All That She Carried Audiobook By Tiya Miles cover art

All That She Carried

The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

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All That She Carried

By: Tiya Miles
Narrated by: Janina Edwards
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NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a “deeply layered and insightful” (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out of the archives.

WINNER: Frederick Douglass Book Prize, Harriet Tubman Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, Lawrence W. Levine Award, Darlene Clark Hine Award, Cundill History Prize, Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, Massachusetts Book Award

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Slate, Vulture, Publishers Weekly

“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 for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language.

Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women’s faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.

FINALIST: MAAH Stone Book Award, Kirkus Prize, Mark Lynton History Prize, Chatauqua Prize, Women’s Prize

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, NPR, Time, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Smithsonian Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, Book Riot, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist

Accolades & Awards

National Book Award
2021
Black & African American National Book Award United States American History Americas Women Social justice Heartfelt Inspiring Biographies & Memoirs
Compelling History • Thorough Research • Wonderful Narration • Illuminating Perspective • Interwoven Disciplines

Highly rated for:

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While not with compulsion and involvement of historical fiction, I was very involved, and moved by this historical account of how love was passed, expressed in unique ways amongst black slaves. Occasionally, my mind faded from the narratives, while reading, historical reference; but it was so well worth hearing, and experiencing the intensity, creativity, empathy and resourcefulness of women whose lives were so barren of of empathy and respect.

Poignant history of how love is transferred amongst slaves

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The unfolding of the story of Ashley’s sack should be required reading in high schools in every state. It tells of women surviving and not surviving years of slavery with candor and compassion.

So detailed and very moving

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Well written. Impactful. Very well researched. I will never forget this book.

This should be required reading in high school.

Simply extraordinary

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a well-written, well-researched, well-read book that made me cry at the many tragedies and marvel at the persistence and resilience described.

a wonderful book

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It is uncomfortable to hear and read as white person but necessary. As a woman it enlightens a female history so often ignored.

Bringing a horrible history home to the heart

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