Skip to main content
A discussion group dedicated to diverse voices, perspectives, and authors. We'll aim to construct a meaningful conversation about anti-racism and embrace the diversity of our community.
Meetings take place via Zoom. Registered participants will be emailed meeting information prior to the event starting.
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
Click here to request or download
Sitting in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is a rough cotton bag, called "Ashley's Sack," embroidered with just a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother, Rose, 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 always." 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 of 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, Miles metaphorically "unpacks" the sack, deepening its emotional resonance and revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained.
AGE GROUP: | Adults (18+) |
EVENT TYPE: | Book Groups |
TAGS: | blacklivesmatterbookgroup | bigidea |
Online Programs from the Toledo Library