Join us for a community read of the 2024 One St ate / One Story book\, \;All That She Carried \;by Ti ya Miles. Meet your neighbors and discuss the power of family history agai nst all odds. Copies of the book are available for readers while s upplies last. \;
\nThis is a special book discussion ho sted online via Zoom. Please be sure to register and provide a valid email address to receive the meeting invitation. If you have any questions\, em ail PDA1@indypl.org. \;
\n< strong>About the Book: In 1850s South Carolina\, an enslaved woma n named Rose faced a crisis\, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Th inking quickly\, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a to ken of love and to try to ensure Ashley&rsquo\;s survival. Soon after\, th e nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold.
\nDecad es later\, Ashley&rsquo\;s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family hist ory on the bag in spare yet haunting language&mdash\;including Rose&rsquo\ ;s wish that &ldquo\;It be filled with my Love always.&rdquo\; Ruth&rsquo\ ;s sewn words\, the reason we remember Ashley&rsquo\;s sack today\, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generation s. Now\, in this illuminating\, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose&rs quo\;s gift to Ashley\, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these wome n&rsquo\;s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives&mdash\;and the lives of so many women like them&mdash\;to write a s ingular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery\, and the unce rtain freedom afterward\, in the United States.
\nThe search to unco ver this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical rec ord falls short of capturing Rose&rsquo\;s\, Ashley&rsquo\;s\, and Ruth&rs quo\;s full lives\, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources\, assembling a chorus of women&rsquo\;s and families&rsquo\; stor ies and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley&rsquo\;s sack&mdash\;a tattered dress\, handf uls of pecans\, a braid of hair\, &ldquo\;my Love always&rdquo\;&mdash\;ar e eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley& rsquo\;s journey\, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag\, deepening its em otional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everythin g it contained.
\nOne State / One Story: All That She Carried/Fr eedom Over Me is presented by Indiana Humanities in partnership with the I ndiana Center for the Book and the Indiana State Library as part of Indian a Humanities&rsquo\; Advancing Racial Equity Project\, supported by Lilly Endowment.
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