Four Hundred Souls
![]() First edition cover | |
Editors | Ibram X. Kendi Keisha N. Blain |
---|---|
Cover artist | Bayo Iribhogbe (art) Michael Morris (design) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | African-American history |
Publisher | One World |
Publication date | February 2, 2021 |
Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook |
Pages | 504 |
ISBN | 978-0-593-13404-7 (First edition hardcover) |
OCLC | 1184240347 |
973/.0496073 | |
LC Class | E185 .F625 2021 |
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 is a 2021 anthology edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. The book concerns African-American history and collects works written by ninety Black writers.
Summary[]
Four Hundred Souls features essays, biographical sketches, and poems by ninety Black writers. It chronologically spans the 400-year length of African-American history, beginning in 1619 with the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia and ending in 2019.[1] The book is divided into ten sections, each of which examine a period of 40 years. Each section concludes with a poem.[2] There are eighty essays featured in the book, each of which chronicle a five-year period.[3]
Following an introduction by Ibram X. Kendi,[4] the anthology begins with an essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who developed The New York Times' 1619 Project. The book's concluding essay is written by Alicia Garza, who co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement.[2]
Contents[]
Period | Writer | Title | |
---|---|---|---|
Introduction | Ibram X. Kendi | "A Community of Souls" | |
Part One | 1619–1624 | Nikole Hannah-Jones | "Arrival" |
1624–1629 | Molefi Kete Asante | "Africa" | |
1629–1634 | Ijeoma Oluo | "Whipped for Lying with a Black Woman" | |
1634–1639 | DaMaris B. Hill | "Tobacco" | |
1639–1644 | Brenda E. Stevenson | "Black Women's Labor" | |
1644–1649 | Maurice Carlos Ruffin | "Anthony Johnson, Colony of Virginia" | |
1649–1654 | Heather Andrea Williams | "The Black Family" | |
1654–1659 | Nakia D. Parker | "Unfree Labor" | |
Poem | Jericho Brown | "Upon Arrival" | |
Part Two | 1659–1664 | Jennifer L. Morgan | "Elizabeth Keye" |
1664–1669 | Jemar Tisby | "The Virginia Law on Baptism" | |
1669–1674 | David A. Love | "The Royal African Company" | |
1674–1679 | Heather C. McGhee | "Bacon's Rebellion" | |
1679–1684 | Kellie Carter Jackson | "The Virginia Law That Forbade Bearing Arms; or the Virginia Law That Forbade Armed Self-Defense" | |
1684–1689 | Laurence Ralph | "The Code Noir" | |
1689–1694 | Christopher J. Lebron | "The Germantown Petition Against Slavery" | |
1694–1699 | Mary E. Hicks | "The Middle Passage" | |
Poem | Phillip B. Williams | "Mama, Where You Keep Your Gun?" | |
Part Three | 1699–1704 | Brandon R. Byrd | "The Selling of Joseph" |
1704–1709 | Kai Wright | "The Virginia Slave Codes" | |
1709–1714 | Herb Boyd | "The Revolt in New York" | |
1714–1719 | Sasha Turner | "The Slave Market" | |
1719–1724 | Sylviane A. Diouf | "Maroons and Marronage" | |
1724–1729 | Corey D. B. Walker | "The Spirituals" | |
1729–1734 | Walter C. Rucker | "African Identities" | |
1734–1739 | Brentin Mock | "From Fort Mose to Soul City" | |
Poem | Morgan Parker | "Before Revolution" | |
Part Four | 1739–1744 | Wesley Lowery | "The Stono Rebellion" |
1744–1749 | Nafissa Thompson-Spires | "Lucy Terry Prince" | |
1749–1754 | Dorothy E. Roberts | "Race and the Enlightenment" | |
1754–1759 | Kyle T. Mays | "Blackness and Indigeneity" | |
1759–1764 | Tiya Miles | "One Black Boy: The Great Lakes and the Midwest" | |
1764–1769 | Alexis Pauline Gumbs | "Phillis Wheatley" | |
1769–1774 | William J. Barber II | "David George" | |
1774–1779 | Martha S. Jones | "The American Revolution" | |
Poem | Justin Phillip Reed | "Not Without Some Instances of Uncommon Cruelty" | |
Part Five | 1779–1784 | Daina Ramey Berry | "Savannah, Georgia" |
1784–1789 | Donna Brazile | "The U.S. Constitution" | |
1789–1794 | Annette Gordon-Reed | "Sally Hemings" | |
1794–1799 | Deirdre Cooper Owens | "The Fugitive Slave Act" | |
1799–1804 | Craig Steven Wilder | "Higher Education" | |
1804–1809 | Kiese Laymon | "Cotton" | |
1809–1814 | Clint Smith | "The Louisiana Rebellion" | |
1814–1819 | Raquel Willis | "Queer Sexuality" | |
Poem | Ishmael Reed | "Remembering the Albany 3" | |
Part Six | 1819–1824 | Robert Jones, Jr. | "Denmark Vesey" |
1824–1829 | Pamela Newkirk | "Freedom's Journal" | |
1829–1834 | Kathryn Sophia Belle | "Maria Stewart" | |
1834–1839 | Eugene Scott | "The National Negro Conventions" | |
1839–1844 | Allyson Hobbs | "Racial Passing" | |
1844–1849 | Harriet A. Washington | "James McCune Smith, M.D." | |
1849–1854 | Mitchell S. Jackson | "Oregon" | |
1854–1859 | john a. powell | "Dred Scott" | |
Poem | Donika Kelly | "Compromise" | |
Part Seven | 1859–1864 | Adam Serwer | "Frederick Douglass" |
1864–1869 | Jamelle Bouie | "The Civil War" | |
1869–1874 | Michael Harriot | "Reconstruction" | |
1874–1879 | Tera W. Hunter | "Atlanta" | |
1879–1884 | William A. Darity, Jr. | "John Wayne Niles" | |
1884–1889 | Kali Nicole Gross | "Philadelphia" | |
1889–1894 | Crystal N. Feimster | "Lynching" | |
1894–1899 | Blair L. M. Kelley | "Plessy v. Ferguson" | |
Poem | Mahogany L. Browne | "John Wayne Niles ... .--. . .- -.- ... / - --- Ermias Joseph Asghedom" | |
Part Eight | 1899–1904 | Derrick Alridge | "Booker T. Washington" |
1904–1909 | Howard Bryant | "Jack Johnson" | |
1909–1914 | Beverly Guy-Sheftall | "The Black Public Intellectual" | |
1914–1919 | Isabel Wilkerson | "The Great Migration" | |
1919–1924 | Michelle Duster | "Red Summer" | |
1924–1929 | Farah Jasmine Griffin | "The Harlem Renaissance" | |
1929–1934 | Robin D. G. Kelley | "The Great Depression" | |
1934–1939 | Bernice L. McFadden | "Zora Neale Hurston" | |
Poem | Patricia Smith | "Coiled and Unleashed" | |
Part Nine | 1939–1944 | Chad Williams | "The Black Soldier" |
1944–1949 | Russell Rickford | "The Black Left" | |
1949–1954 | Sherrilyn Ifill | "The Road to Brown v. Board of Education" | |
1954–1959 | Imani Perry | "Black Arts" | |
1959–1964 | Charles E. Cobb, Jr. | "The Civil Rights Movement" | |
1964–1969 | Peniel Joseph | "Black Power" | |
1969–1974 | Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor | "Property" | |
1974–1979 | Barbara Smith | "Combahee River Collective" | |
Poem | Chet'la Sebree | "And the Record Repeats" | |
Part Ten | 1979–1984 | James Forman, Jr. | "The War on Drugs" |
1984–1989 | Bakari Kitwana | "The Hip-Hop Generation" | |
1989–1994 | Salamishah Tillet | "Anita Hill" | |
1994–1999 | Angela Y. Davis | "The Crime Bill" | |
1999–2004 | Esther Armah | "The Black Immigrant" | |
2004–2009 | Deborah Douglas | "Hurricane Katrina" | |
2009–2014 | Karine Jean-Pierre | "The Shelby Ruling" | |
2014–2019 | Alicia Garza | "Black Lives Matter" | |
Poem | Joshua Bennett | "American Abecedarian" | |
Conclusion | Keisha N. Blain | "Our Ancestors' Wildest Dreams" |
Reception[]
The book debuted at number two on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending February 6, 2021.[5]
Publishers Weekly wrote "this energetic collection stands apart from standard anthologies of African American history."[1] In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called it an "impeccable, epic, essential vision of American history as a whole and a testament to the resilience of Black people." Kirkus singled out the essays of Raquel Willis, Robert Jones Jr., Barbara Smith, and Esther Armah as the "standouts" in the book.[2]
The book was shortlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.[6]
References[]
- ^ a b "Nonfiction Book Review: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 by Edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. One World, $32 (512p) ISBN 978-0-593-13404-7". Publishers Weekly. December 14, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi ; Keisha N. Blain". Kirkus Reviews. December 29, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ Mosley, Tonya; McMahon, Serena (February 18, 2021). "In 'Four Hundred Souls,' 90 Writers Tell Their Stories Of 4 Centuries Of African America". WBUR.org. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ Dwyer, Dialynn (February 2, 2021). "Ibram X. Kendi's new book brings together a 'choir' of writers to tell the history of African America. Here's what he wants you to know". www.boston.com. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction - Best Sellers - Books - Feb. 21, 2021". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- ^ "2022 Winners". American Library Association. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
- 2021 anthologies
- 2021 non-fiction books
- 2021 poetry books
- African-American literature
- Essay anthologies
- Poetry anthologies
- Non-fiction books about American slavery
- Books about race and ethnicity
- American anthologies
- One World (imprint) books
- African American stubs
- Race and ethnicity book stubs