Tiya Miles – All That She Carried John Adams Institute

Precious memories

In mid-19th century South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose gave a simple cotton bag to her daughter Ashley. Ashley is about to be sold as property to the highest bidder and separated from her mother. The bag contains all her worldly possessions and precious memories of her family.

More than a bag

Harvard historian and author Tiya Miles wrote about it in the award-winning book All That She Carried. Combining literary creativity and historical research, she follows “Ashley's Sack” through the centuries, making the bag more than an object and telling the larger story of slavery.