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. 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. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span.

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.įour Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. 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. 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 a gateway to the solo works of all the voices in Kendi and Blain’s impressive choir.”- The Washington Post “A vital addition to curriculum on race in America.magazine, BookPage, She Reads, BookRiot, Booklist NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post, Town & Country, Ms.Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. A chorus of extraordinary voices tells the epic story of the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present-edited by Ibram X.

Four hundred souls review