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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
I suffered from a misalignment of expectations. A better subheading might have been: The *Search for* the Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts. Most of the story focused on Dr. Hall’s research and the difficulties of finding accurate and complete records. Two of the slave revolts that Dr. Hall describes are products of her “historical imagination.” I found them interesting and moving, but the fact remains that they are imagined episodes.
One of the most intriguing facts that she does unearth is that an onboard slave revolt was more likely if there were more women on board the slave ship. She offers a number of possible explanations for this: women were frequently allowed to roam free on deck and had greater access to weapons; women were frequently underestimated; and women were not just subject to non-sexual physical brutality but were also sexually assaulted.
As a story about historical research, this was very successful. As a story about women-led slave revolts, it was less enlightening, but intriguing all the same.
One of the most intriguing facts that she does unearth is that an onboard slave revolt was more likely if there were more women on board the slave ship. She offers a number of possible explanations for this: women were frequently allowed to roam free on deck and had greater access to weapons; women were frequently underestimated; and women were not just subject to non-sexual physical brutality but were also sexually assaulted.
As a story about historical research, this was very successful. As a story about women-led slave revolts, it was less enlightening, but intriguing all the same.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I loved this book. I learned a lot about topics I knew almost nothing about - women-led slave revolts, the history of slavery in New York, and West African history around the time of the slave trade. It was all really eye opening. And I loved that the book centered around the author's own story and her journey to learn about this history that has mostly been purposefully erased. The art is gorgeous, and the visual metaphors on every page were so thought provoking. Highly recommend this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Violence
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence
Reflective, poignant, beautiful and revolting, Rebecca Hall gives enslaved women back their voice by painstakingly rebuilding their lives from scraps of archival information, all while illustrating (literally) the current effects of generational trauma still reverberating from slavery. Making this a graphic novel was a perfect way to make an important academic achievement accessible to a broader audience.
Before the review, this is the kind of book that can change your perception of history, and the research should be celebrated and continued.
I want to give this a higher rating, but sometimes you recommend a book because it's one of a kind, and where else are you going to get this information? This is definitely worth reading for the information, but I wasn't thrilled with the format. It is a duel story of the author's struggles in researching the subject and a presentation of the information found (or interpreted). I think I would have preferred straight text to the graphic novel format: the art was hard to follow at times when the text was limited, mostly during the "informed fiction" that the author creates from the fragments of facts found, but I didn't much care for these educated guesses, as the act of researching and sharing what was found was interesting enough for me. I would have liked to have learned more about the contradictions in her findings with others in her field, and for her to have gone more in depth about the logical interpretations of her findings, rather than trying to imagine how to fill in the blanks to create a fictional narrative.
I want to give this a higher rating, but sometimes you recommend a book because it's one of a kind, and where else are you going to get this information? This is definitely worth reading for the information, but I wasn't thrilled with the format. It is a duel story of the author's struggles in researching the subject and a presentation of the information found (or interpreted). I think I would have preferred straight text to the graphic novel format: the art was hard to follow at times when the text was limited, mostly during the "informed fiction" that the author creates from the fragments of facts found, but I didn't much care for these educated guesses, as the act of researching and sharing what was found was interesting enough for me. I would have liked to have learned more about the contradictions in her findings with others in her field, and for her to have gone more in depth about the logical interpretations of her findings, rather than trying to imagine how to fill in the blanks to create a fictional narrative.
By inserting herself into the story, Hall adds an enormously resonant layer of emotion to the stories she's trying to tell. I also found it deeply moving to sort of see her struggle with her desire as a historian to stick only to provable fact, run headlong into the way black women were erased from historical records. You feel her reluctance to allow imagination into the story, but she comes to see a limited use of imagination as the only way to truly uncover these stories. I also found it very moving to see her struggle with the emotional toll of doing this kind of research and confronting the barriers placed before her by having to interact with institutions mired in white supremacy.
I will say I wasn't a huge fan of the illustration style. Sometimes I found the images a big hard to parse visually and I wish the artist had leaned into heavier line work to make the visuals clearer.
I will say I wasn't a huge fan of the illustration style. Sometimes I found the images a big hard to parse visually and I wish the artist had leaned into heavier line work to make the visuals clearer.
challenging
emotional
informative
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced