How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
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.
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Community Reviews
This book should be required reading. So well written and taught me what I should have been taught in school
An EXCELLENT and national and personal uncovering of history every US citizen should know. LOVED it. Looking forward to Smith's next work
Wow. This was just a fabulous book. Well written, well researched. Smith invites us on a pilgrimage designed to learn about the history of slavery and his lyrical writing helps us to vividly see the people and places that he visits. From place to place, he creates images and narrative that are compelling and immediate:
"I half sang and half looked around the room, observing the way people' mouths moved over the words, how the vowels at the center of each lyric stretched out and hung like the laundry on a warm day." (p. 181)
Throughout the pilgrimage, Smith cites primary sources that often run counter to the history that we learned, both here and abroad. He recounts conversations with many people on his path, in a way that invites you in to the conversation, as a welcomed eavesdropper. Some of the narratives he found are actively trying to grapple with the dismal legacy of slavery, others are still glossing over it, and an early question pervades the work "How do you tell a story that has been told the wrong way for so long?" (p. 83).
"I half sang and half looked around the room, observing the way people' mouths moved over the words, how the vowels at the center of each lyric stretched out and hung like the laundry on a warm day." (p. 181)
Throughout the pilgrimage, Smith cites primary sources that often run counter to the history that we learned, both here and abroad. He recounts conversations with many people on his path, in a way that invites you in to the conversation, as a welcomed eavesdropper. Some of the narratives he found are actively trying to grapple with the dismal legacy of slavery, others are still glossing over it, and an early question pervades the work "How do you tell a story that has been told the wrong way for so long?" (p. 83).
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