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666 reviews for:
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Tiya Miles
4.12 AVERAGE
666 reviews for:
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Tiya Miles
4.12 AVERAGE
This book was not what I expected. I thought it would be a story with characters and dialogue, based on a friend’s recommendation. It reads more like nonfiction, similar to Braiding Sweetgrass. Very informative and factual.
A few thoughts:
1. This book is very well written.
2. The story of Rose, Ashley and Ruth is heartbreaking. I couldn’t wait to read this book because I’d heard about the sack before and have never forgotten it.
3. I think she tried her best, but the author was not able to turn up much evidence on what became of Rose, Ashley and Ruth.
4. Because of number 3, there is a lot of filler in this book. A LOT. Almost to the point that the author really should not have bothered writing this. The book is well written but all over the place. The author tried to use general information to flesh out the scant records she could find on Rose, Ashley and Ruth and it just did not work. I found my eyes glazing over at the end and I was ready to move onto the next book.
Rose, Ashley and Ruth deserved better. Three stars.
1. This book is very well written.
2. The story of Rose, Ashley and Ruth is heartbreaking. I couldn’t wait to read this book because I’d heard about the sack before and have never forgotten it.
3. I think she tried her best, but the author was not able to turn up much evidence on what became of Rose, Ashley and Ruth.
4. Because of number 3, there is a lot of filler in this book. A LOT. Almost to the point that the author really should not have bothered writing this. The book is well written but all over the place. The author tried to use general information to flesh out the scant records she could find on Rose, Ashley and Ruth and it just did not work. I found my eyes glazing over at the end and I was ready to move onto the next book.
Rose, Ashley and Ruth deserved better. Three stars.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Ashley, Rose, Ruth…
I intone their names, in honor and remembrance of so many like them.
This book is a marvel! Extremely well researched, evidenced by the amazing footnotes chapter! I read every single entry. Amazing. Added some more material to the TBR list.
Ok! I do not read much historical non fiction. Especially about slave narratives. This book, while fulfilling my souls need to know, also filled me with great sorrow. All that we are, all that we’ve done, all who’ve we’ve become, is mostly only evident in our present time. Our history, so haphazardly preserved, because we weren’t deemed human, haunts the descendants of the enslaved. This haunting need to know who I am is what drives me to read as much as I can find about it. My own family cannot trace our genealogy back more than 5-6 generations and it kills me. Through Ancestry.com we’ve gotten only as far as what country in Africa our ancestors were stolen from. Even that small tidbit filled me with such knowing.
Tiya Miles’ dedication and endurance to flesh out the history of these three mostly unknown women and their trajectories is a true and honest labour of love. Whatever Miles couldn’t solidly find about these women she drew from other recorded evidence of the time. Miles chronicles four generations of women who without her and the amazing discover of Ashley’s sack would have faded into history.
This book has solidified my trip to the African American Museum in Washington DC! I need to lay my eyes on all of the history it contains and now, I need to bear witness to Ashley’s Sack!
I intone their names, in honor and remembrance of so many like them.
This book is a marvel! Extremely well researched, evidenced by the amazing footnotes chapter! I read every single entry. Amazing. Added some more material to the TBR list.
Ok! I do not read much historical non fiction. Especially about slave narratives. This book, while fulfilling my souls need to know, also filled me with great sorrow. All that we are, all that we’ve done, all who’ve we’ve become, is mostly only evident in our present time. Our history, so haphazardly preserved, because we weren’t deemed human, haunts the descendants of the enslaved. This haunting need to know who I am is what drives me to read as much as I can find about it. My own family cannot trace our genealogy back more than 5-6 generations and it kills me. Through Ancestry.com we’ve gotten only as far as what country in Africa our ancestors were stolen from. Even that small tidbit filled me with such knowing.
Tiya Miles’ dedication and endurance to flesh out the history of these three mostly unknown women and their trajectories is a true and honest labour of love. Whatever Miles couldn’t solidly find about these women she drew from other recorded evidence of the time. Miles chronicles four generations of women who without her and the amazing discover of Ashley’s sack would have faded into history.
This book has solidified my trip to the African American Museum in Washington DC! I need to lay my eyes on all of the history it contains and now, I need to bear witness to Ashley’s Sack!
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
Beautiful written and so much care and details put in to research, this is an amazing book. I absolutely enjoyed this book and found it enriching both emotionally and intellectually.
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Uses an enslaved women’s work sack to tell her family story. Full of resilience and inspiration. Sometimes a bit repetitive.
Well researched and painful to think about, this incorporated several things I am passionate about. Equity, maternal love, and needlepoint.
Dnf it read as a very dry text book and I honestly couldn't get past the introduction. I really wanted to like this book and was intrigued by the premise.