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All That She Carried
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake | Tiya Miles
61 posts | 31 read | 41 to read
A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashleys survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashleys granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language including Roses wish that It be filled with my Love always. Ruths sewn words, the reason we remember Ashleys sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Roses gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these womens faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their livesand the lives of so many women like themto write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Roses, Ashleys, and Ruths full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of womens and families stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashleys sack a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, my Love alwaysare eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashleys journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.
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REPollock
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Pickpick

I love books that use an artifact as a touchstone for exploring history and material culture, and this one is fantastic.

julesG The hat is gorgeous! Did you make it? Would love the pattern. 2mo
REPollock @julesG one of my students made it! I‘ll ask them if they plan on offering the pattern as a PDF. 2mo
julesG That would be great! Thanks! 2mo
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Soubhiville
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Pickpick

I appreciate learning about Ashley‘s Sack, a burlap bag passed through generations of black women, beginning with Rose, an enslaved woman in Charleston SC. The author researched so many aspects of life in Rose‘s time and since then. While not many details are known about Rose‘s family, there are records of other women who might have lived under similar conditions. The photos and illustrations are great, plus recipes, so print is the way to go.

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 3mo
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youneverarrived
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Pickpick

I was thinking of this book even when I wasn‘t reading it. I love that the author uses the cloth as a starting point to write about/give us perspectives from people who couldn‘t always leave a record of their lives/feelings. It will definitely stay with me. #womensprizeNF #nonfiction2024 (The Bluest Eye)

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youneverarrived
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Next up from the #womensprizenf shortlist. Hoping to read them all before the winner is announced 🤞

squirrelbrain Hi Katie, we‘re still planning a York bookshop crawl on 22nd June. If you‘d like to come just drop me an email with your phone number and I‘ll add you to the WhatsApp group. If you don‘t still have my email let me know. 😘 6mo
youneverarrived @squirrelbrain Thanks Helen, I‘ve pencilled it in 🩷 I‘m a part of the Gladstones group from when a few of us did a buddy read a while back, is it the same group? If it‘s a different one I can email you as I‘ve still got your email. 6mo
squirrelbrain I should be able to find you then! I‘ll have a look tomorrow and if not, I‘ll let you know. 6mo
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ncsufoxes
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Pickpick

“When African American things are lost, the stories once joined to them weaken, memories of the past fray, historical evidence shrinks, and inter generational wisdom fades.” Such an important point especially in America as some people feel threatened about exploring & understanding the past parts of our history. There continues to be a need to discuss, discover, & understand how the past influences our current times. #bookspin

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 8mo
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Pickpick

together this book. We are missing so much about life, culture, and genealogy surrounding enslaved people. I was curious about her volleying between the words enslaved people and un-free peoples. It seems she uses the terms interchangeably.

It was clever to take the items in the sack and use them as a launching point to tell about the lives of enslaved people.
👇

ChaoticMissAdventures Delving into the sack, the dress, pecans, and the lock of hair, piecing together not only when the sack would have been packed, but the possible places Ashley and Rose could have lived. She then goes into the meaning of each of the items, which is important information we should all have.

The book is writen in a laymen's and readable way and the physical book has many pictures and media that elevate the story
8mo
ChaoticMissAdventures Women's Prize long list Nonfiction 2024 8mo
charl08 Looking forward to reading this one. 8mo
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jlhammar
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Pickpick

I can see why this book has made (and won) so many prize lists—complex and affecting. Audiobook was very well done, but it was nice to have the print edition handy for the photos.

#WomensPrizeNF

ChaoticMissAdventures Agreed! I am finishing this today and I get both audio and physical from the library the photos added a lot to the whole picture. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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Pickpick

What a heart breaking historical journey. These are the kinds of books we need: books that tell the truth about America‘s history: visceral, raw, and brutally honest. Slavery was much worse than what we can imagine. My home city, Charleston, will forever carry this shameful, ugly stain. This book centers on the journey of Ashley‘s sack, gifted to her by her mother Rose, on the eve of her sale, sometime in the 1850s—before finding its way to⬇️

JenniferEgnor Ruth, who stitched the words on it. The rough, stained cotton sack contained pecans, a dress, hair, and the most important, indestructible thing of all: love. The author goes into detail about the meaning of each item in the sack and why it was so important; she also goes into detail about what life was like for enslaved peoplx. Everything in this country‘s history and be traced back to slavery—even pecan pie. Read this book, share it. If not⬇️ 8mo
JenniferEgnor yet banned, it will be. Don‘t look away from the truth. Learn it. 8mo
TheBookHippie 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 8mo
Singout I think this is going to be my mom‘s next birthday gift. I was describing it to her, and she was intrigued: not available in her library. 8mo
JenniferEgnor @Singout I highly recommend it! Maybe her library can get it from another library. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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An auction block was a real thing. We sometimes forget this. We allow the physicality of a rock worn smooth by time and the press of bare, stolen feet to slip from our awareness. But these mundane things – a concrete block, a wooden set, a hollow stump – were props for the ritual dehumanization of a people. Much like the “uniform” of Negro cloth, the auction block set a group apart in order to lower their social status and justify their⬇️

JenniferEgnor contemptuous treatment. The rock or stump functioned like a department store window where “the human – commodity is put on display,” raised up and set apart. The auction block‘s structuring presence made one thing clear: if you were someone who could be treated to the indignity of sale, then you were barely a person at all. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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Enslavers tended to name their human property in ways that reaffirmed their own status and authority, while simultaneously demeaning the people named. The result was a denial of enslaved people‘s surnames, a slew of personal names that were the shortened form of European names (like Beck, Harry, or Jenny), names more fitting for household pets (like Hero, Cupid, or Captain), and names reminiscent of classical figures (like Dido, Caesar, or Venus)

JenniferEgnor . The excision of surnames had the effect of rhetorically severing Black family lines, erasing rights of natal, belonging, and denying maturity and adulthood. The bestowal of diminutive nicknames or cutesy pet names, belittled recipients as perpetual children or domesticated animals rather than recognizing them as the subjects who would mature into their own lives. Enslavers also appreciated, perhaps, their own sardonic wit in naming people with 8mo
JenniferEgnor little social power after characters with great cultural recognition. Every time a master or mistress called upon “Hercules,” “Sampson,” or “Prince,” they rubbed enslaved people‘s noses in the shame of their assigned inferiority. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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How did we arrive here, with the memory of a tattered dress and yet another Black mother‘s daughter on an auction block? How did South Carolina become a place where the sale of a colored child was not only possible but probable? The answer lies in the willingness of an entire society to bend its shape around a set of power relations that structured human exploitation along racial lines for financial gain. While vending Black people to underwrite⬇️

JenniferEgnor material pleasures, South Carolina sold its soul. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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Today the brick walls of Charleston seem picturesque, luxuriously fringed by palmetto fronds, burnt-orange trumpet vines, and snow-white gardenias hot with perfume. We admire the Old World intricacy of this storied city while taking photos of Charleston‘s famous iron gates. We see the tall, striking walls as elaborate garden boxes resplendent here as nowhere else in the nation. We gaze with longing glances at the seeming romance of another age⬇️

JenniferEgnor , lapped by gentle waves and bathed in sunlight. But in the early and middle 1800s, when Rose likely lived in this city, these walls were barrier fences. The urban estates inside functioned like prisons, with every white person a virtual garden. The walls could double as weapons, too, when spangled on their upper ledges with sharp barbs of broken bottles placed at the master‘s direction. Elaborately worked wrought-iron gates adjoined the thick⬇️ 8mo
JenniferEgnor segments of brick, spiked in their decorative aspect like knives and swords. To Charleston‘s elite slaveholding residents, like Ralph Izard of Meeting Street, these weaponized walls bestowed “an air of comfort to the premises.” The walls represented social order, the proper structuring of life, in which certain classes of people (white, Black, free, slave, men, women) and different types of activities (business versus domestic affairs) were kept 8mo
JenniferEgnor to their appointed places. Comfort and structure for the owners meant danger and chaos for the enslaved. Walls barricading family homes from the sight lines of the streets prevented freedom of movement, escape, and revolt by enslaved people and, more subtly but just as ominously, veiled the sights and sounds of physical and sexual abuse. The romantic walls of Charleston, as an art historian of the city put it, “forced slaves to focus on the ⬇️ 8mo
JenniferEgnor master‘s world.” 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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The Miles Brewton House fence with mounted spikes, 27 King Street, Charleston. The spikes were added to the plain ironwork fence after Denmark Vesey‘s rebellion plot of 1822.

💔

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JenniferEgnor
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The particular Rose recalled to memory by Ruth Middleton‘s looping stitch may have been given this name by a mother or a caretaker. She could have been called Rose, a flower of Old English derivation, by one of the people who owned her. She may have garnered the nickname Rose because she loved summer blossoms. She may have borne a rose-shaped scar on the tender skin of her back. And she was not alone, this woman named Rose, whose naming remains⬇️

JenniferEgnor , whose parents remain, whose origins remain a mystery. She rises from the documents of South Carolina slavery along with many others who bear the same name, a sorrowful garden of captured Roses. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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It is a madness, if not an irony, that unlocking the history of unfree people depends on the materials of their legal owners, who held the lion‘s share of visibility in their time and ours. Captive takers‘ papers and government records are often the only written accounting of enslaved people who could not escape and survive to tell their own stories. The wealthier and more influential the slaveholder, the more likely it is that plantation and ⬇️

JenniferEgnor estate records were kept and preserved over centuries in private offices and, later, research repositories. South Carolina has more than its share of these tainted but crucial, documents. The records are thin and flaked, yellowed and faded into pale lunar shades, tattered around the edges. They exist in the hundreds and thousands of pages, neatly filed in folders or compiled in heavy, aged books, leather-bound and massive. They are kept in⬇️ 8mo
JenniferEgnor tucked-away places: the official archives of the state, special collections of libraries, city deed offices, plantation attics, and the private files of personal homes. 8mo
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JenniferEgnor
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It is the world‘s shortest slave narrative , stripped down to its essence, sent back to us through time like a message in a bottle.

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ChaoticMissAdventures
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#firstlinefriday
@ShyBookOwl

"We forgot that love is revolutionary, the word, cute and overused in American culture, can feel devoid of spirit, a dead letter suitable only for easy exchange on social media platforms."

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JenniferEgnor
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The supple bends of the Ashley River ribbon the edge of the property. Dirt paths lead to stone ruins and delicate reflecting ponds shaped like butterfly wings—ponds that enslaved people dug by hand out of steaming, mosquito-thick mud banks. These pools are among the many luxuries exorbitant wealth bought in Charleston, one of this country‘s richest towns in the era of the American Revolution, due to rice and cotton profits of legalized slavery.

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JenniferEgnor
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Just as Rose and Ashley found on their forced journeys through slavery landscape, there is no safe place of escape left for us. The walls of the world are closing in. We need to get out of here in a hurry. We need to get out of these frames of mind and states of emotion, that elevate mastery over compassion, division over connection, and greed over care, separating us one from another, and locking us in. Our only options in this predicament, ⬇️

JenniferEgnor this state of political and planetary emergency, are to act as first responders or die not trying. We are the ancestors of our descendants. They are the generations we‘ve made. With a “radical hope” for their survival, what will be packed into their sacks? 9mo
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Nebklvr
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Pickpick

This was amazing. Miles used Ashley‘s sack as a touchstone around which she based the history and livelihoods of enslaved men and women. This is on the long list for the women‘s prize for nonfiction.

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squirrelbrain
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Pickpick

My first book finished from the Women‘s Prize for NF long list, although I‘m in the throes of reading most of the rest at the same time! 😃

I really struggled with the style of this at the start and had to keep re-reading to digest what was being said, although most of it was fascinating information once I processed it, hence the pick.

The biggest issue I had was the stating as fact, things that could only be conjecture. For example ⬇️

squirrelbrain
Asserting that the spelling of ‘handfull‘ of peanuts in the embroidery showed that Ruth was highlighting a ‘feat of plenty‘ when maybe it was just a spelling mistake.
Also, when talking about the pecans, saying that they likely weren‘t pecans, due to the difficulty and expense of getting hold of them, but then going on to describe in detail and as fact how Rose would have got hold of them, what she cooked with them etc
9mo
squirrelbrain Having said that, I did value the asides of other enslaved people where we *did* have documentary evidence, and the descriptions of life in Charleston. I just wonder if the lack of information about this object and the lineage of the family meant it was the wrong choice to base a whole book upon. 9mo
squirrelbrain On reading other reviews, from #shesaid Littens, I‘m glad it wasn‘t just me - on first glance I thought it was an #unpopularopinion as it has 100% on here but, actually, many of us felt the same about the style. 9mo
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BarbaraBB Great review. Very thoughtful. Good luck with reading all others 😀 9mo
youneverarrived That is a bugbear of mine in non-fiction 🙈 great review! 🩵 9mo
batsy Thanks for the thoughtful review! It is the kind of thing that can usually put me off nonfiction. 9mo
squirrelbrain Thank you @BarbaraBB @youneverarrived @batsy - I struggled to explain my thoughts so I‘m glad that you found my review useful. 9mo
TheKidUpstairs I tried reading this one a year ago and had difficulty with the style, too. I was reading an e-book, so I put it aside and decided to try again in another format. I'm on hold now for the audio. Hopefully, that will work better. 9mo
squirrelbrain I get the feeling that the audio might be better @TheKidUpstairs - I hope so! 🤞 9mo
Hooked_on_books Good point about the conjecture bit. For me it worked in this particular instance (it often doesn‘t) because of the deep research she did and the loss of so many stories of enslaved people by virtue of how they were treated, requiring some conjecture to fully flesh out their lives. I felt she was trying to honor their experiences with great care and tenderness. 9mo
squirrelbrain @Hooked_on_books - thank you - you‘ve made me see this in a different light. 9mo
Hooked_on_books I‘m really glad! I think there are some wonderful black female historians in particular who are really trying to bring forward the lived experiences of enslaved people and help all of us to understand better. Miles is one of them. Imani Perry is another. I‘m so glad I‘ve read theirs and others‘ books. I think it‘s helped me grow. 9mo
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jenniferw88
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Pickpick
JenniferEgnor Just checked this one out from the library the other day. 9mo
Librarybelle I‘m hoping to read this from the Women‘s Nonfiction Prize! 9mo
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jenniferw88 @JenniferEgnor @Librarybelle, I think you'll get more out of it than I did - American history does affect me emotionally, but this book wasn't as impactful as I'd hoped (unlike tagged or Ibram X Kendi's work). 9mo
rockpools …and I‘m hoping my hold for this comes in today 🤞 9mo
rockpools Also, we need a hashtag! 9mo
TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 9mo
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rmaclean4
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Pickpick

#womensnonfictionprize2024 First of what I hope.is many reads from The Women's Prize for nonfiction. This confronts the brutal history of slavery in the US South. Not new to me history, but it is important nonetheless. Great audio book. Recommend!

charl08 Looking forward to reading this one! 9mo
batsy This sounds good. Added to the list! 9mo
muscogulus Heard about this! What an amazing artifact. 9mo
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jenniferw88
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#bookreport #weeklyforecast

Finished Matrix
Continued The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain
Started tagged.

Apart from continuing tagged, I don't know what else.

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Mitch
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Wow - that was intense. Thank you so much @Singout for pushing me out of my reading comfort zone. In another life I want to be a researcher - to be able to build worlds, recreate lives and give voices to people and tell them they matter and they‘re loved. A amazing story that went wide and personal and taught me a lot. #auldlangspine

Singout Wasn‘t that fascinating? Thanks to @Riveted_Reader_Melissa for including it in the #SheSaid list last year. I would certainly have been a historian in another life, and enjoyed the snippets of museum work I got to do in my university years. So many stories need to be told that have been buried by the dominant culture. 10mo
Mitch @Singout it really was - I loved how she threaded so many layers to the storytelling. It was less about one dynastic story (which is what I had been expecting) and more about a whole untold history. I certainly wish I‘d chosen a history major! 10mo
Singout I should‘ve followed my heart and not my mother‘s advice, which was to pick French as my second teachable because it‘s (quite rightly) a more practical way to get a job. 10mo
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Mitch
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I should really start my next IRL Bookclub book - but I enjoyed my first #auldlangspine book from @Singout so much that I‘m diving into the second pick from her list ( bookclub isn‘t for a few weeks - I‘ll speed read that one!🤣)

monalyisha A few weeks? You‘ve got this! 😜 11mo
Singout So glad to hear it! 11mo
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CogsOfEncouragement
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Pickpick

I read this with a book club at a local bookstore.
“My great grandmother Rose, mother of Ashley gave her this sack when she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina. It held a tattered dress, 3 handfuls of pecans, a braid of Roses hair. Told her It be filled with my Love always. She never saw her again. Ashley is my grandmother. Ruth Middleton 1921.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Jen2
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Pickpick

So good!!!

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Singout
Pickpick

Really intriguing: not what I expected but multiple themes, in looking at the contents of a sack given from a mother to her enslaved child daughter, and then passed down through generations. The book reflects on each of the contents (a dress, pecans, a lock of hair) and how they fit into the context of history, the nature of enslavement, the family‘s history, and how such articles are preserved and controlled.
#SheSaid
#Nonfiction2023 #JustAGirl

Riveted_Reader_Melissa Good review, I had a hard time reviewing this one, but I think you nailed it! 2y
Singout Thank you! Yes, it‘s hard to explain. 2y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Pickpick

This was not what I expected, but I still enjoyed the journey. I definitely wanted more on the family that had this sack and what became of their descendants, from the one who put the words onto the sack, going forward, and as far back as is traceable with limited records…what I got was more of a history of the sack itself and the things it contained, why they were important, why they had meaning at that time, ⤵️

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ the history of textiles and pecans for example. So good history, just not the history I expected or was looking for. And tangentially, I found myself very disappointed that the sack ended up being a possession of a plantation yet again in the end, and it‘s story enriching the plantation owners as people come to see it. I found myself wishing it had ended its journey owned by the descendants of the enslaved, and enriching their descendants 2y
vlwelser Did you just finish? Wasn't this like 10 books ago? 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser no 😂 I‘m just really behind in writing reviews and trying to play catch up… I think I have 6 more to write yet. Oops 😬 (edited) 2y
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vlwelser I sometimes just rate them and move on without posting if they aren't part of some challenge or group read or whatever. Obviously does not apply here. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser I try to always write reviews… this one I wanted to wait a bit and sit with it before I wrote it….and then my nephew moved out of my house this month and I got so wrapped up in that..then my mom wanted to move her bedroom back upstairs (we had moved it down before her back surgery last year)… so I read or listened to audiobooks, but didn‘t review anything…once I had time to sit still I was either zoning watching tv or falling asleep. 😂 (edited) 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser Now I have to play catch-up 😂 2y
vlwelser I sometimes zone out on the train. I have been playing far too much sudoku lately. It's mindless. I mean I play the extreme level but still mindless. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser I understand… it keeps our brains active and stimulated in other ways, but still doesn‘t take the concentration a book sometimes does. I found myself playing the bejeweled/candy crush matching type games again this past month too, sometimes I think mindless is good for your brain too… non-thinking mediation for it 😂 but yet exercising a different part. I love Suduko too, although I haven‘t played it in a while. I should dig out ⤵️ 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ my book for that again. 2y
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AnneCecilie
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Pickpick

Who knew that there could be so much meaning in a sack and it‘s contents; a tattered dress, 3 handfuls of pecans and a braid of hair?

This was what Rose packed for her daughter Ashely when she was sold at the age of 9. It‘s Ashely‘s granddaughter, Ruth who has embroidered on the sack.

I feel that I learned so much about Charleston, how it was build and what it was like to love there as a slave.

#SheSaid
@Riveted_Reader_Melissa

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Hello #SheSaid!

Wrapping this one up this weekend. It may not have been what I was expecting, but I did still learn a lot. So still a pick for me. How about you? Final thoughts? Likes and Gripes?

vlwelser It was a bit dry and somewhat drawn out. My favorite part was definitely the chapter on clothing and identity and how it was used to manipulate people. 2y
See All 7 Comments
AnneCecilie I‘m amazed by the meaning of all the items in the sack and the sack itself. How items that to me seemed randomly chosen, probably was chosen with a lot of care and with several uses in mind. 2y
staci.reads I appreciated the author coming back around at the end to talk more about Ruth and her role as historian for the family through her act of embroidering the sack. It was interesting to hear Ruth and her daughter placed in context of their own time in order to get a feel for the relative "recentness" of Ashley's story and slavery in general. It's easy to forget how few generations have passed since legalized slavery existed. 2y
staci.reads I said in my review that I appreciate the need to build the history and tell the stories of enslaved Americans and the challenges of doing so when slavery denied the usual paths to documenting history. Parts of this book, though, felt stretched, and didn't feel like they added to the story of Rose, Ashley, and Ruth. I believe it would have been more effective in a condensed form. 2y
MallenNC I read this last year so I didn‘t comment much on those discussions because I couldn‘t remember what was in a particular section. I thought this was a great work of scholarship and that unfortunately the author had to draw threads together without a lot of historic records. As a narrative it was not the style I enjoy, but still an important work. 2y
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staci.reads
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Pickpick

While the story of Ashley's sack and the speculation about its history are powerful, important pieces of history, I struggled to get through this. I felt some of the tangents about items in the sack and connections among stories of other enslaved people added depth. I felt other parts were attempts to create a longer book than it needed to be to still have the same impact (the section on pecans, for example). ⬇️ #SheSaid @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

staci.reads It's a Pick because of the importance of building up historical research about enslaved peoples and telling their stories, not for readability. 2y
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vlwelser
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Pickpick

This is good. IMO the author didn't have a ton to work with.

#SheSaid @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 2y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Clwojick Perfect match! 2y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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For #SheSaid. Middleton Place is mentioned in this article for anyone interested.

https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2019/aug/15/slavery-400-plantations-south-histo...

vlwelser The more I read about these awful things that happened the less inclined I am to visit those places. Especially after I read this for my IRL book club. 2y
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Karisa @vlwelser I hear you. I‘m taking a group of 8th graders to DC and always feel that way at Mt. Vernon. The slaves‘ quarters and unmarked graves (now indicated by student groups) are there. It needs to be acknowledged not glossed over 2y
vlwelser @Karisa I went there once as a child and it makes me wonder if I'd see it totally differently now. I do still want to see Monticello despite the fact that my opinion of Jefferson (never good) has declined. 2y
Karisa @vlwelser Yeah, there‘s a large slave quarters area just steps from the front door of the Washington “mansion”. It makes it very apparent what an integrated part of their life enslaved people were. It‘s obvious W. knew it was wrong too—he freed the people he‘d enslaved at his death (but not the people enslaved by Martha I think). 2y
Tamra I‘ve heard the whole of the story is not told. 😒 Shame. Shame. 2y
Singout I‘m pretty sure we saw that at Monticello when I was 14. I‘m also quite sure it was named honestly, at least, although that was a very long time ago and probably it has changed. 2y
bnp There are starting to be placed that tell the stories of slaves on a plantation. Here are some recent articles. 2y
43 likes13 comments
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Hello #SheSaid! How are you this weekend? How‘s the book going for you?

So far, still not exactly what I expected… but still a lot of great that time and place history research and information…even if it‘s less about the sack itself than I thought it would be.

How are you doing with this book, this week or overall?

vlwelser Chapter 4 was amazing. It puts a lot of things in perspective. 2y
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Singout I‘ve only gotten as far as the end of chapter 4: I have a keen interest in fabric and sewing, so I found all the history of power structures behind where fabric comes from and how it is used interesting. The stories at the end of that chapter, about the various abuses of enslaved women, were particularly hard listening. 2y
Karisa I haven‘t had a chance to read the book but have seen the sack in the Smithsonian. I hadn‘t heard of it before that, but it stopped me in my tracks. It‘s simplicity and purity are so powerful. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Singout I found myself thinking of something Margaret Atwood said once when asked about all the things in the Handmaid‘s Tale and how she dreamed them up, and she said she didn‘t… they‘d all happened in history at some point or another. The older I get and more I learn, the more I really understand that. Some were only good as wives, “aunts”/ mammy, breeders, fancy‘s/jezebels. Just make the wives white and the rest black and ⤵️ (edited) 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ And it‘s very close… only difference really is instead of a procreation problem, they were breeding more slaves to sell & trade. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa I also thought of Concentration Camps…Clothes of certain fabrics, material, or colors..this book mentioned like prisoners.. I thought of a different group prisonered for their free work force 2y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Hello #SheSaid

How infuriated are you feeling this weekend…I was still mad that her sack ended up back at the plantation helping to earn money through tourists to still support the plantation owners family… but now it‘s at the Smithsonian (on loan from the plantation‘s estate…making them money I‘m sure & bearing their name) and it isn‘t even that plantation! It‘s enriching another plantation owner…just like the people were sold & traded! 🤬

Riveted_Reader_Melissa I know that‘s just the tip of the iceberg, and in the scope of this book… minor… but for me so emblematic of the small minority (white plantation owners) still making money off the labor & creativity of others. Can you imagine if Nazi‘s could open museums for tourists to view the artifacts left from the holocaust. If they could track down which plantation owned them, couldn‘t they track down the makers descendants instead? (edited) 2y
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa And again, such a minor thing when you look at the scope of money they made over centuries by enslaving “free labor”… and yet we hear about how long ago it was, yadda, yadda… but it‘s still happening 😫 2y
MallenNC That‘s a good point about the plantation still getting “credit” for the sack. That it‘s in the Smithsonian now is a small consolation since it‘s helping to tell a story that often isn‘t. 2y
vlwelser I didn't look at it that way. Thank you for calling my attention to this part. That really is infuriating. I may have read this too quickly, more intent on the task of getting through these chapters rather than focusing on the content. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser @MallenNC It‘s such a small part of the narrative… but as the news is talking about black families getting back, say land they was theirs and stolen, returning it to their generational wealth….the sack going back to the slave‘s owner, and profiting them now bothered me in the first section. And now in this part she didn‘t even “belong” to them, but to someone else….but yet they have ownership of this historical family keepsake and are/ (edited) 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa …were profiting from its existence. The money of tourist to see, be brought to tears by it…benefiting the unkeep of the plantation. It‘s on loan to the Smithsonian, but still their property. And here, it‘s not even the plantation she was sold from, but yet it‘s existence is financially benefitting them. I‘m glad it‘s being preserved and seen and it‘s story being told, but I can‘t help thinking this is a uniquely American thing. ⤵️ 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ it‘s weird because when there was a bit of a backlash against people renting plantations for weddings, etc I didn‘t think about it too much, it‘s a pretty building that we still romanticize for some reason.. but oh well, it‘s their building. But this, is not their sack, or their history, how does America not have an African American heritage project that artifacts are returned to their AA descendants and proceeds funneled to benefit them. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ They went through the whole process of how hard it was to trace who originally owned the family, separated them, and sold them…because records are so bad. But no one thought to trace their current descendants when they have the full name of the stitcher, and know she was free when she stitched it…so definitely some records exist there. Census , Tax records, etc ? (edited) 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa There was a story I saw the other day of a man who is using facial recognition software on all the unnamed pictures left after the Holocaust at those memorials to reunite them with their family and descendants…but we still don‘t have a national database of all those sale records and property stacks sitting in attics and estates to slowly deteriorate 🤯or any effort to connect them and trace them. (edited) 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Ok..sorry for venting. As much as we say it was so long ago, so far away, reparations (why, they say)…we really aren‘t making any effort at all as a society. This just highlighted to me how much we still want it to just disappear under the rug… or in a dusty attic, unless it benefits us (the white establishment that is). 2y
vlwelser I think we're still embarrassed about this thing that happened that was clearly wrong. The way it is treated in other countries, like the UK, is vastly different from how we act about it. 2y
vlwelser Also, that plantation paid the person that found it so I guess they probably feel like it's theirs. 🤷 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser yep, the person that found it tracked down a plantation with the sane family last name and sold it to them…turns out, wasn‘t their family‘s last name anyway. But still, why not track down the descendants by that name 🤷‍♀️ 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @vlwelser wouldn‘t it be nice to hear that after searching their records and finding no Rose/Ashley in their records…instead of just changing that 1 line in the description…maybe instead attempted to find the living heirs of Ruth. 🤷‍♀️. Then jointly did something with it. 2y
staci.reads @Riveted_Reader_Melissa that's one of the things I'm hoping is still to come in the book...information about Ruth and her descendants. 2y
staci.reads I liked the quote "historical visibility is everywhere related to social power." It so succinctly summarizes such a big concept. 2y
staci.reads I also appreciated her bringing in stories of other enslaved women such as Harriet Jacobs and Cecelia. Their stories, while not directly related add such a powerful layer to the book 2y
Singout I found the elements of these chapters about the symbolism of what went in the sack really interesting. Yes, of course, there‘s lots of speculation there, but I also think that there is an inherent value in the creativity of the speculation when it‘s tied into culture and spirituality. 2y
Singout I am also hoping to learn more about Ruth! Something I do as a volunteer is transcribing, or classifying, historical and scientific documents: I‘ve worked on several projects that are about transcribing histories of enslaved people in the US or Barbados, as well as people sent to Nazi concentration camps. It‘s one small way of reconnecting people with their ancestors, as well as preserving history and voices for broader use. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Singout That sounds very interesting, how did you get connected with a volunteer project that did work with that. 2y
Singout @Riveted_Reader_Melissa a long time ago, I stumbled across a post on Twitter, directing me to the British library, which was matching maps from pre-1900 books to current geography. Then I started finding history projects posted in a group called Zooniverse that links to all kinds of citizen, science and history projects, and by the Smithsonian. Maybe the American library of Congress as well. No Canadian ones though. 2y
Singout … basically they‘re set up by experts, in such a way that ordinary people can either transcribe handwritten or typed documents or find info and enter it in a multiple-choice or fill in the blanks kind of way. Each document is done several times to allow for errors, and there are chat and question functions. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Singout That is fascinating. I‘ll need to keep my eyes open for volunteer opportunities like that. 2y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Singout I‘m going to check out that website too 2y
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AnneCecilie
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I had no idea that the number were this low.

From all the movies and books with this theme, I have always assumed that the number where higher.

Less than a 1000 in 400 years.

#SheSaid

charl08 I think "probably" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that quote. Neither the "owners" nor the formerly enslaved people would have been lining up to reveal successful escapes, so incredibly hard to calculate. Plus the difference between numbers of attempted escapes and successful ones. 2y
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AnneCecilie
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Speechless

#SheSaid

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AnneCecilie
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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Hello #SheSaid! Sorry for the late start today!

I‘ll see you in the comments 😉

Riveted_Reader_Melissa So far, this was not what I expected, but I also can‘t say what I expected either…especially since African American history was not well recorded in this country, it‘s not like we could have gotten the history of the hands and family the sack passed through in detail…and yet somehow I expected it anyway (dumbly), I can‘t even say why, because I know intellectually it doesn‘t exist. It‘s a history purposefully erased. 2y
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vlwelser This is getting off to a slow start. But other than that I'm trying not to have much of an opinion about it. I think it deserves more of a chance to draw me in. I'm curious to see how she fills out an entire book. 2y
Julsmarshall My hold hasn‘t come through yet, will try to participate when it does :) 2y
Singout I am totally captivated by this: I love histories of ordinary people and families, and how their lives interconnect. (I am also a lover of textiles.) It‘s really interesting to hear the Barbados history, as that seems to be left out in my context, which usually starts with Africa. 2y
Singout It‘s also really good to read this right after Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiences, which I just reviewed and has an emphasis on histories of Black Depression era American women who break out of the mold but aren‘t confirming to “respectability.” 2y
MallenNC I read this last year. The fact that the sack still exists at all is amazing to me. I‘m glad that the embroidery on it helps tell its story. Because of the way family history of enslaved people had been lost, the author had to speculate a lot. 2y
staci.reads @vlwelser I also felt it was a slow start. I definitely struggled through the first part of this, especially the introduction, which felt very pedantic. Chapter one was better, though. I'm curious to see where the author takes it. 2y
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AnneCecilie
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Picked this up at the library today.

When I first searched for it, they didn‘t have it, but when @Riveted_Reader_Melissa posted the schedule for #SheSaid I had to check again.

The first sentence from the introduction really struck me:
“We forget that love is revolutionary.”

Lindy Great first line. Thanks for sharing. 🤗 2y
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Singout
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Rose was in existential distress that fateful winter when her would-be earthly master, Robert Mutton, passed away.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Up next #SheSaid

If you‘d like to be added to our tag list and read with us, please just let me know.

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Riveted_Reader_Melissa
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Up next #SheSaid!

All That She Carried by Tiya Miles

Put in your library hold and interlibrary loans!

If you‘d like to be added to our tag list and join our discussion, just let me know.

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Smoores101
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“This object was a marvel despite its lack of physical luster. It moved the emotions of viewers; so many of them succumbed to sobs..that the curator fell into the habit of handing out tissues besides the display. … it is the worlds shortest slave narrative, stripped down to its essence, sent back to us through time like a message in a bottle.” Beautiful concept, I wanted to love the book, but overly repetitive and at times boring.

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TheKidUpstairs
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@Chelsea.Poole clearly you've got great reading taste, All That She Carried just won The Cundhill History Prize!

Chelsea.Poole I learned so much from this one! So much is revealed with each object. I'm so happy to see it won! 2y
Tamra Still on my TBR! 2y
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Sophronisba
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“Tonight, in a ceremony at the Windsor Ballrooms in Montreal, Tiya Miles was awarded the $75,000 Cundill History Prize, which recognizes the best history writing in English. . . .“

https://lithub.com/tiya-miles-is-the-winner-of-the-2022-cundill-history-prize/