HOW THE WORD IS PASSED

By Author: Clint Smith

"How the Word Is Passed" examines the central role of slavery in shaping American history, focusing on sites like Monticello Plantation, Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison, and Blandford Cemetery.

Whitney Plantation, one of the only former plantations devoted to preserving the experience of the enslaved people whose lives and work sustained it. Angola Prison, 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. Monticello Plantation in Virginia, the estate where Thomas Jefferson wrote letters exposing the urgent need for liberty while enslaving more than four hundred people (human beings).

The book uncovers how the legacy of slavery endures in places, holidays, and neighborhoods across the country. Drawing on deeply researched and personal stories, Clint Smith's nonfiction work investigates how memory and history inform our understanding of America’s past and present.

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