"Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader's guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother....

An outsider in her community for as long as she can remember, Ana, in 1860s Springfield, Illinois, finds employment as a Saturday girl and household help for Abraham and Mary Lincoln where she gets a front-row seat to historic societal changes that reshape Springfield and the entire country.

The Beatitudes form the backdrop for Weatherford's free-verse poem that traces the African American journey from slavery to civil rights.