A Conversation with Historian Daina Ramey Berry About the Financial Value of Black People's Bodies During American Slavery

Daina Ramey Berry is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. She is an associate professor of history and African and African diaspora studies, and the George W. Littlefield Fellow in American History, at the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Berry is the author of the new book The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation.

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On this week's podcast Professor Berry and Chauncey discuss how the monetary value of black enslaved people in America was determined from the cradle to the grave, the selling of black people's bodies (both alive and dead) to medical schools, the barbaric practice known as "womb insurance", the saga of Nat Turner's skull, the many ways that black human property fought back and resisted their dehumanization by white society, and how chattel slavery ultimately built American empire. Professor Berry also shares what it was like to work as a historical consultant on the recent "Roots" TV series.

In this week's episode, Chauncey announces the launch of the official Patreon page for The Chauncey DeVega Show. 

Chauncey also ponders the musical stylings of the "raw dog" lothario Donald Trump and the new details about his affair with a Playboy bunny. Chauncey also explains how Cambridge Analytica helped to manipulate Trump's ignorant, gullible racist human deplorables by data mining and focus groups--and yes, by singling out the viewers of Duck Dynasty and The Walking Dead.

At the end of this week's podcast Chauncey shares a story about the African-American and white descendants of a white slave master who gathered together at his plantation to reflect on their "shared" "family" history.

This episode with Daina Ramey Berry can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.