Rebecca Hall (4)

The graphic novel format is an unusual choice for a memoir of a historian’s research into the history of slavery and women-led slave revolts, but it works. The clear text and the black and white illustrations combine to impress on the reader the enormity of the historian’s task, the frustration arising from incomplete or missing historical records, and the anger and shame at running up against barriers to access to primary sources that might contain answers to the historian’s questions. The illustrations give form and face to enslaved persons whose names have mostly been lost to history but whose resistance to enslavement lives on in history for those who make an effort to see it.

This book would be useful for college students as an introduction to historical research. Hall describes her research question, the libraries and archival repositories she visited, the record groups she searched, and the other repositories and records the trail led her to.… (mere)

“If you believe something doesn’t exist, you don’t go looking for it. Worse, if you stumble on it, you still can’t see it.”

I’ve always asked why there is so little attention on slave revolts from people of African descent, hmm... I really enjoyed the level of research Hall has compiled, and the digging she did to find the little that was documented. Then, she had to look between the lines.

I didn’t personally mesh well with the artwork, but it conveyed the story fine. I just wish the shading wasn’t down with harsh, thick black lines.… (mere)