Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Blades of Freedom (Family Comic Friday)

Nathan Hale makes a long awaited return to my reading list. Both the author and the 18th century historical figure! There's been 3 new releases since I last read and reviewed a volume of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. Despite frequent checks, my local library never seemed to have them. Hopefully it was because kids kept checking them out as the reason for the lack of availability and not because my library is slowly trying to phase these graphic novels out of circulation.

Blades of Freedom is perhaps the most complex complex volume in series since the World War I chronicle titled Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood. It's not because of triggering subject matter of slavery. Instead, the story of how America came to make the Louisiana Purchase from France was not a simple pathway of going from point A to Point B. Instead, we have to go way, way back to before the time of the American Revolution when both French and Spanish explorers claimed the region of the Midwest for their prospective nations. Then the region changes hands a few times.

Soon the story tightens up to focus on France's colonization of Saint Domingue as well as the rebellions in France. On the French colony, the black slaves forced to produce the valuable commodities of sugar and coffee are beginning to shake off the yolk of oppression. In France, a young soldier by the name of Napoleon is rising through the ranks of the French army thanks to how he's been handling the peasant uprisings. Add in the role of the mosquito in the spread of yellow fever, wars with England and Spain, the fusion of African gods with Catholicism into a religion called 'Voodue' and the creation of poisons from native plants in the Caribbean, all resulting in the largest and most deadly slave revolt to result in freedom and you have a myriad of reasons both for why France had to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States and how the nation of Haiti came to be.

There's a lot more to it, of course. But unlike Major Impossible which tells of John Wesley Powell's expedition of the Colorado River or the siege of the Alamo in Alamo All-Stars, this story isn't so linear or cut and dry. This is definitely an aspect of the Louisiana Purchase that they don't teach in high school. This book sure had a slow start that I wasn't sure where it was, what with the introduction of the talking mosquito. But that second half went by super fast and was mega exciting!

I have a feeling this isn't the last time we'll see the likes of Ol' Bonaparte. I wouldn't have a problem with that. Not at all.

Glad to be back in touch with such a fantastic series! It continues to tell the darker sides of world history. But with depictions of war, the wasting effects of yellow fever and lots of man's inhumanity against man, this is an intense read not for all ages. Amazon recommends it for ages 9-12. I'd up it to ages 12-15.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.