ISBN |
9781800818200 (hardback) |
Dewey |
306.362 |
Author |
Miles, Tiya, 1970- author. |
Title |
All that she carried : the journey of Ashley's sack, a Black family keepsake / Tiya Miles. |
Published |
London : Profile Books, 2023. |
Physical description |
xvii, 385 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour) ; 25 cm. |
Note |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary |
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. |
Subject |
Ashley,(Enslaved person in South Carolina) |
Middleton, Ruth Jones, -- 1903-1942 -- Family |
Women slaves -- South Carolina |
Women slaves -- Southern States -- Social conditions -- 19th century |
Slaves -- Southern States -- Family relationships -- History -- 19th century |
African American women -- Family relationships |
Enslaved women -- Southern States -- Social conditions -- 19th century |
Enslaved women -- South Carolina |
Enslaved persons -- Southern States -- Family relationships -- History -- 19th century |