A mustread graphic history an inspired and inspiring defence of heroic women whose struggles could be fuel for a more just future GuardianNot only a riveting tale of Black womens leadership of slave revolts but an equally dramatic story of the engaged scholarship that enabled its discovery Angela Y DavisWomen warriors planned and led slave revolts on slave ships during the passage across the Atlantic They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas And then they were erased from historyIn Wake Rebecca Hall a historian a granddaughter of slaves and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery tells their story With indepth archival research and a measured use of historical imagination she constructs the likely pasts of women rebels who fought for freedom on slave ships bound to America as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York Beneath both is Halls own tale of a life lived in the shadow of slavery and its consequencesStrikingly illustrated in black and white Wake explores both a personal and a global legacy Part graphic novel part memoir it is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone we still live in its wake
