The slave index valued Renty at 300 dollars as chattel property

Evidence

There were three columns of names, each followed by a number that I quickly surmised was their worth in dollars. On the right, my eyes were immediately drawn to the name Renty, written with a big loop on the R, proof that he existed. And next to it the number 300. I felt ill—the inhumanity of placing a value on a person’s life. What would that mean to put a dollar amount on my life? This was another example of Black people being reduced to chattel. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 357

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidence for the reader’s core interest — the docudrama of how institutions recorded enslaved cousins as priced property; connects to probate valuations in the same chapter.