All That She Carried

The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

By: Tiya Miles

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a “deeply layered and insightful” (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out of the archives.
 
WINNER: Frederick Douglass Book Prize, Harriet Tubman Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, Lawrence W. Levine Award, Darlene Clark Hine Award, Cundill History Prize, Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, Massachusetts Book Award

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Slate, Vulture, Publishers Weekly

“A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
 
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 for her with a few items, and, 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. 
 
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, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.
 
FINALIST: MAAH Stone Book Award, Kirkus Prize, Mark Lynton History Prize, Chatauqua Prize, Women’s Prize

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, NPR, Time, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Smithsonian Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, Book Riot, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist

Excellent Discussion

This is a well researched, intricately crafted story of the way material culture sheds light on a people’s history.

Beautifully written

One of the most beautifully written books I’ve listened to (& now read) all year. This was such a clever idea for a book and the sack at it’s heart provide the perfect framework to illustrate the horror unfree people experience and their resilience. This is such a well told story.

a wonderful book

a well-written, well-researched, well-read book that made me cry at the many tragedies and marvel at the persistence and resilience described.

Bringing a horrible history home to the heart

It is uncomfortable to hear and read as white person but necessary. As a woman it enlightens a female history so often ignored.

A must read/listen

I am a quilter (and a white woman), and learned a lot by reading this book. I heard Tiya speak in a recent webcast from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston about the Harriet Powers quilts with Bisa Butler. I wasn’t familiar with Tiya already, but loved her insights about the quilts. I flew through this book, reading it in less than a week. I’d also previously read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass, which was referenced a couple times, which I also deeply appreciated.

I hope you enjoy & learn from both books too. I’m very grateful to’ve read them.
-Heidi Parkes