All That She Carried by Tiya Mile s is available as a \;print book\, a \;large print book\, a \;downloadable aud iobook\, and as an \;e-book \;in The Library's collection. Copies are also available at Warren's check-out desk during the month prior to th e discussion.
\n"Sitting in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Afr ican American History and Culture is a rough cotton bag\, called "Ashley's Sack\," embroidered with just a handful of words that evoke a sweeping fa mily story of loss and of love passed down through generations. In 1850s S outh Carolina\, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold\, her mother\, R ose\, gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love . Decades later\, Ashley's granddaughter\, Ruth\, embroidered this history on the bag--including Rose's message that "It be filled with my Love alwa ys." Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley. From Rose's last resourceful gift to her daughter\, Miles then follows the paths their lives and the lives of so many like them took to write a unique\, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States. The contents of the sack--a tattered dress\, handfuls o f pecans\, a braid of hair\, "my Love always"--speak volumes and open up a window on Rose and Ashley's world. As she follows Ashley's journey\, Mile s metaphorically "unpacks" the sack\, deepening its emotional resonance an d revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained. Thes e include the story of enslaved labor's role in the cotton trade and appar el crafts and the rougher cotton "negro cloth" that was left for enslaved people to wear\; the role of the pecan in nutrition\, survival\, and south ern culture\; the significance of hair to Black women and of locks of hair in the nineteenth century\; and an exploration of Black mothers' love and the place of emotion in history" --from publisher's description.
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