HOW THE WORD IS PASSED: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (Language Acts and Worldmaking)

I came across this via Smith's article in The Atlantic (adapted from one of the chapters herein). It's an excellent read: thought-provoking, beautifully written, and important.Probably my favourite non-fiction read of the year (I've also listened to the audiobook, which I'd highly recommend in addition to the print/eBook edition).

The Germans have a word "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" which means "coming to terms with the past," specifically, coming to terms with the Nazi past from 80 years ago. This book is about America's need to come to terms with its own slave-holding past, starting 400 years ago. The Germans have done a pretty good job of confronting the past. But the Americans, alas, haven't done so well.The book makes for absorbing (if sometimes uncomfortable) reading because of the way it's organized, as a travelogue of sorts. Instead of a general survey or historical narrative, the author goes places and tells us about some locations which are sites for tourism or pilgrimage, and how these places tell the story about the country's relationship to chattel slavery. The country often tells the story in a distorted way, but there are signs of hope in some places.The travel starts at the Monticello Plantation, a title which is itself just a little unnerving, since we don't usually think of Monticello as a plantation, but of course that's exactly what it was. The book is about a lot of the things that we don't hear about in school, even in the North. I found the account of these locations fascinating, with a new insight on almost every page. What's under the feet of the Statue of Liberty? And why isn't it visible from the ground? Hmm...

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.

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.

"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."