All That She Carried

January 1, 2021

MacArthur fellow Miles (The Dawn of Detroit) unpacks an entire, profoundly moving history from a simple cotton bag known as Ashley's Sack, displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 1850s North Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother gave her the sack, filled with mementos like a braid of hair; this story was embroidered on the bag decades later by Ashley's granddaughter.

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Starred review from March 22, 2021
MacArthur fellow Miles (The Dawn of Detroit) paints an evocative portrait of slavery and Black family life in this exquisitely crafted history. She frames her account around a cloth sack packed in 1852 by an enslaved woman named Rose for her nine-year-old daughter, Ashley, when the girl was sold to a new master in South Carolina. In 1921, Ashley’s granddaughter, Ruth Middleton, embroidered the sack with Rose and Ashley’s story, but it fell out of the family’s possession and wasn’t rediscovered until 2007. Miles pours through South Carolina plantation records to identify Rose and Ashley, and explores the physical and psychological lives of Black women via the original contents of the sack: a tattered dress, three handfuls of pecans, and a braid of Rose’s hair. For example, Rose’s hair sparks a discussion of how enslaved women with lighter skin tones and longer, smoother locks were targeted for sexual assault by white men and violently punished by white women. Filling gaps in the historical record with the documented experiences of Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Keckley, and other enslaved women, Miles brilliantly shows how material items possessed the “ability to house and communicate... emotions like love, values like family, states of being like freedom.” This elegant narrative is a treasure trove of insight and emotion.

Starred review from June 1, 2021

Miles (history, Harvard Univ.; The Dawn of Detroit) illuminates the lives of three generations of Black American women via a patched and embroidered cotton sack now displayed in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Rose, an enslaved woman in South Carolina, filled the sack with what provisions and keepsakes she could for her 9-year-old daughter Ashley, who was sold away from her in the 1850s. Years later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered a narrative of the family history on the sack. From these small clues, Miles delves into Black Americans' experience of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, and the Great Migration. With skillful writing, the author carefully explores South Carolina's history of economic dependence on slavery, and discusses the efforts of enslaved people to obtain sustenance and clothing and maintain family connections. Drawing on scant genealogical records and letters from people who were formerly enslaved, as well as research on ornamentation, Miles creates a moving account of three women whose stories might have otherwise been lost to history. VERDICT Readers interested in often-overlooked lives and experiences, and anyone who cherishes a handcrafted heirloom, will enjoy this fascinating book. With YA crossover appeal, the accessible, personal writing sets this book apart.--Laurie Unger Skinner, Highland Park P.L., IL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2021
A professor of history at Harvard chronicles the historical journey of an embroidered cotton sack, beginning with the enslaved woman who gave it to her 9-year-old daughter in the 1850s. In this brilliant and compassionate account, Miles uses "an artifact with a cat's nine lives" to tell "a quiet story of transformative love lived and told by ordinary African American women--Rose, Ashley, and Ruth--whose lives spanned the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, slavery and freedom, the South and the North." The sack, originally used for grain or seeds, was passed from Rose to her daughter Ashley in 1852, when Ashley was put on the auction block, and passed by Ashley to her granddaughter, Ruth Middleton. In the early 1920s, Ruth embroidered its history on it, including its contents: "a tattered dress 3 handfulls of pecans a braid of Roses hair," also "filled my Love always." The sack is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Like those of most enslaved people, the stories of Rose and Ashley are largely lost to history, but Miles carefully unravels the records and makes a credible case that they may have been the property of Robert Martin in coastal South Carolina. From there, the author moves outward to sensitively establish the context in which the two managed to survive, describing how South Carolina became "a place where the sale of a colored child was not only possible but probable." By the time Miles gets to Ruth, the historical record is more substantial. Married and pregnant at 16, Ruth moved from the South to Philadelphia around 1920 and eventually became "a regular figure in the Black society pages." With careful historical examination as well as empathetic imagination, Miles effectively demonstrates the dignity and mystery of lives that history often neglects and opens the door to the examination of many untold stories. A strikingly vivid account of the impact of connection on this family and others.

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Starred review from May 1, 2021
All That She Carried is the poignant tale of a family heirloom passed down through generations of Black women. Rose, an enslaved woman in 1850s South Carolina, gave her daughter, Ashley, a sack of some items on the eve of Ashley's sale to a different owner. Rose embroidered it with a message of love that endured. Years later, Ashley's great-granddaughter, Ruth Middleton, added her own words to the heirloom, continuing the chain of the family's history. This volume paints the fascinating history of Ashley's sack in a readable, episodic account that is largely free of stuffy, academic language that often goes with this territory. Award-winning scholar Miles (Tales from the Haunted South, 2015) presents a riveting account of how Ashley's sack was rediscovered and traces Ruth's journey through the Great Migration while exploring the family's lineage. Filled with rare, archival photographs of objects from the era, this volume is a natural choice for book clubs and a must-buy for public and academic libraries alike. The book will also appeal to fans of genealogy television shows such as Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.

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