In this fourth week of Women's History Month, we are looking at books focusing on material culture that will help you better understand her life.
Title: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Author: Tiya Miles
Publisher: Random House
Synopsis: "In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival. 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 bag in spare yet haunting language—including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.” Ruth’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving book inspired by Rose’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States." (publisher's website)
Why You Need This Book: Often with genealogy, we trace the lineage but don't consider the heirlooms involved. I like how the author takes a physical object and then uses archival records to trace the lives of this family of women. She delves into historical records and topics (including food history). Great example of how to tell HER story.
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