The Price For Their Pound Of Flesh The Value Of The Enslave, De Berry, Daina Ramey. Editorial Beacon Press, Tapa Blanda En Inglés, 2017

Descripción

The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, by Daina Ramey Berry, is a groundbreaking examination of the commodification of enslaved individuals through every stage of their lives, from birth to death and beyond, in early America. This work is the first to assess the economic value of enslaved people throughout their entire 'life cycle.' Historian Daina Ramey Berry delves into the lengths enslavers would go to maximize their profits and protect their investments, shedding light on the 'ghost values' or the prices placed on deceased enslaved people and exploring the domestic cadaver trade and the illicit sales of dead bodies to medical schools.

Over a decade of exhaustive research underpins Berry's book, drawing on data from slave-trading records, insurance policies, cemetery records, and life insurance policies. With sensitivity and depth, Berry resurrects the voices of the enslaved, providing a rare window into their experiences and thoughts, and revealing how they recalled and responded to being appraised, bartered, and sold throughout their lives. Their stories compel readers to bear witness to their hnot merely is string_containing humanityeir status as commodities.

A profoundly humane look at an inhumane institution, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh will profoundly impact the way we think about slavery, reparations, capitalism, nineteenth-century medical education, and the value of life and death. The book has received several accolades, including the 2018 Hamilton Book Award, the 2018 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Book Prize, the 2018 Phillis Wheatley Literary Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 Frederick Douglass Book Prize.

Publishers Weekly's starred review recognizes Berry's work as a significant contribution to the historiography of American slavery. Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal praise the book for its well-researched and effectively presented scholarship. Essence Magazine acknowledges Berry as a breakthrough writer who has filled in the blanks of one of the darkest episodes in American history. The book also receives attention from scholars like Adam Rothman, who highlights the gruesome history of the desecration and dissection of black bodies after death.

Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns, commends Berry for her rigorous research and powerful storytelling, noting that the book restores unrecognized Americans to their rightful place in history and is vital to understanding the nation's inequities.