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

Content Warning: This section discusses the system of race-based slavery in the United States, the commodification of enslaved people, execution, sexual assault, rape, and trafficking in human corpses.

Daina Ramey Berry is an American historian who focuses on American slavery and the history of enslaved people, with an emphasis on gender. She is also interested in Black women’s history. She received her bachelor of arts, master of arts, and PhD in African American studies and American history from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Berry is both a scholar and a consultant. She served as historical consultant for the remake of Alex Haley’s Roots and also consults for various projects hosted by museums, historical societies, podcasts, public television, and secondary-education initiatives. She has advised several museums and historical societies regarding restoration projects. Berry is co-producer for the series Making History Hers, which explores women’s contributions to American history. She is currently revising an eighth-grade US history textbook and has advised teachers on the history of American slavery.

The Price for Their Pound of Flesh (Beacon, 2017) received the Phyllis Wheatley Award for Scholarly Research from the Sons and Daughters of the Middle Passage and the Best Book Prize from the Society for the History of the Early American Republic.