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: PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lawrence W. Levine Award, Darlene Clark Hine 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: Kirkus Prize, Mark Lynton History 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

©2021 Tiya Miles (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[A] powerful history of women and slavery.”—The New Yorker

“Through [Miles’s] interpretation, the humble things in the sack take on ever-greater meaning, its very survival seems magical, and Rose’s gift starts to feel momentous in scale.”—Rebecca Onion, Slate

“Tiya Miles uses the tools of her trade to tend to Black people, to Black mothers and daughters, to our wounds, to collective Black love and loss. This book demonstrates Miles’s signature genius in its rare balance of both rigor and care.”—Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

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.

Moving Creation: weaving threads and holes into history

Toys Miles weaves threads of facts with holes of lost or absent documents and information into full dimensions if history.

Unique form of story telling.

Truly outstanding work.

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.

Excellent Discussion

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

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

Long and detailed

This was very long, but interesting. Quite detailed. But, I enjoyed learning more about slavery.

Excellent!!

This was an excellently researched, beautifully written book about love, resilience, and the silences of historical archives. No surprise it’s won so many awards. Great book!!

Great historical read

I picked up this book thinking it would be a historical fiction. it is not. I thought I would be reading a novel. It's a documentary following the history of a sick and the slave women that have owned it throughout history. Even though it is about those women it is actually a great look into the history of slavery and didn't always focus on the sack itself. It brought the intricacies of surviving as a slave to light. I am glad that I gave this book a chance and purchased it on Audible even though I had the paperback. I feel this book was much better being read to me.

Excellent history

I really enjoyed the audiobook. It was very interesting, history of the Black slavery. Ashley's bag was so amazing.

Poignant history of how love is transferred amongst slaves

While not with compulsion and involvement of historical fiction, I was very involved, and moved by this historical account of how love was passed, expressed in unique ways amongst black slaves. Occasionally, my mind faded from the narratives, while reading, historical reference; but it was so well worth hearing, and experiencing the intensity, creativity, empathy and resourcefulness of women whose lives were so barren of of empathy and respect.