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A review by caffinate
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
3.0
Extensively sourced and very eye opening. Its chapters chronicle the worth of the enslaved black body pre-birth to post-death, written through a series of accounts from the perspectives of slaves and their masters.
While the writing may be dry and scholarly, it's a recommended read for a broader understanding of slave life.
Accounts include:
- a slave woman's son is taken to auction while she works the field. She returns to find him missing, and her duplicitous owner claims he'll be sure to return soon.
- A slave saves money to buy his son at auction, but is outbid. After giving into grief, three men offer to assist him to make the winning bid.
- A slaveholder reminisces over the time a slave kept his feet warm during a period of extended illness. He makes a note in his will for this slave to be buried at his feet after death, like a sort of household pet.
- Rebel slaves would be defiled by mobs after death; some had their bodies and skins transformed into commodities like wallets, change purses, book covers, lampshades. Enslavers extracted wealth from the bodies – selling off ears, skulls, teeth.
- Slaves' bodies would be exhumed after death to be used as medical cadavers. Some were justified by their criminal history, others were graverobbed and sold within the black market.
While the writing may be dry and scholarly, it's a recommended read for a broader understanding of slave life.
Accounts include:
Spoiler
- a slave woman's son is taken to auction while she works the field. She returns to find him missing, and her duplicitous owner claims he'll be sure to return soon.
- A slave saves money to buy his son at auction, but is outbid. After giving into grief, three men offer to assist him to make the winning bid.
- A slaveholder reminisces over the time a slave kept his feet warm during a period of extended illness. He makes a note in his will for this slave to be buried at his feet after death, like a sort of household pet.
- Rebel slaves would be defiled by mobs after death; some had their bodies and skins transformed into commodities like wallets, change purses, book covers, lampshades. Enslavers extracted wealth from the bodies – selling off ears, skulls, teeth.
- Slaves' bodies would be exhumed after death to be used as medical cadavers. Some were justified by their criminal history, others were graverobbed and sold within the black market.