Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts is a graphic novel that works on a number of levels, and I was gobsmacked by how much it affected it. One, it is a memoir by academic Rebecca Hall doing research for her dissertation projection. Two, it is an account of the facts of women's roles in slave revolts. Three, it contains a number of fictionalized accounts of the events concerning slave revolts, as very often there are no concrete records extent concerning women's involvement in them. Four, it is an exploration of how the institution of slavery still haunts and informs contemporary society. Five, it is enterprise that demonstrates how history gets defined and then redefined, and how this process has palpable effects on us all, whether acknowledged or not. It's a tour de force graphic novel that packs a wallop intellectually, aesthetically, and emotionally.

One especially affecting and effective trope in this book is a constant mirroring of the past and present in its imagery. A good part of the book takes place in New York City, and there are several panels and pages that show scenes from the 17th and 18th centuries and how they inform our present. Scenes of slave auctions push right up on images on contemporary Wall Street, juxtaposing the predominant business practices of both eras. The artwork by Hugo Martinez aptly emanates a rawness that highlights the horrific and dehumanizing social conditions depicted throughout the book. It is a difficult read in many ways, as it does not let anyone off the hook for their various roles in either perpetuating or trying to ignore grave injustices carried out over centuries. And the images touch many a nerve along the way.

In the end, I was amazed by the scope of this book. As an academic, I can appreciate the great effort and distress involved in doing this research and creating this account. As a reader, I was moved by the historical accounts and sheer horror of the depraved acts of slavery and racism. I was also moved by the bravery and perseverance of people who were enslaved and how they contended against their captors. As a citizen, I was distressed by how public institutions, including records clerks and companies like Lloyd's of London work to obscure and even protect past misdeeds. Additionally, I was struck by how Hall's background as a lawyer also informed insights into how the institution of slavery stripped people of basic humanity through legal codes. As a researcher, I can also appreciate just how frustrating it could be to delve into a topic where little to no historical record exists. This absence should be galling to us all in the present day.

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts is an important, modern classic that belongs on library and classroom shelves as well as on syllabi. I am so glad that one of the students in the graphic novels class I am currently teaching selected it. I feel everyone should read it.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been glowing. In a starred entry, Kirkus Reviews summed it up as "an urgent, brilliant work of historical excavation." Etelka Lehoczky called it a "remarkable blend of passion and fact, action and reflection," and added that "Wake sets a new standard for illustrating history." In a detailed and riveting review Jordan Alexander Stein wrote, "It pushes past the limits of what’s possible, to tell us a story that wasn’t but now can be."

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts was published by Simon & Schuster, and they offer more information about it here.

Turner Family Stories: From Enslavement in Virginia to Freedom in Vermont

Turner Family Stories is one of the most unique and interesting books I have read in recent times. It is a collection of comics that adapt an oral history recounted by 100-year-old Daisy Turner in 1983. These stories explored her family history, from her ancestors being abducted from Africa to her parents being slaves who eventually found freedom, as well as their way to New England, to her own struggles with equality throughout her life.

Of particular note, she spoke extensively of her legal battle with a white man who had promised to marry her but reneged and tried to destroy her life and reputation. Such first-hand accounts of history are powerful enough on their own, but here are made even more potent by translating them into comics.

As a collection of stories, this book employs a number of artists. I was highly engaged by the framing narrative, about two youth who speak to Daisy, leading to  separate accounts about her and her family, including the tale of how her parents made their way to Vermont, an adventure where her dad showed off his prodigious strength, and a supernatural episode when her mother needed help. The varying art styles, some more cartoonish and others more realistic, complement each other, lending a wide arrange of expression to the book. I think this collection is an excellent book as a teaching tool or for a fan of US or civil rights history. I hope that it is read far and wide.

Turner Family Stories was edited by Jane Beck and Andy Kolovos and features comics by Marek Bennett, Francis Bordeleau, Lillie Harris, Joel Christian Gill, and Ezra Veitch. The cover was drawn by Robyn Smith. It also couched well in history, with a foreward by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, introduction by Julian Chambliss, and preface by Jane Beck. There are interviews with artists Bordeleau, Harris, and Veitch about their work on this volume here.

I was not able to locate any reviews of this book online, though it did have a 5 (out of 5) star rating on Goodreads as of this writing. This superb book certainly deserves more attention!

Turner Family Stories was published by Vermont Folklife Center, and they offer previews and much more about it here.

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

I have never read the novel Kindred, so I cannot really compare this version to the original, but I can say that after reading this adaptation I really want to check it out. The story focuses on Dana, a black woman from 1976 who is suddenly, mysteriously thrown into the past where she rescues a little red-headed, white boy named Rufus from drowning.

It turn out Rufus is actually one of her ancestors, the son of a slave-owner and a future slave-owner himself, and somehow her fate is tied to his. Stuck in the early 1800s in rural Maryland, Dana finds that she has to make a lot of compromises in order to survive in a place where slavery is not only legal but the guiding force of society. Dana ends up returning to the present, but she bounces back and forth in time a few times over the course of the story, finding that months spent in the past only add up to hours or days in the present. Each time brings different revelations, emotions, violence, and consequences.

What makes this book especially powerful for me is how it engages with the conflicting views of the past and present. Having to make do in the past, Dana learns the absolute horrors and terrors of slavery. She sees firsthand how ugly and dehumanizing it was, and she also sees just how strong and stoic many of her forebears had to be in order to survive. Her modern sensibilities are profoundly affected by her sojourns into the past. This book is a harrowing and traumatizing one, and not one I will soon forget. I think that the illustrations and pacing make for compelling reading, and they also capture the horrible aspects of slavery and racism in visceral ways. It was riveting and also repulsive, a work that is challenging in the best sense of the word.

This book is based on an original text by Octavia Butler, a Hugo and Nebula Award winning writer who was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. This adaptation won the 2018 Eisner Comics Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium, and it was created by writer Damian Duffy and artist John Jennings. These frequent collaborators also have adapted another Butler novel Parable of the Sower into graphic novel form. Both creators weigh in on their work on the Kindred adaptation in this interview.

All the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Shawn Taylor gushed, "Not only is this one of the very best adaptations of an existing work, ever, but one of the best graphic novels in twenty years." John Denardo opined "Duffy's adaptation perfectly captures the horrific situations forced on the lives of black people in the pre-Civil War South and conveys the emotional impact of Butler's work." Publishers Weekly wrote, "It’s an effective recap, clearly produced with great love and respect, but the book remains the gold standard."

Kindred was published by Abrams ComicArts, and they offer more info about it here. It's also currently available on Comixology Unlimited, which is where I read it.

Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase

I have a lot of books on my to-read list, but I got this one in the mail the other day and it jumped to the top of the heap. I have reviewed every volume of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales on this blog (click the link and see!), because I think it's the best nonfiction history series available in graphic novel form. Each book has been excellent, full of well researched facts and events and told in a highly engaging, sometimes humorous way. It's one of the series I recommend most to tween and adolescent readers who have an interest in nonfiction. Blades of Freedom is the tenth book in the series, and it is phenomenal.

Bookended with a look at the Louisiana Purchase, it runs far and wide filling in the context for that pivotal happening. Over the course of this book, I read about how mosquitoes spread Yellow Fever, Columbus decimated the Taino people, vodou arose as a religion, Napoleon rose from being a Corsican to the Emperor of France, and Haiti became the first country in the Americas to abolish slavery. It's a book about the politics of the day, moving from monarchies to revolutionary times, using the French Revolution as a backdrop for much of went on. It explains how the slave trade work in gruesome detail, focusing on the value of sugar cane as a product of the Caribbean islands. It also focuses on major figures involved, including Napoleon, legendary insurgent Mackandal, rebel general Toussaint L'Ouverture, Emperor of Haiti Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and eventual US President James Monroe. 

It manages to cover so many topics with a clever conceit: the narrator Nathan Hale has a wheel he spins to jump from topic to topic. This set-up keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace without being overwhelming. It also sets up a context for building so much of the background necessary to understand these historical events. Personally, I knew little about the Haitian Revolution before I read this book, and after having read it I felt ashamed not to have known more about this landmark struggle. It was the largest and most successful slave revolt ever, and one of the big pluses of this book that it sheds light on a topic that I think gets short-shrift in terms of learning about history in the US. I think the lack of coverage is racist, with the long-held use of the Haitian Revolution being used as a specter to scare white people about the potential savagery of free black people. Having this matter being portrayed in such a popular series will mean that it won't be as arcane a topic going forward, I hope.

This book's author, Nathan Hale, who is not related to the Revolutionary War spy, is a highly accomplished graphic novelist. Aside from his great success with this series, he has also published a couple of fictional graphic novels One Trick Pony and Apocalypse Taco. He has also drawn a few others, including Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack.

Thus far, I have not been able to locate many reviews of this book, but the ones I've seen have been positive. Marissa Moss wrote, "This is the kind of history that will excite young readers and show them how disparate events, far from each other in time and space, can have major impacts on each other." Lori Henderson listed it as a weekly pick for Good Comics for Kids.

Blades of Freedom was published by Amulet Books, and they offer a preview and more here.

The Hammer and the Anvil: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the End of Slavery in America

The Hammer and the Anvil: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the End of Slavery in America is an expertly researched and told nonfiction story of two massive historical figures and their effects on US history. In order to tell both stories, the book employs alternating narratives, indicating which is which via a simple color scheme. Douglass's story is told in blue:

And Lincoln's in red:

Both biographies begin with respective childhoods and formative experiences that would come into play later in their lives. Along the way, I learned much about each person and major players of the time period. Also, there are deftly told accounts about slavery, the Civil War, and other historical contexts. That the creators were able to chronicle so much information while spinning compelling narratives and characters is extremely impressive. One of the features I admired most about this book is that it does not overly lionize either Douglass or Lincoln. Certainly they are shown to be impressive and important people, but they are also shown to have their own problems and human moments. I especially appreciated how Lincoln was not simply canonized as the Great Emancipator but was shown to wrestle greatly with many social concerns and pragmatic thoughts that conflicted with his idealism.

The artwork was also a huge positive about this book. There are many detailed panels that represent the time period very well. Additionally, there are multiple scenes where characters' emotions and feelings come through very powerfully. This book is both masterfully plotted and illustrated. It definitely brings history to life.

This book's creators Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Wayne Vansant also collaborated on another graphic history, The Vietnam War. Zimmerman is the author of a number of other books on military history as well as a producer of TV shows on that topic. Vansant began drawing comics decades ago with Marvel Comics' Savage Tales and The 'Nam, and he has drawn a number of historically-themed graphic novels including one about the D-Day battle at Normandy.

Reviews and news I have read about the book have been positive. It was nominated for YALSA's 2013 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. Hillary Brown concluded, "Anyone who doesn’t specialize in this material will learn something." Publishers Weekly summed it up as "a compelling look at two of the most important figures in American history." Viviane Crystal called it "a superb historical fiction story."

The Hammer and the Anvil was published by Hill & Wang, and there is a preview and more information available here.

Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History

Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History does exactly what its title says. I was shamefully unfamiliar with most of the stories recounted in this volume, even that of the Noyes Academy. I single that one out because it was located in Canaan, NH, and it's a small town where I used to teach summer school. I had no idea that once a landmark school was located there.

There are many other stories told here in a straight-forward, semi-humorous fashion. These stories feature much courage and strength in the face of injustice, heartbreak, and misery. Some of these stories are about collective people, such as the shameful, racially motivated eviction of an entire community from Malaga Island. Most though are about exceptional individuals. There is the tale of Henry "Box" Brown who was literally mailed north to freedom.

Also, many forgotten figures are celebrated, like Bass Reeves, the most successful US Deputy Marshal; chess master Theophilus Thompson; magician Richard Potter, and bicycle champion Marshall Taylor aka "The Black Cyclone."

Like I noted above, there is an undercurrent of humor running through these sometimes difficult stories. One recurring funny feature is the flying baby birth, as seen in the "Box" Brown excerpt. Many of these tales start that way, and there are small jokes and asides from time to time. There is also the visual motif of the crow, which delineates the presence of Jim Crow enforcers and ways of thinking. Racial slurs are similarly represented pictorially, to good effect. These are stories directed toward a younger audience, but it does not hold back on showing the difficulties and hatred folks had to endure, as well as the will power needed to persevere through such conditions.

The artwork might seem too simple for some, but I think it is very expressive. Another critique I have seen from multiple sources that I agree with is that this book is very male-centered and also not so delicate about depicting Native Americans.

This book's creator Joel Christian Gill is the the Chair of Foundations at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Since publishing this book, he has embarked on creating and publishing extended biographies of African-Americans in his Tales of the Talented Tenth series. Thus far he has two volumes, on Bass Reeves and Bessie Stringfield, and he is working on at least a couple more. He speaks about his work on Strange Fruit in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Rob McMonigal called it "a wonderful addition to non-fiction comics." Allyce Amidon called it " visually witty, engaging, and well researched." And Megan Purdy called it "a great book that deserves to be read, discussed, shared and celebrated."

Strange Fruit was published by Fulcrum Publishing, and they have an excerpt and more available here.

The Underground Abductor

If you have been reading my blog and paying attention, you pretty much know that I think Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales are some of the best historical graphic novels I have read EVER. This volume, The Underground Abductor, continues that tradition. It tells the story of Araminta Ross, better known to most of us as Harriet Tubman, a civil rights activist and conductor on the fugitive slave network called the Underground Railroad. The book spans her whole life, from her time as a young slave through her adulthood when she accomplished a great many brave and cunning deeds.

Aside from the expert storytelling and excellent artwork, which is full of affect, action, and meaning, there are two things I really admire about this book. One, it takes a very broad consideration, that of slavery, and puts a very human and personal face on it. Two, it has shown me that I pretty much knew nothing of this remarkable woman's life. It even has a couple of sizable digressions to give the tale more context, one about Frederick Douglass and the other about Nat Turner. A great book informs as well as entertains, and this is a great book, in my estimation.

In addition to creating the first four entries in this series, the prolific Nathan Hale also has drawn two other graphic novels, Rapunzel's Revenge and its sequel Calamity Jack. He has also worked on a variety of children's books, including Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody and The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas. He shares a lot of fun artwork and news via his blog, and he speaks about his career in this interview.

The reviews I have read about this book have been very positive. Sarah wrote, "I learned so much about Tubman's life - I actually got chills while reading this story as I thought about what a truly exceptional woman she was." JediKermit praised how it "honors the pain and condemns the horrors of slavery, but is still appropriate for the target audience of 5th - 8th graders." Kellee called it her favorite in the series so far, "the most intense of his stories" of "one person’s resilience in the face of pure doom."

The Underground Abductor was published by Amulet Books, and they have a video preview, teaching guide, and more information available here.