All That She Carried Audiobook By Tiya Miles cover art

All That She Carried

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

 Preview
Prime Member Exclusive

3 Months Free

$8.99/mo. after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on July 15, 2026 at 11:59 PT.
More purchase options

All That She Carried

By: Tiya Miles
Narrated by: Janina Edwards
Get this deal

$8.99/mo. after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends July 15, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

Buy for $18.00

Buy for $18.00

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
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
Compelling History • Thorough Research • Wonderful Narration • Illuminating Perspective • Interwoven Disciplines

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
This is a well researched, intricately crafted story of the way material culture sheds light on a people’s history.

Excellent Discussion

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of the most beautifully written books I’ve listened to (& now read) all year. This was such a clever idea for a book and the sack at it’s heart provide the perfect framework to illustrate the horror unfree people experience and their resilience. This is such a well told story.

Beautifully written

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews