Structure

How the Word Is Passed is organized into 10 sections. A prologue and an epilogue bookend the text’s eight primary chapters. These chapters appear in the following order: “Monticello Plantation,” “The Whitney Plantation,” “Angola Prison,” “Blandford Cemetery,” “Galveston Island,” “New York City,” and “Gorée Island.” Each chapter is titled with the name of the place that Smith is traveling to, touring, and exploring. He introduces his reasons for organizing the text in this manner in the prologue, saying: “In How the Word Is Passed I travel to eight places in the United States as well as one abroad to understand how each reckons with its relationship to the history of American slavery” (7). Smith is therefore using each of these “plantations, prisons, cemeteries, museums, memorials, houses, historical landmarks, and cities” to provide gateways into his overarching thematic explorations (7). He explains that “Each chapter is a portrait of...