ISBN:
0316492922
,
9780316492928
Language:
English
Pages:
xiv, 334 pages
,
21 cm
Edition:
Back Bay paperback edition
DDC:
973/.0496073
Keywords:
Smith, Clint Travel
;
Slavery History
;
Slaveholders History
;
African Americans Social conditions
;
History
;
Racism History
;
Historic sites
;
Plantations History
;
African Americans Social conditions
;
HISTORY - African American
;
HISTORY - United States - General
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE - Black Studies (Global)
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE - Discrimination
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE - Ethnic Studies - American - African American Studies
;
African Americans
;
African Americans - Social conditions
;
African Americans - Study and teaching
;
Discrimination
;
Ethnology - Study and teaching
;
Historic sites
;
History
;
Minorities - Study and teaching
;
Plantations
;
Racism
;
Slaveholders
;
Slavery
;
African Americans
;
Racism - United States
;
Discrimination
;
Slavery - United States
;
History
;
Local histories
;
Travel writing
;
Southern States Race relations
;
History
;
Southern States History, Local
;
United States Race relations
;
History
;
United States
;
USA
;
Sklaverei
;
Rassismus
;
Historische Stätte
;
Kulturdenkmal
;
Kollektives Gedächtnis
Abstract:
"'This book is Clint Smith's contemporary portrait of the United States of America as a slave-owning nation. Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Smith leads the reader through 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" --
Abstract:
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks--those that are honest abou tthe 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 memory. 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 in downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply inprinted. Informed by scholarship and brought to life by the stories of people living today, Smith's debut work of nonfiction is a landmark of reflection and ingiht that offers a new undersatnding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country and how it has come to be. --
Note:
Originally published: New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2021
,
Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-318) and index
,
"Whole city is a memorial to slavery" :
,
Prologue
,
"There's a difference between history and nostalgia" :
,
Monticello Plantation
,
"An open book, up under the sky" :
,
Whitney Plantation
,
"I can't change what happened here" :
,
Angola Prison
,
"I don't know if it's true or not, but I like it" :
,
Blandford Cemetery
,
"Our Independence Day" :
,
Galveston Island
,
"We were the good guys, right?" :
,
New York City
,
"One slave is too much" :
,
Gorée Island
,
"I lived it" :
,
Epilogue.
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