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jadziadax's review against another edition
5.0
Read this for Intro to the History Major last winter. Really engaging method of learning history. Looking forward to seeing historical graphic novels as textbooks more!
mbondlamberty's review against another edition
4.0
It is hard to say one "really liked" a book with the tale of the slave trade, that said I can't give it only 3 stars.
Was it a good book and informative and great for illustrating the challenges to ending the slave trade? Definitely. If telling students to read this book (or anyone for that matter, I might have them first start with the graphic novel, and then read the first portion which was very interesting for the students of history. The last portion with the documents gets a little repetitive so I would perhaps direct them to certain letters or missives to get various sides of the story.
Good depiction of the historical events.
Was it a good book and informative and great for illustrating the challenges to ending the slave trade? Definitely. If telling students to read this book (or anyone for that matter, I might have them first start with the graphic novel, and then read the first portion which was very interesting for the students of history. The last portion with the documents gets a little repetitive so I would perhaps direct them to certain letters or missives to get various sides of the story.
Good depiction of the historical events.
katebd's review against another edition
2.0
Pros:
The graphic aspect is engaging, and the historical context and primary sources really round it out. The story itself is pretty interesting, I enjoyed learning about the Neirsee incident. I actually liked that Blaufarb placed himself within the narrative. I thought it was an interesting reflexivity that is often absent in history: as in, this is his perspective, not an authoritative work on ‘what really happened’.
Cons:
This plays into the trope of the white savior quite heavily. Blaufarb is definitely not critical enough of the European ‘characters’ he presents (maybe has to do with his background in French history?). Those that were “liberated” from slave ships from the British were still forcibly displaced from their families and homes and made to live in a British colony, under British rule...at one point it even seems like Blaufarb is trying to make us feel sorry for a British officer when the African colony he had “worked so hard to establish” (using African labor, even those that he supposedly liberated, without properly feeding them - literally he made them perform hard labor under a food shortage) is abandoned. There are a few similar ‘wtf’ movements throughout the book. I think it’s possible to accurately portray European actions and attitudes without necessarily condoning them or sympathizing with them.
Conclusion: Read this is if you’re interested in this particular historical event or time period, but be prepared to roll your eyes a bit.
The graphic aspect is engaging, and the historical context and primary sources really round it out. The story itself is pretty interesting, I enjoyed learning about the Neirsee incident. I actually liked that Blaufarb placed himself within the narrative. I thought it was an interesting reflexivity that is often absent in history: as in, this is his perspective, not an authoritative work on ‘what really happened’.
Cons:
This plays into the trope of the white savior quite heavily. Blaufarb is definitely not critical enough of the European ‘characters’ he presents (maybe has to do with his background in French history?). Those that were “liberated” from slave ships from the British were still forcibly displaced from their families and homes and made to live in a British colony, under British rule...at one point it even seems like Blaufarb is trying to make us feel sorry for a British officer when the African colony he had “worked so hard to establish” (using African labor, even those that he supposedly liberated, without properly feeding them - literally he made them perform hard labor under a food shortage) is abandoned. There are a few similar ‘wtf’ movements throughout the book. I think it’s possible to accurately portray European actions and attitudes without necessarily condoning them or sympathizing with them.
Conclusion: Read this is if you’re interested in this particular historical event or time period, but be prepared to roll your eyes a bit.
brogan7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.0
It seems to me, unless we come to terms with the history of colonization and slavery in our world, we will never fully understand racism and sexism in our society.
This book is a piece of that puzzle....it's just so brutal that I wonder how we fully understand it without also somehow going mad.
The scale of this massive human displacement....and the curious way that even as it was ending, or at least as it was ending for England and France, the primary concern was for jurisdictional issues and hierarchy and the outrage! The outrage within this narrative that the slavers entrapped British subjects (the free Africans, who spoke English)--without real concern for the 280 others they were supposed to also be freeing...it is clear that what really mattered to the British admiralty was status, not people.And Sarah, poor Sarah, was not deemed as human as any of the free men, though she was a free woman, at the start of the story, because she was left to her fate of enslavement. Except that one can't help but wonder, if Sarah had been saved would it be a happy ending? What about the other 280 people who were lost in the masses of African slaves in the Caribbean that day? What about the thousands they blended in with?>/spoiler
This book is a piece of that puzzle....it's just so brutal that I wonder how we fully understand it without also somehow going mad.
The scale of this massive human displacement....and the curious way that even as it was ending, or at least as it was ending for England and France, the primary concern was for jurisdictional issues and hierarchy and the outrage! The outrage within this narrative that the slavers entrapped British subjects (the free Africans, who spoke English)--without real concern for the 280 others they were supposed to also be freeing...it is clear that what really mattered to the British admiralty was status, not people.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
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