In the heart of New Orleans, where the echoes of history resonate through every street, poet and author Clint Smith embarked on a profound journey to uncover the distorted narratives of America’s slavery legacy. Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a Ph.D. in education from Harvard, grew up in a city where the iconography of the Confederacy was an ever-present fixture of his daily life. His nonfiction book, How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History Of Slavery Across America won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction and reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.
The removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from its 60-foot pedestal in 2017 sparked Smith’s obsession with how slavery is remembered and reckoned with. His book explores eight significant places to better understand the distortions in the way the history of slavery was taught to him and to most children. Smith’s work is a poignant reckoning with the ways many Americans deceive themselves about that history.
Growing Up in the Shadow of the Confederacy
Smith’s childhood in New Orleans was marked by the omnipresent symbols of the Confederacy. Every day on the way to school, he passed a statue of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general whose legacy was deeply intertwined with the institution of slavery. As a child, Smith did not know the full extent of Beauregard’s role in the Civil War or his contributions to the Confederate cause. The statues and streets named after Confederate figures were merely part of the landscape, their true significance obscured by the passage of time and the narratives that shaped public memory.
The sons and daughters of the Confederacy reshaped the contours of treason into something they could name as honorable. They called it the Lost Cause, a narrative that attempted to cover up the crimes of slavery. Smith was taught that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery but about economics and states’ rights. However, he was never taught the full truth about the declarations of Confederate secession, the value of enslaved Black people, or the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act. The distortions in the history he was taught left him with a sense of psychological and emotional paralysis, knowing that the messages he received about his community were wrong but lacking the language to push back against them.
The Evolution of Historical Narratives at Monticello
Smith’s journey took him to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, where the narrative of history is evolving. Monticello has begun to center the lives of the enslaved people who lived there, recognizing that the story of the plantation is much larger than Jefferson himself. The Hemings family, including Sally Hemings, played a central role in the operation of Monticello. Sally Hemings, who was enslaved on the plantation, had a complex relationship with Jefferson that Monticello now acknowledges as part of its history.
The Slavery at Monticello Tour offers visitors a direct and impactful look at Jefferson’s role as a slave owner. Tour guides like David Thorson talk about slavery and Jefferson’s relationship to it in ways that are more direct than any teacher Smith had ever had. Visitors often arrive at Monticello with no conception of Jefferson as someone who owned enslaved people. The tour serves as an entry point to understanding the way Black women throughout the history of slavery were treated and the ways their bodies were not their own.
Reconciling the Contradictions of American History
Jefferson, as a historical figure, embodies the dissonance and contradictions of America. He is the man who wrote one of the most important documents in the history of the Western world, the Declaration of Independence, and is also someone who enslaved over 600 people over the course of his lifetime. Smith’s work seeks to hold both of these truths at once, recognizing the totality and complexity of this country’s history.
Smith’s journey through America’s slavery legacy is a poignant reckoning with the distortions in the way history is taught and remembered. His work serves as a catalyst for a broader conversation about the ways we tell stories about our past and the implications of those narratives for the present and future.
