exploring this topic and her emotional response to it. It emphasizes the degree to which black women‘s voices have been erased, including the erasure of so many names and stories. I found this deeply affecting.

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 3mo
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

This graphic history was fascinating and sobering, both for shining a light on the obscured history of black women's resistance to slavery, and for the author's own experience of casual and institutional racism as she endeavours to find the research materials needed for her doctoral thesis.
Challenging of patriarchal and white supremacist narratives, this was a personal account of the issues, and I hope Hall is encouraged to follow it up with ⬇️

Bookwomble ... a text-based academic work on the same subject. 11mo
jlhammar This was a good one! 11mo
Bookwomble @jlhammar Yes, it was 😊 11mo
TieDyeDude I had the same thought, wanting a more in depth text-based release 11mo
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catiewithac
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Pickpick

This book is probably already on every CRT banned list. I found it an interesting look at how history is studied, constructed, and told. It‘s also a story of how history can be lost and destroyed by dominant cultures. I like graphic non-fiction because it has so much freedom to breathe life into forgotten (and suppressed) narratives.

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Cortg
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Pickpick

Rebecca Hall left the NYC to pursue a law degree from Berkeley and became a tenant‘s rights attorney. To better help her clients and understand the justice system, she went back to school to earn a PhD in history focusing on slavery. From this, her story was found and written; the stories of slave women who led revolts. This is a power graphic novel exploring women and slavery. The graphics are pretty amazing as well!

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violabrain
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Pickpick

A powerful graphic novel on a topic I knew nothing about before. Women were instrumental in slave revolts throughout the history of slavery in America. I hope she makes her dissertation into a full length history book because I would love to learn more about this.

MrsMalaprop Wow! Looks interesting. 2y
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TieDyeDude
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Pickpick

This was between a pick and a so-so, but bumped up because of the fascinating information. Too important to not recommend. I think I would have preferred straight text to the graphic novel format. I liked reading about her struggles with research and what facts she uncovered; I didn't find the informed fictional stories engaging, and the art was confusing at times and didn't add a whole lot to either story being told.

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MallenNC
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Pickpick

This was the November pick for my book club at work. I am really enjoying graphic memoirs/nonfiction, and this one was a combination of both. It is about Hall‘s academic work and research as she struggles to find information in historic documents about enslaved women involved in revolts. The panel in the photo captures her frustration and the challenge she faced since these women were mostly ignored in these records.

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charl08
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The more women onboard a slave ship...

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charl08
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What drove them to revolt?
It is time for a measured use of historical imagination...

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amma-keep-reading
Mehso-so

I wanted more! I don't know if it ended abruptly because the author had to shift to focus due to the resources available or if that was the point but it left me wanting more. What other stories did she find in her research journey? What happened with her dissertation?

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rsteve388
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Pickpick

What a beautiful, haunting history that has to be taught. Inspiring in its context and understanding of how women led slave revolts on ships and in the United States. A painful but important history lesson that must be taught. #NFN21 #NFN #NonFictNovember

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breadnroses
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Although I initially got this book thinking that I could teach it in my Graphic Literature class, upon reading, I‘ve determined it‘s too advanced for 7th grade…That being said, it‘s PHENOMENAL. I love a good non-fiction graphic novel, and the dual temporality of Hall‘s narration and Martínez‘s illustration is so unique and perfectly communicates visually how Hall is (or rather, we all are) haunted by slavery. I cannot recommend this book enough!

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BookInMyHands
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Pickpick

This will be a book that stays with me. Historian Rebecca Hall gives us the hidden history of women-led slave revolts, and the graphic novel illustrations of Hugo Martínez add another layer to the story, literally reflecting the past in the present.

While Hall‘s story is based in history, the tales in the book are imagined based on the known history since much has been erased, or is inaccessible to the historian, another fascinating aspect.

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JMEdwards
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Pickpick

Wow! What a powerful read. You know a book has done its job when you want to hear more.

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Anita
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Soscha
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Pickpick

The author does the best she can with the scanty details that remain of women-led slave revolts. The art is arresting without doing overly graphic.

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youngreadrshelf
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Pickpick

Well, like the title says the history of women-led slave revolts. It's Rebecca Hall's journey to find out more information for her dissertation. Her feelings of being buried as a black woman and their journey and how all are overlooked. How her research would wring her out and her struggle to find and untangle the information.

Loved it as a graphic novel and that the author was a character.

BookishMarginalia This is on a pile next to my bed, so hopefully will be read soonish 🤓 3y
youngreadrshelf @BookishMarginalia you should. It‘s a quick read and soooo good. 3y
BookishMarginalia 👍🏼 3y
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youngreadrshelf
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My book haul while librotraveling with friends in Denver. The Tattered Cover is a very cool place.

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Linsy
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Pickpick

Finishing up some #netgalley reads for the end of #joysofjune this weekend. This book was amazing!!! Part memoir, part forgotten history of bad-a** black women who fought their enslavement. Parts of it were certainly difficult to read -- it's a graphic novel about slavery -- but it made the story just that much more impactful. Hall is an incredible historian and storyteller. I hope this is taught in schools! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Pedrocamacho
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Pickpick

The focus of this graphic novel are the women who participated in and often led slave revolts. Hall talks a lot about how they‘ve been written out of history and their voices silenced. She does what she can to give them a voice.

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TheBookHippie
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On my wish list ..

GingerAntics Oh this looks good!!! 3y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics RIGHT?! I “need” it. Then I can donate it to the classroom ! 3y
GingerAntics Oh I bet the kids will love that!!! 3y
See All 9 Comments
GingerAntics I really think this is the way to teach history to kids instead of making it so bloody boring. 3y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie I feel like the ideological divide is so apparent in these cases. The white supremacist history is revered. It‘s practically a religious text, so it must be exactly as it has always been (BORING!!!). The reality, this rejected narratives and voices have to be interesting because the writers basically need people to read them outside of school since so many schools would never teach it. 3y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie If we teach real history, with all the narratives and all voices included, then history becomes more like this and kids want to read it and learn about it. This is probably why I will never be hired as a history professor. I would so have my students read this. 3y
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics all our civil rights books are graphic novels … the blessing of alternative school. 🏆 I‘m looking into the Shakespeare graphic novels now 🤪 3y
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie that might get them into Shakespeare!!! YES!!! I am all about that!!! 3y
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GypsyKat
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The hubs and I just picked this one up. I‘m excited to read it!

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MandaMT
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Pickpick

This book was so beautifully crafted- both aesthetically and in its storytelling. Hall weaves her own story of trying to uncover these hidden histories between accounts of various slave revolts. Martinez‘s visuals are stunning. I read this shortly after Clint Smith‘s How the Word is Passed. Both ask us to reconsider how we think about the history of chattel slavery.

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sebrittainclark
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Pickpick

4/5

This book was fantastic. It looks at the slave revolts that were lead by women, and how assumption and bias as allowed history to forget these stories and the voices of these women. The stories paired with the illustrations brought the history to life. It does a great job of combining these stories with the past of how the past continues to affect the present as Hall tries to do research now.

#netgalley

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Texreader
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