Social Sciences
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How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
Instant #1 New York Times bestseller
Longlisted for the National Book Award
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation–turned–maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Longlisted for the National Book Award
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
It is the story of the Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters espousing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people. It is the story of the Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. It is the story of Angola, a former plantation–turned–maximum-security prison in Louisiana that is filled with Black men who work across the 18,000-acre land for virtually no pay. And it is the story of Blandford Cemetery, the final resting place of tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers.
A deeply researched and transporting exploration of the legacy of slavery and its imprint on centuries of American history, How the Word Is Passed illustrates how some of our country's most essential stories are hidden in plain view-whether in places we might drive by on our way to work, holidays such as Juneteenth, or entire neighborhoods like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.
Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the story of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and insight that offers a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be.
Editorial Reviews
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
One of John Green's Two Favorite Books of the Year
Washington Post Best Book to Read in June
Time Best Book of Summer 2021
The Root's Book You Have to Read This Summer
A Goodreads Hottest New Book of the Season
One of Buzzfeed's New Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List ASAP
"The Atlantic writer drafts a history of slavery in this country unlike anything you've read before."―Entertainment Weekly
"An important and timely book about race in America."―Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine
"Raises questions that we must all address, without recourse to wishful thinking or the collective ignorance and willful denial that fuels white supremacy." ―Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post
"Sketches an impressive and deeply affecting human cartography of America's historical conscience…an extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves." ―Julian Lucas, New York Times Book Review
"Clint Smith, in his new book "How the Word Is Passed," has created something subtle and extraordinary."―Christian Science Monitor
"Part of what makes this book so brilliant is its bothandedness. It is both a searching historical work and a journalistic account of how these historic sites operate today. Its both carefully researched and lyrical. I mean Smith is a poet and the sentences in this book just are piercingly alive. And it's both extremely personal-it is the author's story-and extraordinarily sweeping. It amplifies lots of other voices. Past and present. Reading it I kept thinking about that great Alice Walker line ‘All History is Current'."―John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed
"The summer's most visionary work of nonfiction is this radical reckoning with slavery, as represented in the nation's monuments, plantations, and landmarks."―Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real. Equally commendable is the care and compassion shown to those Smith interviews - whether tour guides or fellow visitors in these many spaces. Due to his care as an interviewer, the responses Smith elicits are resonant and powerful. . . . Smith deftly connects the past, hiding in plain sight, with today's lingering effects."―Hope Wabuke, NPR
"This isn't just a work of history, it's an intimate, active exploration of how we're still constructing and distorting our history." ―Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"Both an honoring and an exposé of slavery's legacy in Amer...
One of John Green's Two Favorite Books of the Year
Washington Post Best Book to Read in June
Time Best Book of Summer 2021
The Root's Book You Have to Read This Summer
A Goodreads Hottest New Book of the Season
One of Buzzfeed's New Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List ASAP
"The Atlantic writer drafts a history of slavery in this country unlike anything you've read before."―Entertainment Weekly
"An important and timely book about race in America."―Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine
"Raises questions that we must all address, without recourse to wishful thinking or the collective ignorance and willful denial that fuels white supremacy." ―Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post
"Sketches an impressive and deeply affecting human cartography of America's historical conscience…an extraordinary contribution to the way we understand ourselves." ―Julian Lucas, New York Times Book Review
"Clint Smith, in his new book "How the Word Is Passed," has created something subtle and extraordinary."―Christian Science Monitor
"Part of what makes this book so brilliant is its bothandedness. It is both a searching historical work and a journalistic account of how these historic sites operate today. Its both carefully researched and lyrical. I mean Smith is a poet and the sentences in this book just are piercingly alive. And it's both extremely personal-it is the author's story-and extraordinarily sweeping. It amplifies lots of other voices. Past and present. Reading it I kept thinking about that great Alice Walker line ‘All History is Current'."―John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed
"The summer's most visionary work of nonfiction is this radical reckoning with slavery, as represented in the nation's monuments, plantations, and landmarks."―Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real. Equally commendable is the care and compassion shown to those Smith interviews - whether tour guides or fellow visitors in these many spaces. Due to his care as an interviewer, the responses Smith elicits are resonant and powerful. . . . Smith deftly connects the past, hiding in plain sight, with today's lingering effects."―Hope Wabuke, NPR
"This isn't just a work of history, it's an intimate, active exploration of how we're still constructing and distorting our history." ―Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"Both an honoring and an exposé of slavery's legacy in Amer...
Readers Top Reviews
DixieAl
The book reveals the fragility of what it is like for many Black Americans, more than 150 years after slavery was abolished. Visit the embarkation point in West Africa where enslaved Africans were shipped over the Atlantic. See slave cabins on old Southern plantations. Read what it was/is like in northern states: not always rosey! Listen to the author’s grandmother describe the prejudice that she has endured. Every American needs to read this evocative book, take a restorative step, and do what he/she can do to abolish racial prejudice once and for all.
DMB
"The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories." Dr. Smith's journey across historic sites and both sides of the Mason-Dixie and the Atlantic Ocean explore that relationship. This book is powerful. Poetic. Beautiful. Painful. Provocative. Real. As I read, I felt battered and a bit unmoored, as I realized how fundamental and pervasive slavery was and is to the American story. It is not part of our story; it is the story, in the sense that without it, our country would be unrecognizable. Dr. Smith's words also inspire me. To remember. To recgnize. To be better. To help America live out the full meaning of her creed that "all...are created equal'" driven by a belief that we an have "liberty and justice for all."
Joel Holtz
Clint Smith's first work of non-fiction is a page turner, taking the reader back in time to slavery landmarks that highlight unspeakable cruelty inflicted by slaveowners. The New Orleans native highlights the Monticello Plantation, Angola Prison, the Whitney Plantation, Blandford Confederate Cemetary and more. The chapter on the Monticello Plantation has excellent insights and observations about Thomas Jefferson that the reader may not have been aware of. The chapter on Blandford Cemetary is the longest and perhaps the best in the book. The oldest Confederate grave dates from 1702. The history behind the Virginia cemetery is outstanding. Smith also notes the average prison sentence for Angola Prison inmates is a jaw dropping 87 years. A bit tough to read in spots, but history buffs will thoroughly soak up the book and every American should read it. The title comes from a descendant of Jefferson.
SESTORYWOMAN
Earlier this week I heard Terry Gross interview author Clint Smith on NPR’s Fresh Air. Clint Smith is an African-American writer who has written a brilliant book entitled “How the Word is Passed:A ReckoningWith the History of Slavery Across America. Clint Smith is a celebrated poet and educator. This book is interesting, informative, personal, and deeply disturbing. Smith visits a number of places: Monticello, New Orleans, the Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison, Blandford Cemetery, Galveston, Texas, and New York City. Everywhere Smith travels, he encounters a welter of opinions and stories about what people know—or think they know—about slavery. It’s a brutal history and sheds light on the fact that many black Americans currently live in the slavery of inequality. This book reveals a lot of truth that I needed to hear. And now I want to read more.
