A review by sarah984
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

This book uses a single object - a bag given to a daughter by her mother - to illustrate the history of the region, the cruelties of slavery and the resilience of Black women. The writing places the bag and its contents in a historical context and then extrapolates on the history of the women associated through the scant archival record and similar narratives by others. I learned a lot from this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War