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A review by jgintrovertedreader
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall
4.0
Rebecca Hall decided to write her thesis on women-led slave revolts. She knew they happened but the historical record is incomplete and difficult to navigate. In this graphic memoir, she shares her struggle to find records and the history she was able to piece together.
I honestly expected to find more hard facts in the book than I did. But Dr. Hall addresses that. Even when she found records of revolts led by women, they rarely contained more than a first name. So she decided to make "measured use of historical imagination" and fill in the gaps. That's fair enough, especially since she's very clear about what she found in the historical record and what she imagined.
Some records that she wanted to investigate are held by private companies (Lloyd's of London used to insure slave ships against insurrection). They refused to give her access when they learned what her research topic was. Even public records were hard for her to access when they were stored in courthouses, behind security screening. She faced discrimination over and over.
But the history she pieces together is powerful. Slave ships that contained more women than men were more likely to have insurrections. She shares notes from captain's logs about deaths, revolts, and the brutal way they treated their captives. She imagines what life was like as an enslaved woman and what would finally drive them to revolt. In short, she shares and imagines the unimaginable.
I have mixed feelings about Hugo MartÃnez's illustrations. On the one hand, I felt the heavy shading/cross-hatching muddied the artwork and made it hard for me to get a good fix on what was going on. They almost felt like idea sketches instead of finished works. I'm not an artist so I don't have the vocabulary to say what I mean. I'm a fast reader and don't spend a lot of time really focusing on illustrations, so that could just be me. But the surprising ways that he finds to show that Dr. Hall is haunted by the past were ingenious.
I recommend this book for readers who want to learn more about the history of slavery and slave revolts and for those who seek to gain an appreciation for how difficult it is to research that history, both logistically and emotionally.
I honestly expected to find more hard facts in the book than I did. But Dr. Hall addresses that. Even when she found records of revolts led by women, they rarely contained more than a first name. So she decided to make "measured use of historical imagination" and fill in the gaps. That's fair enough, especially since she's very clear about what she found in the historical record and what she imagined.
Some records that she wanted to investigate are held by private companies (Lloyd's of London used to insure slave ships against insurrection). They refused to give her access when they learned what her research topic was. Even public records were hard for her to access when they were stored in courthouses, behind security screening. She faced discrimination over and over.
But the history she pieces together is powerful. Slave ships that contained more women than men were more likely to have insurrections. She shares notes from captain's logs about deaths, revolts, and the brutal way they treated their captives. She imagines what life was like as an enslaved woman and what would finally drive them to revolt. In short, she shares and imagines the unimaginable.
I have mixed feelings about Hugo MartÃnez's illustrations. On the one hand, I felt the heavy shading/cross-hatching muddied the artwork and made it hard for me to get a good fix on what was going on. They almost felt like idea sketches instead of finished works. I'm not an artist so I don't have the vocabulary to say what I mean. I'm a fast reader and don't spend a lot of time really focusing on illustrations, so that could just be me. But the surprising ways that he finds to show that Dr. Hall is haunted by the past were ingenious.
I recommend this book for readers who want to learn more about the history of slavery and slave revolts and for those who seek to gain an appreciation for how difficult it is to research that history, both logistically and emotionally.