Reviews

The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation by Daina Ramey Berry

hopejrc's review

5.0

Although more of an academic read, this book packs a punch that will stay with me forever. I mean, we all hear how it's important to understand history so you can understand the present and this book is essential in that understanding. When looking at current movements like Black Lives Matter, the historical context of how Black bodies were exploited and used and how the majority of our institutions are what they are as a result of this exploitation is so critical. Because you have to understand how Black bodies HAVEN'T mattered and White bodies HAVE mattered to understand the need to bring awareness to how Black lives still suffer today from the generational legacy of enslavement. And saying this and learning this isn't saying White lives don't matter but it IS saying Black Lives Matter TOO.

blynecessity's review against another edition

This is a difficult book to rate, because I feel like there's a shocking amount of new information in this book (and ten YEARS of research) and it was laid out in a really interesting way (following the "life cycle" of enslaved bodies from preconception to postmordum rather than a chronological investigation of centuries of slavery). However, this was also a very academic read. I don't want to give this book a low rating just because I'm not as versed in economics or history as the target audience, but I also don't know anyone I'd recommend this book to.
I'll end with this: I'm glad I read this book, but I don't think I would read it again if I could go back to do over.

gingerrachelle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

e_marina's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. I'm still processing. The author did such a good job breaking this down. She gave us hard numbers and facts, while also giving voice to people that were victims of that most horrible institution. And she came with receipts! Her notes were so thorough.

jessica503's review

4.0

This was a hard, heavy book to read. In conversations regarding race in America, I've always been most impacted by the space Black bodies occupy. The physicality of being threatened, of having to protest, the unsafe way that so many Black bodies may feel in white spaces. This book approaches the foundation of that, and how and why Black bodies have been harmed, commodified, threatened, valued and devalued in America since 1619. Daina Ramey Berry takes a scholarly accounting of the value of Black bodies to whites, the literal monetary value, and it is a rough go. She approaches incredibly sensitive aspects, without once striking a salacious note. This book is rich with information and research, but fascinating and accessible in its presentation. It is, though, not one to be approached casually or without care. There were passages where I would read 5 pages, and simply set it down again. A lot of processing, reflection and, frankly, horrors exist on each page.

This felt to important to read, both in its applicable information that is evident today, but also for giving voice and living history to generations of enslaved persons, and so much that was taken from them without consent in life and death.

sbcrra's review

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

I hope my work is the first of many in which the enslaved voice is central to conversations about what happened to enslaved bodies.  (Pg. 212)

I'm an adult and I am only now learning about the centrality that black bodies played in the advancement of medicine and the understanding of the human anatomy in the US. This country was built on the backs of black people and its ridiculous that none of it is ever really exemplified in K-12 education. Black bodies were commodified from the womb to the grave and this book explains exactly how.

brucefarrar's review

5.0

This is a fascinating and disquieting account of the commodification of human life and human bodies. Although it would be naïve to expect a book about slavery to be anything but disquieting, Dr. Berry’s years of research into and study of the subject and her pairing of the voices of the enslaved juxtaposed with their assessed economic value and their, on average, higher sale price from gestation and into the grave and beyond made this privileged old white male reader quite squeamish—and deservedly so.

The economic value of the slave is given as a capital value, as a piece of farm machinery or an item of livestock would be assessed for property insurance. The arrangement of the book follows the life cycle of slaves from before birth, as the value of a “breeding Wench,” might be higher for a plantation owner wanting to expand his “stock,” and less for a slave owner wanting a domestic worker, where the enslaved woman’s child care duties would be an interruption of her household duties. This fluctuating valuation continues even after death when the mortal remain of the slave would be sold by the owner, or stolen by grave robbers for dissection, a growing trade in the 18th century and a well-established extralegal practice in the 19th. Berry coins the term “ghost value” for this postmortem trade for which medical colleges would pay up to $30 for a cadaver, or $881 in 2014 dollars. She uses another neologism for the value, or self-worth that the enslaved person put on him- or herself, their “soul value.” This was an unquantifiable value.

neverwithoutabook's review

5.0

I’m emotional drained. The book shook me to my core. 5/5 stars.


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