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A review by ms_mama
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
5.0
I first became aware of Ashley's sack about a decade ago. At that time, no in-depth scholarly investigations of the object had been done, mostly due to the fact that systemic racism assured that the lives of these woman and the event the sack memorializes would be ignored or intentionally obscured. Those of us who longed to know more about Ashley and Rose and Ruth, but who are not descended from enslaved people, were left only with our imaginations, which are not trustworthy on the topic of the enslavement of African people, as they are mostly grounded in myth and wishful thinking.
In "All That She Carried", author Tiya Miles uses her formidable historical research skills to uncover hidden truths in unexpected places. The lives of these women, and others in their conditions, are brought to light by way of examining the things that were connected to their lives - such as Ashley's sack - as well as the objects that bear their imprint. Art, and household items, and oblique references in period documents that point to the reality experienced by enslaved women are used to create a plausible, meaningful story of lives lived outside the historical record.
Miles also uses this opportunity to share her process of uncovering this history, tracing generations of women through enslavement, emancipation, Jim Crow segregation, the Great Migration. At the same time, she situates us within the larger picture of America's shameful history of family separation: from the Indigenous boarding schools of the 20th Century, to the Mexican repatriation in the Great Depression, to the ongoing separation of immigrant families at our borders.
I had to stop reading rather frequently, to sit with the secondhand anguish of being a modern witness to the atrocities of enslavement. But each time I returned to the text, I was rewarded with glimpses of joy, of resilience, of resistance, and of love. That is what kept me going.
Ordinarily, once I've finished a work such as this, it sits forgotten on the shelf until I get around to decluttering it. "All That She Carries" will not meet that fate. I have already opened it again more than once, to revisit moments in the story that linger in my heart. I expect to be haunted by this book for a long time to come, and I'm OK with that.
In "All That She Carried", author Tiya Miles uses her formidable historical research skills to uncover hidden truths in unexpected places. The lives of these women, and others in their conditions, are brought to light by way of examining the things that were connected to their lives - such as Ashley's sack - as well as the objects that bear their imprint. Art, and household items, and oblique references in period documents that point to the reality experienced by enslaved women are used to create a plausible, meaningful story of lives lived outside the historical record.
Miles also uses this opportunity to share her process of uncovering this history, tracing generations of women through enslavement, emancipation, Jim Crow segregation, the Great Migration. At the same time, she situates us within the larger picture of America's shameful history of family separation: from the Indigenous boarding schools of the 20th Century, to the Mexican repatriation in the Great Depression, to the ongoing separation of immigrant families at our borders.
I had to stop reading rather frequently, to sit with the secondhand anguish of being a modern witness to the atrocities of enslavement. But each time I returned to the text, I was rewarded with glimpses of joy, of resilience, of resistance, and of love. That is what kept me going.
Ordinarily, once I've finished a work such as this, it sits forgotten on the shelf until I get around to decluttering it. "All That She Carries" will not meet that fate. I have already opened it again more than once, to revisit moments in the story that linger in my heart. I expect to be haunted by this book for a long time to come, and I'm OK with that.