How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Every part of the U.S. has deep, often unacknowledged ties to the institution of chattel slavery. In How the Word Is Passed, his first nonfiction book, poet and educator Clint Smith (Counting Descent) visits eight locations with complicated histories relating to slavery, beginning in his hometown of New Orleans. The disconnect--the honoring of whites and the erasure of Black stories, no matter the era--continues as Smith embarks on his nationwide self-guided tour of places bearing the deep scars of slavery, including Monticello, Angola Prison, Galveston Island, Tex., New York City and Goree Island, Dakar, Senegal, once a transition point for millions of slaves and now a memorial to their suffering. Each place, no matter its current approach, is vital to a holistic understanding of slavery in the U.S. Smith's work is a passionate, thought-provoking, brilliantly observed call for Americans to take a new, uncomfortable but essential look at their own history. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

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