All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

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LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER ~ NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ~ WINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

'An astonishing account of love, resilience and survival' Sunday Times
'A remarkable book' New York Times
'An extraordinary tale through the generations' Guardian

In 1850s South Carolina, Rose, an enslaved woman, faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few items. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language.

That, in itself, is a story. But it's not the whole story. How does one uncover the lives of people who, in their day, were considered property Harvard historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women's faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward. All That She Carried gives us history as it was lived, a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds.

Reviews

'All That She Carried stands as an astonishing account of love, resilience and survival, one that helps to plug that archival abyss' - Sunday Times

'All That She Carried finds a way to give voice to the wordless by using a mundane, domestic object - a cloth sack and its contents - to thread an extraordinary tale through the generations' - Guardian

'A remarkable book' - Jennifer Szalai

'Deeply layered and insightful ... [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance' - Washington Post

'Through [Miles's] interpretation, the humble things in the sack take on ever-greater meaning, its very survival seems magical, and Rose's gift starts to feel momentous in scale' - Rebecca Onion

Author Bio

Tiya Miles is professor of history and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Miles is also the author of the Frederick Douglass Prize-winning The Dawn of Detroit, among other acclaimed books.