All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

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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." In this book, a historian 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, the author then follows the paths their lives - and the lives of so many like them - took to develop a unique, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States. As she follows Ashley's journey, the writer metaphorically "unpacks" the sack, deepening its emotional resonance and revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained--Publisher's description