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Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 Hardcover – February 2, 2021
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FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post, Town & Country, Ms. magazine, BookPage, She Reads, BookRiot, Booklist • “A vital addition to [the] curriculum on race in America . . . a gateway to the solo works of all the voices in Kendi and Blain’s impressive choir.”—The Washington Post
“From journalist Hannah P. Jones on Jamestown’s first slaves to historian Annette Gordon-Reed’s portrait of Sally Hemings to the seductive cadences of poets Jericho Brown and Patricia Smith, Four Hundred Souls weaves a tapestry of unspeakable suffering and unexpected transcendence.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges “some 20-and-odd Negroes” onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history.
Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness.
This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present.
- Print length528 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOne World
- Publication dateFebruary 2, 2021
- Dimensions6.44 x 1.66 x 9.54 inches
- ISBN-100593134044
- ISBN-13978-0593134047
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
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Reflect on your understanding of race and discover ways to work toward an antiracist future with this guided journal from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning. | From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a bracingly original approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society--and in ourselves. | From the author of How to Be an Antiracist comes a picture book that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves, now with added discussion prompts to help readers recognize and reflect on bias in their daily lives. |
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This collection teaches us that nothing about the latest crisis is new—that for four hundred years, Americans have whistled a ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ tune of national self-congratulation while reliving repeating cycles of racial violence and hypocrisy. . . . This project is a vital addition to that curriculum on race in America and should serve as a gateway to the solo works of all the voices in Kendi and Blain’s impressive choir.”—The Washington Post
“Two leading scholars of Black culture gather writers from across genres in this provocative, stirring anthology on the traumas and triumphs of African Americans across four centuries. From journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on Jamestown’s first slaves to historian Annette Gordon-Reed’s portrait of Sally Hemings to the seductive cadences of poets Jericho Brown and Patricia Smith, Four Hundred Souls weaves a tapestry of unspeakable suffering and unexpected transcendence.”—O: The Oprah Magazine, “20 of the Best Books of February 2021 to Fall in Love With”
“Edited by two of the brightest minds in all of literature and historical studies today, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Dr. Keisha N. Blain, the massive tome takes a community approach to telling the stories of Black history for the past four hundred years. . . . Absolutely essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about the incredible struggles and immense achievements of African America over the past four centuries.”—Shondaland
“Four Hundred Souls consists of eighty chronological chapters that bring to life the numerous and previously overlooked facets of slavery, segregation, resistance and survival. In these pages, dozens of extraordinary lives and personalities resurface from archives and are restored to their rightful place in the narrative of American history.”—The Root
"An impeccable, epic, essential vision of American history as a whole and a testament to the resilience of Black people.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“With a diverse range of up-and-coming scholars, activists, and writers exploring topics both familiar and obscure, this energetic collection stands apart from standard anthologies of African American history.”—Publishers Weekly
“This seamless collection crackles with rage, beauty, bitter humor, and the indomitable will to survive.”—Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
Keisha N. Blain, a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, is an award-winning historian, professor, and writer. She is the author of the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire and co-editor, with Ibram X. Kendi, of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls. She is a professor of Africana Studies and History at Brown University and a columnist for MSNBC. Her most recent book is Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1619–1624
Arrival
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Four hundred years ago, in 1620, a cargo ship lowered its anchor on the eastern shore of North America. It had spent sixty-six grueling days on the perilous Atlantic Ocean, and its 102 passengers fell into praise as they spotted land for the first time in more than two months.
These Puritans had fled England in search of religious freedom. We know all their names, names such as James Chilton, Frances Cook, and Mary Brewster. Their descendants proudly trace their lineage back to the group that established self-governance in the “New World” (that is, among the white population—Indigenous people were already governing themselves).
They arrived on the Mayflower, a vessel that has been called “one of the most important ships in American history.” Every fall, regaled by stories of the courageous Pilgrims, elementary school children whose skin is peach, tan, and chestnut fashion black captain hats from paper to dress up like the passengers on the Mayflower. Our country has wrapped a national holiday around the Pilgrims’ story, ensuring the Mayflower’s mythical place in the American narrative.
But a year before the Mayflower, in 1619, another ship dropped anchor on the eastern shore of North America. Its name was the White Lion, and it, too, would become one of the most important ships in American history. And yet there is no ship manifest inscribed with the names of its passengers and no descendants’ society. These people’s arrival was deemed so insignificant, their humanity so inconsequential, that we do not know even how many of those packed into the White Lion’s hull came ashore, just that “some 20 and odd Negroes” disembarked and joined the British colonists in Virginia. But in his sweeping history Before the Mayflower, first published in 1962, scholar Lerone Bennett, Jr., said of the White Lion, “No one sensed how extraordinary she really was . . . [but] few ships, before or since, have unloaded a more momentous cargo.”
This “cargo,” this group of twenty to thirty Angolans, sold from the deck of the White Lion by criminal English marauders in exchange for food and supplies, was also foundational to the American story. But while every American child learns about the Mayflower, virtually no American child learns about the White Lion.
And yet the story of the White Lion is classically American. It is a harrowing tale—one filled with all the things that this country would rather not remember, a taint on a nation that believes above all else in its exceptionality.
The Adams and Eves of Black America did not arrive here in search of freedom or a better life. They had been captured and stolen, forced onto a ship, shackled, writhing in filth as they suffered and starved. Some 40 percent of the Angolans who boarded that ghastly vessel did not make it across the Middle Passage. They embarked not as people but as property, sold to white colonists who just were beginning to birth democracy for themselves, commencing a four-hundred-year struggle between the two opposing ideas foundational to America.
And so the White Lion has been relegated to what Bennett called the “back alley of American history.” There are no annual classroom commemorations of that moment in August 1619. No children dress up as its occupants or perform classroom skits. No holiday honors it. The White Lion and the people on that ship have been expunged from our collective memory. This omission is intentional: when we are creating a shared history, what we remember is just as revelatory as what we forget. If the Mayflower was the advent of American freedom, then the White Lion was the advent of American slavery. And so while arriving just a year apart, one ship and its people have been immortalized, the other completely erased.
W.E.B. Du Bois called such erasure the propaganda of history. “It is propaganda like this that has led men in the past to insist that history is ‘lies agreed upon’; and to point out the danger in such misinformation,” he wrote in his influential treatise Black Reconstruction (1935). Du Bois argued that America had falsified the fact of its history “because the nation was ashamed.” But he warned, “It is indeed extremely doubtful if any permanent benefit comes to the world through such action.”
Because what is clear is that while we can erase the memory of the White Lion, we cannot erase its impact. Together these two ships, the White Lion and the Mayflower, bridging the three continents that made America, would constitute this nation’s most quintessential and perplexing elements, underpinning the grave contradictions that we have failed to overcome.
These elemental contradictions led founder Thomas Jefferson, some 150 years later, to draft the majestic words declaring the inalienable and universal rights of men for a new country that would hold one-fifth of its population—the literal and figurative descendants of the White Lion—in absolute bondage. They would lead Frederick Douglass—one of the founders of American democracy—to issue in 1852 these fiery words commemorating an American Revolution that liberated white people while ensuring another century of subjugation for Black people:
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom.
What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN SLAVERY. I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the slave’s point of view. Standing there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
The contradictions between these two founding arrivals—the Mayflower and the White Lion—would lead to the deadliest war in American history, fought over how much of our nation would be enslaved and how much would be free. They would lead us to spend a century seeking to expand democracy abroad, beckoning other lands to “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” while violently suppressing democracy at home for the descendants of those involuntary immigrants who arrived on ships like the White Lion. They would lead to the elections—back-to-back—of the first Black president and then of a white nationalist one.
The erasure of August 1619 has served as part of a centuries-long effort to hide the crime. But it has also, as Du Bois explained in The Souls of Black Folk, robbed Black Americans of our lineage.
Your country? How came it yours? Before the Pilgrims landed we were here. . . . Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to despise not Justice, Mercy, and Truth, lest the nation be smitten with a curse. Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood. Are not these gifts worth the giving? Is not this work and striving?
Would America have been America without her Negro people?
We cannot fathom it. Black Americans, by definition, are an amalgamated people. Our bodies form the genetic code—we are African, Native, and European—that made America and Americans. We are the living manifestation of the physical, cultural, and ideological merger of the peoples who landed on those ships but a year apart, and of those people who were already here at arrival. Despite the way we have been taught these histories, these stories do not march side by side or in parallel but are inherently intertwined, inseparable. The time for subordinating one of these histories to another has long passed. We must remember the White Lion along with the Mayflower, and the Powhatan along with the English at Jamestown. As Du Bois implores, “Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?”
The true story of America begins here, in 1619. This is our story. We must not flinch.
Product details
- Publisher : One World; First Edition (February 2, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 528 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0593134044
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593134047
- Item Weight : 1.8 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.44 x 1.66 x 9.54 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #133,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #296 in Black & African American History (Books)
- #564 in Black & African American Biographies
- #1,277 in Sociology Reference
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of many highly acclaimed books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award. He has also authored five #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.
Keisha N. Blain is professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University. She is a columnist for MSNBC, a Guggenheim Fellow, and author, most recently, of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free. Follow her on Twitter @KeishaBlain and on Instagram @KeishaNBlain.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book easy to read and informative. They appreciate the well-written, concise content that provides a view of American history. Readers find the stories captivating and cross-cutting. The diverse voices and styles are appreciated. The book includes poems at the end of each section.
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Customers find the book engaging and a must-read. They appreciate the variety of perspectives and quality writing.
"...of the most well-written, well-edited books I've ever read, THIS is a fabulous and necessary book for THIS moment, when we have the opportunity to..." Read more
"This book is a great chronological history of African Americans from 1619-2019...." Read more
"...Again, this is a must read for everyone with a soul, a heart and a conscience. Highly recommend this book." Read more
"...photographs, and other visual aids, making it a rich and engaging read...." Read more
Customers find the book provides an accurate portrayal of African-American history. They appreciate the stories and poems about the fight for freedom from the first 20 negroes delivered to the present day. The book provides a wide range of historical facts about slavery and the current status of the black American experience. It centers voices from American history that have not been heard often enough. However, some essays provide old information and there are topics, events, and people that are important to US history that are not mentioned. Overall, it provides quality insights into the African American caste.
"...compendium slowly--as each varied voice deepened, widened and broke my heart open...." Read more
"This book is a great chronological history of African Americans from 1619-2019...." Read more
"...and enlightening book that provides a comprehensive and nuanced look at the history of African Americans...." Read more
"...This book for me is a personal motivator and provides, as it were, stories. A principle os sales is facts tell, stories sell." Read more
Customers find the book's content enlightening and informative. They appreciate the different perspectives and consider it an essential read for understanding the country's history. The book provides a good refresher of major events and figures from 1619 to the present day. Overall, readers describe the book as an eye-opening experience that helps them understand what still needs to be done.
"...This collection will remain on my top shelf as a visible, invaluable re-Source of amazing human voices so shamefully invisibilized and undervalued..." Read more
"This is a candid & moving collection of stories regarding the darkest side of our nation's evolution Beautifully written chapters by individual..." Read more
"...Overall, "Four Hundred Souls" is a powerful and enlightening book that provides a comprehensive and nuanced look at the history of African Americans...." Read more
"If you'd like to more about history this is a treasure of knowledge. Great book." Read more
Customers appreciate the writing style. They find it well-written, concise, and informative. The chapters are written by individual authors, making the book easy to understand. Readers also mention that the book is well-edited and put together.
"Besides being one of the most well-written, well-edited books I've ever read, THIS is a fabulous and necessary book for THIS moment, when we have..." Read more
"...the darkest side of our nation's evolution Beautifully written chapters by individual black authors reveal the seemingly impossible journey of..." Read more
"...rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, the book is very informative and well-written but in some parts, it could be a bit dense to read for the general..." Read more
"...The book gives a good look at the existence of black people in America...." Read more
Customers find the storytelling engaging and informative. They appreciate the variety of stories, providing depth and breadth beyond what is usual. The book chronicles 400 years of Black history in the US with short chapters and a number of contributing writers.
"This is a candid & moving collection of stories regarding the darkest side of our nation's evolution Beautifully written chapters by individual..." Read more
"Very short chapters that touch on the place of Africans in this country...." Read more
"...The chapters are short but incredibly engaging. There are topics, events, and people that are so important to US History that aren't even mentioned..." Read more
"...Each essay has its unique voice and style, the stories are captivating and telling, and the poetry every 40 years ties the time period together..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's diverse voices. They find the stories engaging, with different styles and authors. The audiobook includes many voices from the media, painting a picture of American history. Readers enjoy reading the short stories out loud.
"...remain on my top shelf as a visible, invaluable re-Source of amazing human voices so shamefully invisibilized and undervalued for these past 400..." Read more
"...of the book is its use of primary sources, including letters, speeches, and other documents, which help to bring history to life and provide a sense..." Read more
"...The audio includes many authors and some voices you'll recognize from the media and entertainment. I absolutely loved this book...." Read more
"...They are chronological, starting around 1600, and different voices, stories and perspectives are presented...." Read more
Customers appreciate the diverse poems at the end of each part. They find the book contains not only stories and poems but quality insights into African life. There are 80 authors and 10 poets, and the poems are perfectly placed. The book includes references to U.S. laws, diaries, and anecdotal stories.
"...This book that contains not only stories and poems but quality insights into the African American caste...." Read more
"...There are 80 authors and 10 poets and the two amazing editors Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Dr. Keisha Blaine...." Read more
"...I appreciate the diverse poems at the end of each part. I also was glad to see bios on each contributor/writer." Read more
"...Not just essays - the book includes poems and stories that really helped me understand how people experiencing historical events must have felt...." Read more
Customers find the book powerful, enlightening, and an essential read.
"...Overall, "Four Hundred Souls" is a powerful and enlightening book that provides a comprehensive and nuanced look at the history of African Americans...." Read more
"A tour de force! What can I say, that hasn’t already been said? Buy it! Read it! Learn from it! Share with others! Be inspired!..." Read more
"This collection of essays and poetry penned by 90 writers is powerful, engaging, educational, heartwarming and heartbreaking...." Read more
"...However, what I have read is compelling and powerful and quite informative...." Read more
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excellent book
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2022Besides being one of the most well-written, well-edited books I've ever read, THIS is a fabulous and necessary book for THIS moment, when we have the opportunity to begin to make amends for all the harm we caused this past 400 years to far more than 400 souls. Succinct, powerful prose/poetry punctuates historical experiences, weaving it so meaningfully and poignantly into TODAY. I savored every section of this community compendium slowly--as each varied voice deepened, widened and broke my heart open. 400 Souls is a brilliant offering to fill in the missing gaps of American history. This collection will remain on my top shelf as a visible, invaluable re-Source of amazing human voices so shamefully invisibilized and undervalued for these past 400 years. Bravo, Ibram! Brava, Keisha!
- Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2024This book is a great chronological history of African Americans from 1619-2019. I thoroughly enjoyed what each and every author added in their perspectives, their stance, and the facts wherein our children need to know our history. I was pleasantly surprised to have read what my former professor, Barbara Smith, added in how the feminist movement that she was apart began in Boston. This is a must read, kudos to Kendi and Blain!!!
- Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2022This is a candid & moving collection of stories regarding the darkest side of our nation's evolution Beautifully written chapters by individual black authors reveal the seemingly impossible journey of Black men, women and children living and somehow surviving in the saga of this country. The chapters are fascinating, and although covering only several years at a time, introduce well-known and unknown "heroes" to us readers with objectivity, empathy, and authenticity. In a perfect world, this book would be in every school districts's curriculum. Although in a perfect world, the stories and events would never have occurred. Again, this is a must read for everyone with a soul, a heart and a conscience. Highly recommend this book.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2021This is A MUST READ for those who embrace white supremacy, fascism, bigotry and lift up racism in America. Many will continue to try to erase an entire race of people, that were actually here first ('personally' two sets of my lineage). The history that is taught in schools of this country's beginning should be called the fiction books versus history books. White nationalism verbiage of go back to where you came from speaks volumes: refusing the truth about kidnappings and theft of a country is high level ignorance. I compare it to a parent kicking a child out after giving birth to them; we're here because you bought and brought us here. It's curious how someone can discover a place where people already existed: denied knowledge is what I call that. I am not surprised by the strength of Black Americans who continue to accomplish many things over so many obstacles for so long. There are times I catch myself daydreaming; imagine the accomplishments which could have been realized in America's history if there was no foot on our neck or shots to the back. If we could just get them to move on from ideals of turning back the clock to the days of 'Strange Fruit', there could be hope. Understandably this is just fear of us, because given every opportunity for success due to skin color, they see non-whites jump obstacles thrown by them, the privileged and, 'We Still Rise!!' That fearfulness to accept, it's not our skin color, but the breadth of strength of a race that won't say quit. And, we will never be the enemy you are to us, to you, because we've already taken your best shot and look at what we continue to do. Once again we have risen to the top to carry this nation forward for all Americans. We will continue to try and create an America for the people by the people, because frankly that is not what white nationalism have in mind.
Speaking for me, I feel sorry for them, because they should be comfortable in their own skin, I am. I have no need to tear someone down because of skin color or nationality to raise myself up. I will always show humanity to mankind, since we're all created equal in the eyes of God, right?
And that is what this book summarizes in short chapters and poems - Other in America - you can tear us down, but you will never really destroy our resolve
- Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2023"Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019" is an important and thought-provoking book that provides an in-depth look at the history of African Americans over four centuries. Written by a team of experts and edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, the book is divided into 90 chapters, each written by a different author and covering a specific period or topic.
One of the strengths of the book is its focus on community and how African Americans have come together to survive and thrive in the face of adversity. The book covers a wide range of topics, including slavery, the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement, and provides a nuanced and nuanced understanding of the challenges and triumphs of African American history.
Another strength of the book is its use of primary sources, including letters, speeches, and other documents, which help to bring history to life and provide a sense of immediacy and intimacy. The book also includes illustrations, photographs, and other visual aids, making it a rich and engaging read.
Overall, "Four Hundred Souls" is a powerful and enlightening book that provides a comprehensive and nuanced look at the history of African Americans. It is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities and richness of African American history and culture.
I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, the book is very informative and well-written but in some parts, it could be a bit dense to read for the general audience.
Top reviews from other countries
- M CReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading.
Essential reading. Brilliantly compiled, giving a new look at the history.