A review by jaclyn_youngblood
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

5.0

Berry puts forth a truly impressive, easy to read (though not easy to sit with), no-holds-barred account of the value that enslavers placed on, and reaped from, the Black bodies they enslaved—before, during, and yes, after, their lives. The correlation with the founding of the USDA in 1860 was disturbing. The Southern Mutual Life Insurance paying on policies enslavers had taken out, coupled with the state paying reparations **to enslavers** for lost property or value during various slave uprisings was also very indicative of the intertwining of capitalism and racism in this country. Also a really good reminder to all the folks scratching their heads about reparations to **formerly enslaved folks**, we have plenty of precedent to look at for the state paying then-considerable sums, we just did it in the wrong direction.