Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONNATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNERNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE An astonishing account of love, resilience and survival Sunday Times A remarkable book New York Times An extraordinary tale through the generations GuardianIn 1850s South Carolina, Rose, an enslaved woman, faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few items. 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. That, in itself, is a story. But it s not the whole story. How does one uncover the lives of people who, in their day, were considered property? Harvard 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. All That She Carried gives us history as it was lived, a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds.