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Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain (editors)
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Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain (editors)

Four Hundred Souls is about African American history, from 1619—when the White Lion, the first African slave ship, arrived in Virginia—to the present, but it’s also a really interesting book for anyone fed up with the standard historical narratives we learn in school. The book is a series of essays by historians and journalists, activists and poets. Altogether, it brings together 90 Black voices in 80 chronological chapters.

We spoke to Keisha N Blain, co-editor of the book, about Black women’s history.

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“This is a book of essays and poems, collected and edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. They asked writers to take a five-year period of history and write something about that period, so it could be anything, but it is chronological: it starts in 1619 and goes through to 2019 and contemporary history. There’s a lot of really interesting focus on specific events, on the laws that were passed, on tragic incidents. It’s about the focus a contemporary author brings to that period of history, in a way that we might not think about. There are 90 entries, so most of them are fairly short, less than 10 minutes each.” Read more...

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Robin Whitten, Journalist

The book, according to the author

Four Hundred Souls is a community history of Black America. We begin in 1619, when the first group of captive Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. We end the book in 2019 with the Black Lives Matter movement. We brought together 90 Black writers from different fields, including historians, philosophers, journalists, and even poets to reflect on that 400-year history. They draw connections between past and present, contextualizing the current moment.

 

One of my favorite pieces in the collection is written by philosopher Kathryn Sophia Bell. She covers the 1830s and highlights the life and activism of Maria Stewart, a Boston abolitionist who we identify as one of the first Black feminists to speak publicly before mixed audiences of both men and women. Stewart is just one example of the crucial role that Black women played in the abolitionist movement. In many ways, her story sets the stage for Black women’s political leadership that plays out for the next two hundred years.

African American Women’s History

Other books by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence edited by Chad Williams, Kidada E. Williams and Keisha N. Blain

Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence
edited by Chad Williams, Kidada E. Williams and Keisha N. Blain
New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition edited by Keisha N. Blain, Christopher Cameron and Ashley Farmer

New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition
edited by Keisha N. Blain, Christopher Cameron and Ashley Farmer
To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism edited by Keisha N. Blain and Tiffany Gill

To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism
edited by Keisha N. Blain and Tiffany Gill
Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom by Keisha N. Blain

Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom
by Keisha N. Blain

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