Enslavers valued Black people based on how much labor could be sold for, or what price tag a human body could bring. But our enslaved ancestors had their own value: soul value.
Historian Daina Ramey Berry coined this term to focus on enslaved people’s inner strengths, lives, and emotions beyond capitalistic exploitation.
Many enslaved people endured torture because of their connections to their soul values. Though their bodies were beaten down, their souls were still alive. It also gave many the strength to resist. Connecting with prayer, music, nature, and imagination was vital.
Still, it wasn’t painless. Others didn’t survive, but believed their souls would experience full freedom in death.
But the best way to understand soul values is to read how enslaved people described them.
A teenage Elizabeth Keckley once wrote, “My spirit rebelled against the unjustness…inflicted upon me.” Frederick Douglass explained, “...spirit made me a freeman in fact, while I remained a slave in form.” There are endless examples, from the famously written to stories passed down through family trees.
Soul values are how our ancestors lived despite it all. The next time you experience struggle, from the personal to the systemic, ask: What is my soul value telling me?
After all, anti-Blackness may influence your conditions, but it cannot tell you who you are.