Miles, Tiya
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Random House (New York)
2021
OUR SYNOPSIS: Tiya Miles tells the story of a sack that became a Black family’s keepsake, created by enslaved mother Rose in South Carolina, given to her daughter Ashley when she was sold away, and passed down through generations. Limited in ways to express her motherly affection by enslavement, Rose expressed her love for her daughter through this object, which then carried this love intergenerationally. Miles argues, “A quiet assertion of the right to life, liberty, and beauty even for those at the bottom, the sack stands in eloquent defense of the country’s ideals by indicting its failures.” (6) Tracing its history, she shows that “Every turn in the sack’s use—from its packing in the 1850s, to its tending across the dawn of a century, to its embroidering in the 1920s—reveals a family endowment that stands as an alternative to the callous capitalism bred in slavery.” (7)
BIG QUESTIONS:
How can material culture analysis aid in telling and amplifying the stories of historically marginalized people? What are some best practices for doing this sort of work?
FEATURE QUOTES:
“Our journey with Black women’s things in this book runs in a threaded loop, from Ruth’s time, to Rose’s era, Ashley’s moment, and back again. The past stays with us, wrapped inside our storied quilts, packed into our cotton bags, and written upon our memories. Past is present passed on.” (19)
“Who was Rose? We know at least this: Rose refused to submit to the lie that said she had no right to love her daughter. Instead, she claimed her child, sought to shield Ashley, and provided a priceless inheritance, which she folded into a sack. Rose’s radical stance, obfuscated in the archives, reveals to us the potential force of human will against the odds.” (90)
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