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

Tiya Miles (Author), Janina Edwards (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
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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: PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lawrence W. Levine Award, Darlene Clark Hine 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: Kirkus Prize, Mark Lynton History 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

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  1. Listening Length
    9 hours and 29 minutes
  2. Author
    Tiya Miles
  3. Narrator
    Janina Edwards
  4. Audible release date
    June 8, 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B08FMVZB5W
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
Next slide of product details

Product details

Listening Length 9 hours and 29 minutes
Author Tiya Miles
Narrator Janina Edwards
Audible.com Release Date June 08, 2021
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08FMVZB5W
Best Sellers Rank #20,692 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#61 in Black & African American History (Audible Books & Originals)
#77 in Black & African American History (Books)
#234 in Biographies of Women

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,187 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the storyline amazing, educational, poignant, and powerful. They also describe the emotional content as tragedy beautifully told, showing resilience and determination to help their families survive. Readers also praise the writing style as well-written and important.

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StorylineEmotional contentWriting styleGenre
20 customers mention "Storyline"20 positive0 negative

Customers find the storyline amazing, educational, poignant, and interesting. They also say it's an important work, sensitively written, and feel empowered after reading.

"...Using excellent historical documentation and having tremendous intellectual rigor and integrity to tell the story, she brings all of its threads..." Read more

"...Miles, an accomplished and amazing historian, has done the same. Read this book...." Read more

"...All, in all, a beautiful contribution to our understanding of African American history." Read more

"...the beginning and periodically thereafter, but does a great job of describing the experience of enslaved people backed by objective data...." Read more

10 customers mention "Emotional content"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the emotional content of the book beautifully told, sobering beyond compare, heart rendering, and intriguing. They also say it shows their resilience and determination to help their families survive.

"...The story of the sack is straightforward...." Read more

"This book is sobering beyond compare. Tiya Miles rips open much of the hidden torture these women have endured for years...." Read more

"...clue-- and from this information she stitches together a heartbreaking and powerful history of the South during the era of slavery as well an..." Read more

"Very emotional reflection on the African American spiritual journey from slavery to today...." Read more

5 customers mention "Writing style"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written, important, and worth reading.

"...Extremely well written, and easy to read..." Read more

"...This is a well written and important book that will give you new insights and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in American history." Read more

"not perfect, but well worth reading, and highly reccomended..." Read more

"Important work, sensitively written..." Read more

3 customers mention "Genre"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the genre interesting, but not a novel or biography. They also mention that the book provides a lack of records of personal experiences of the enslaved.

"...There is such a lack of records of personal experiences of the enslaved that this book completes" Read more

"This book is not a novel. It is a book based on actual people who lived but with few historical facts to make it an accurate history book...." Read more

"Interesting. Not a novel or biography. More like a history book...." Read more

amazing story. lovingly and deftly stitched.
5 out of 5 stars
amazing story. lovingly and deftly stitched.
The moment I picked up this book, I took out my pen. I knew I'd mark it up. I knew I'd be taken on a journey with the author leading the way. I often do this with books I know I will love. I underline, circle and highlight. I placed this book on mud cloth covering a chest beside my bed. It is beside other books that leave me thinking and breathing again. What an exhale. Like Tiya Miles, the author, I have ancestry in Mississippi. Via this book, she took me to the south, but also to the unnameable places where black women/women period have fought for their humanity (indeed, I have seen knitting old women in the frigid North Atlantic doing something similar. Fighting!). They save themselves. They save their families. Some do so via cloth. Each stitch on fabric that may be passed on to a loved one signals their/our determination to live, but also seeable and unseeable histories involving ever-hurting people. They are still strong people. I have not finished this book. I stop to savor what it is saying. I also cannot get the hand-sewn curtains made of cotton that my late grandmother gave me out of my mind's eye. I can still see her uneven stitches. She had arthritis. She also had great love. At the time I received the curtains, which are pictured here, I was leaving for another state, but she wanted to give me something. Something that may not have been much. She gave me a part of herself when she presented those curtains. Miles, an accomplished and amazing historian, has done the same. Read this book. It will remind you of this one thing: we are strong enough to get through this difficult moment in world history. Remember the ancestors. Remember the things they have been stitched, touched, passed down. Remember.
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Top reviews from the United States

cat person
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Work
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2024
Verified Purchase
What Tiya Miles has done with her subject is awesome. Ashley's sack is small, but the story that Miles weaves is broad and deep. Examining every relevant factor pertaining to it, Miles makes this humble object the symbol of eternal love and strength. Using excellent historical documentation and having tremendous intellectual rigor and integrity to tell the story, she brings all of its threads together for us to bear witness and carry forward.
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lamae
5.0 out of 5 stars amazing story. lovingly and deftly stitched.
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
The moment I picked up this book, I took out my pen. I knew I'd mark it up. I knew I'd be taken on a journey with the author leading the way. I often do this with books I know I will love. I underline, circle and highlight. I placed this book on mud cloth covering a chest beside my bed. It is beside other books that leave me thinking and breathing again. What an exhale. Like Tiya Miles, the author, I have ancestry in Mississippi. Via this book, she took me to the south, but also to the unnameable places where black women/women period have fought for their humanity (indeed, I have seen knitting old women in the frigid North Atlantic doing something similar. Fighting!). They save themselves. They save their families. Some do so via cloth. Each stitch on fabric that may be passed on to a loved one signals their/our determination to live, but also seeable and unseeable histories involving ever-hurting people. They are still strong people. I have not finished this book. I stop to savor what it is saying. I also cannot get the hand-sewn curtains made of cotton that my late grandmother gave me out of my mind's eye. I can still see her uneven stitches. She had arthritis. She also had great love. At the time I received the curtains, which are pictured here, I was leaving for another state, but she wanted to give me something. Something that may not have been much. She gave me a part of herself when she presented those curtains. Miles, an accomplished and amazing historian, has done the same. Read this book. It will remind you of this one thing: we are strong enough to get through this difficult moment in world history. Remember the ancestors. Remember the things they have been stitched, touched, passed down. Remember.
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lamae
5.0 out of 5 stars amazing story. lovingly and deftly stitched.
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2021
The moment I picked up this book, I took out my pen. I knew I'd mark it up. I knew I'd be taken on a journey with the author leading the way. I often do this with books I know I will love. I underline, circle and highlight. I placed this book on mud cloth covering a chest beside my bed. It is beside other books that leave me thinking and breathing again. What an exhale. Like Tiya Miles, the author, I have ancestry in Mississippi. Via this book, she took me to the south, but also to the unnameable places where black women/women period have fought for their humanity (indeed, I have seen knitting old women in the frigid North Atlantic doing something similar. Fighting!). They save themselves. They save their families. Some do so via cloth. Each stitch on fabric that may be passed on to a loved one signals their/our determination to live, but also seeable and unseeable histories involving ever-hurting people. They are still strong people. I have not finished this book. I stop to savor what it is saying. I also cannot get the hand-sewn curtains made of cotton that my late grandmother gave me out of my mind's eye. I can still see her uneven stitches. She had arthritis. She also had great love. At the time I received the curtains, which are pictured here, I was leaving for another state, but she wanted to give me something. Something that may not have been much. She gave me a part of herself when she presented those curtains. Miles, an accomplished and amazing historian, has done the same. Read this book. It will remind you of this one thing: we are strong enough to get through this difficult moment in world history. Remember the ancestors. Remember the things they have been stitched, touched, passed down. Remember.
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127 people found this helpful
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D. K. Bagshaw
4.0 out of 5 stars New insights into the lives of enslaved African Americans and their descendants
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2023
Verified Purchase
I'm so glad this was a choice of my book club. I didn't like it at first, it seemed to go around and around with three women whose names I couldn't keep straight. A lot of repetition about the sack in the beginning, the end, and the commentaries in between. So I skimmed over those until I got to the parts that hooked me containing information I'd never heard about (spoiler alert):

The description of Charleston as a walled city, in which enslaved people could come and go, but had to wear stitched badges (reminding me of the Nazi stars of David) and could be watched from the ramparts, rooftops and balconies. The importance of dress and how the women wove their own fabrics, and sewed their Sunday-best dresses of bright colors, and in the fourth generation, stayed home and embroidered like proper ladies.

The importance of the pecans I enjoyed, but since I grew up with pecans, I felt the author didn't give them their due. Did Rose pack them shelled for Ashley's consumption on her journey, or in their shells for later cracking and "picking." Of course, we don't know, but could speculate.

The Kindle version didn't work well with inserts, so I looked at the paperback which is more satisfying, but wish the photos could have been printed in color. I'd buy a hardback if that were true.

All, in all, a beautiful contribution to our understanding of African American history.
3 people found this helpful
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happy reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2024
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Based on one single item, Miles tells a story of many people, in slavery and after slavery, but still in challenging times. She keeps bringing the story back, but it is much more than a story of one item. Extremely well written, and easy to read (other than the challenging emotional context - even for this white person - hope I can be considered an ally).
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Farm Girl
3.0 out of 5 stars A difficult read
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2022
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About two chapters into this book I read the reviews by previous readers, wondering if I was the only person having problems with the author's writing. I understand that any non-fiction piece of a historical time will contain some guessing instead of fact but this book gets bogged down with way too much conjecture. The main subject, a cloth sack given to a daughter by her mother while both were slaves was an emotional example of the inhumane treatment of African Americans during slavery in this country, and for that this book is important.
10 people found this helpful
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belinda
5.0 out of 5 stars Great experience.
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2024
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The book arrived ina timely manner and in great condition. Seller was communicative and prompt.
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Kenneth W. Kickbusch
5.0 out of 5 stars Tina Miles has written a "break-through" book about the daily realities of American slavery.
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2023
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Historian Tina Miles has written a break-through book. She writes of slavery not as an adjunct to the "real white American history", but as having a distinctive, real, lived, personal daily reality. ALL THAT SHE CARRIED illustrates that there is no record of daily events in the lives of slaves: no record of births, deaths, sales, families, weddings, joys, celebrations, successes, or failures. The "sack" prepared by a black slave mother for her eight year old daughter about to be sold to another owner, found and identified by a distant free relative in 1922, clarifies for all of us that American slavery produces a very long and ugly shadow.
6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Miss W. Cabral
5.0 out of 5 stars Fab read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2024
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Would recommend
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NUNO LOMELINO RODRIGUES PEREIRA
5.0 out of 5 stars ...um trabalho de investigação e escrita assinalável.
Reviewed in Spain on September 27, 2023
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...um dos meus melhores livros deste ano. Extraordinário. Um trabalho muito sério sobre uma época em que tudo foi negado a quem foi privado de si mesmo.
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Dianne K
5.0 out of 5 stars Textile history
Reviewed in Canada on March 10, 2023
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Tracing a textile in the history of slavery is brought to life. How could you not read this important history?
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Hither & Yon
5.0 out of 5 stars As advertised
Reviewed in Canada on January 26, 2023
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As advertised
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