gal-dem
Historian Rebecca Hall speaks to Leyla Reynolds about hidden histories, women-led slave revolts and why she’s doing academia differently.
You don’t often see historians presenting their work via illustration. But thinking about it, why not? What better way to bring the past to vivid life?
That’s exactly the approach taken by Dr Rebecca Hall, a historian who’s seeking to uncover the hidden legacies of transatlantic slavery via graphic novel.
Her new book, WAKE, is a collaboration with artist Hugo Martinez and explores the under-researched history of women-led slave revolts in the Americas.
The book explores both the revolts that took place on slave ships during the so-called ‘Middle Passage’ stage of the Triangular Trade and uprisings that happened in colonial New York, pieced together from historical evidence ranging from slave ship logs to forensic matter taken from enslaved African burial grounds in the city.
Dr Hall – who has descended from Black enslaved Africans herself – spoke to gal-dem about the project, histories that shouldn’t be hidden and how slavery has shaped our modern conceptions of self.
gal-dem: What do you want the impact of this book to be?
Dr Rebecca Hall: I hope that it gets adopted, and is used in teaching, in high school and on the curriculum. I’ve taught everything from law school, to graduate school to college and I’ve seen all of the horrible ways the history of slavery and race is taught. This should be an intervention into that. I want African American people to take pride in their ancestry and to see their ancestry is a form of power. I want these women’s stories to be told and I don’t want to see such violent erasure.
It’s unusual to publish a piece of historical research like WAKE as a graphic novel – what led to the decision?
Read interview
