How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith

Narrated by: Clint Smith

This compelling #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives.

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on 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.

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 like downtown Manhattan, where the brutal history of the trade in enslaved men, women, and children has been deeply imprinted.

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.

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

Winner of the Stowe Prize

Winner of 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism

PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist

A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021

A Time 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021

Named a Best Book of 2021 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Economist, Smithsonian, Esquire, Entropy, The Christian Science Monitor, WBEZ's Nerdette Podcast, TeenVogue, GoodReads, SheReads, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Fathom Magazine, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library

One of GQ’s 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century

Longlisted for the National Book Award Los Angeles Times, Best Nonfiction Gift

One of President Obama's Favorite Books of 2021

©2021 Clint Smith (P)2021 Little, Brown & Company

Critic reviews

"Raises questions that we must all address, without recourse to wishful thinking or the collective ignorance and willful denial that fuels white supremacy.” —Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post

"The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral, making history present and real. Equally commendable is the care and compassion shown to those Smith interviews — whether tour guides or fellow visitors in these many spaces. Due to his care as an interviewer, the responses Smith elicits are resonant and powerful. . . . Smith deftly connects the past, hiding in plain sight, with today's lingering effects.”—Hope Wabuke, NPR

"What [Smith] does, quite successfully, is show that we whitewash our history at our own risk. That history is literally still here, taking up acres of space, memorializing the past, and teaching us how we got to be where we are, and the way we are. Bury it now and it will only come calling later." —USA Today

Immense

Reading such difficult things in such an elegantly structured book and read with such a genuine understanding of the stories passed down was mesmerizing. After finishing each chapter I had to sit and stare out the window and not move nor make a sound I was so profoundly moved by the immense sadness of one of history’s biggest betrayals.

A Must Read

This is a beautifully written book about the ugliness of slavery in the United States and everything that has manifested because of it. Dr. Smith has made it clear that the white washing of history and the secrets it has attempted to hide are no longer going to be tolerated or accepted as the truth. Through interviews, travel and research Dr. Smith brings things into the open that need to be included in every American and World history curriculum.

From the epilogue
"I do not misunderstand the language of progress. Though I realize I do not yet have all the words to discuss a crime that is still unfolding....
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. It's history is in our soil, it is in our policies and it must be in our memories."

Read it. You won't be disappointed.

Outstanding work

Having grown up in the 40’s through the 60’s in mostly the Midwest but with wintering in Florida, this was a most revealing work that peeled back the coverups of what clouded my reality. The power of financial and political control over communities and generating accepted histories is appalling. Today’s politics more than reflects this disinformation threat to democracy.

Excellent and Necessary

This book is well written and a must read. Clint Smith does an excellent job of connecting the dots for anyone wanting to better understand the importance of the Trans Atlantic Slave trade to the Economic growth of the U.S. He addresses some parts of America’s past that are hard to hear… but necessary to hear for America to move forward.

Outstanding & Beautifully Told

Smith does ab outstanding job of compling stories that help us better understand the ways our American history is told, what is omitted & who decides what to tell. Thank you for this experience!

Honest and Holistic History

Clint Smith’s honest and holistic look at the history of slavery and racism in America from his experiences, travels, and research is both devastating and hopeful. His writing does more than tell the facts about his topic, but also illustrates the people and humanity behind it. It’s a must read and a beacon for how history should be taught.

Amazing

This was amazing book all black people that care about there history and truth of there history should read or listen to this book.

Couldn’t stop once I started

This is a terrific book. Once I started, I just had to keep going until I finished. As someone who isn’t born in the US or went to school in the US, I’m always trying to understand more fully my adopted country. This book is a milestone in my pursuit. I have read several books on slavery (Empire of Necessity, The Half Has Never Been Told, etc. ) but this book is the best of the lot. I think it should be made mandatory reading in school. It will be the perfect counter to the revisionist history being taught in school.

Read it.

Raw truths set in lyrical prose

In addition to being an educator and activist, Clint Smith is also a poet. This book will break your heart and fire you up, and make you feel the humid breeze of Louisiana, the hot summer sun of the South. A beautifully written and supremely important book.

Needs to be the first of a series!

I may be a little partial because the author is my classmate, but this was absolutely wonderful. His attention to detail and use of imagery make me want to visit the places he went, while simultaneously feeling like I already did. I found myself nodding in agreement at times, and other times like he was reading my mind. I wish he would go to some more of the historical sites and offer more insight in more installments.