Book Bites: All That She Carried

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

All That She Carried examines how those barred from creating their own histories preserved their stories for future generations. Through the totem of Ashley's Sack, embroidered with the family history of unfree peoples, Miles shows us how those forced into slavery and stripped of their names and families fought injustice. The text has a habit of falling into academic prose, as if proving its worth by adopting a stilted, fact-dense cadence. There are also, due to the limited nature of historical records available, side-tracks into somewhat-tangential subjects unable to grasp a reader's interest like the story of Rose and Ashley (such as a brief history of pecan farming in the US). In the end, All That She Carried proves an important, interesting lens focused on the small print of American history we ignore at our own peril.

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