November Book of the Month Review - All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

Reviewed and selected by Corinne Gregson, Visitor and Museum Services Coordinator

In All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, author Tiya Miles traces the story of three women, two of whom were enslaved, through a cotton sack. This sack, titled Ashley’s Sack, was a machine-made cotton sack given by Rose, an enslaved woman in Charleston, South Carolina, to her daughter Ashley as she was sold and separated from her mother. Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth Middleton later embroidered the sack’s, and her family’s, history onto the sack in 1921. 

Miles traces the story of Ashley’s Sack backwards from its sale for $20 USD at a flea market in Nashville, Tennessee in the early 2000s and its subsequent purchase by the Middleton Place Foundation, to Ashley’s and Rose’s lives in South Carolina, to Ruth’s life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

"My great grandmother Rose mother of Ashley gave her this sack when she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina it held a tattered dress 3 handfuls of pecans a braid of Roses hair. Told her It be filled with my Love always she never saw her again Ashley is my grandmother Ruth Middleton 1921"

At the time of Miles’ writing, Ashley’s Sack was on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; it is now on display at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, on loan from the Middleton Place Foundation.

Miles’ historical examination, while dense with facts and research, beautifully tells the story of Rose, Ashley, and Ruth, and their lives through generations of both slavery and freedom. Miles’ extensive research provides historic context to interweave the horrific violence and trauma experienced by enslaved individuals, particularly women, with emotional personal narratives and material culture examination. While Ashley’s Sack is a powerful artifact without Miles’ analysis, Miles’ work skillfully and eloquently demonstrates how Ashley’s Sack serves as material evidence of how Black women preserved their history and memory despite overwhelmingly difficult circumstances. 

While an emotionally difficult read, Miles’ work is critical and compelling for its insights into Black womanhood in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As a foundation of historians, we recommend this book for those looking to gain perspective on the institution of slavery in the United States and how it impacted women and mothers in particular.