A review by jessica503
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

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.