Four Hundred Souls

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Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
Four Hundred Souls (Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain).png
First edition cover
EditorsIbram X. Kendi
Keisha N. Blain
Cover artistBayo Iribhogbe (art)
Michael Morris (design)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectAfrican-American history
PublisherOne World
Publication date
February 2, 2021
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages504
ISBN978-0-593-13404-7 (First edition hardcover)
OCLC1184240347
973/.0496073
LC ClassE185 .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[]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction - Best Sellers - Books - Feb. 21, 2021". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  6. ^ "2022 Winners". American Library Association. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
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