Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

DEBUT Suspecting that records of slave revolts glossed over women instigators, attorney-cum-historian Hall began researching the evidence, culminating in this graphic novel. Indeed, buried in archives in New York, London, and Liverpool were ship logs and ancient court records where Black voices emerged to haunt Hall. Here she interweaves tales reconstructed from historical clues and context with episodes from her oft-thwarted research quest, and describes two Colonial-era New York rebellions and a struggle on the slave ship The Unity. Slave ships, Hall concludes from her research, kept enslaved women on deck and left them unshackled so crewmembers could rape them easily. But these women were often able to steal weapons and hatch plots that led to thousands of shipboard revolts. Illustrator Martínez works in stark black strokes to convey the urgency of this ugly legacy. His images reveal how we live in the wake of the past, by depicting glimpses of wraith-like reflections of slavery’s history in today’s puddles and store windows.