There’s a particularly expressive drawing near the front of Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez’ Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts that sums up what’s unique about this graphic novel. Martínez draws Hall — a trained historian and lawyer — at the New York Historical Society, reading the records of a 1712 slave revolt in the city. She has found that two women named Sarah and Abigail were both sentenced to death in the wake of the revolt, but the authorities delayed one of the women’s execution because she was pregnant.Sifting through 300-year-old documents, Hall finds that this woman remained in prison for years while the governor corresponded with officials back in Great Britain about a possible pardon. But was the woman Abigail or Sarah? Was she executed, or eventually released?
Source: Review: ‘Wake: The Hidden History Of Women-Led Slave Revolts’ : NPR
