In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose packed a sack containing a few precious items for her nine-year-old daughter Ashley. Ashley was then separated from her mother and sold, and it’s likely the two never saw each other again. This heart-wrenching story is embroidered on a tattered cotton sack now held in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. In this episode, Professor Tiya Miles discusses her Cundill prize-shortlisted book on “Ashley’s sack” and what it can reveal about women’s experiences during slavery.

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Tiya Miles is the author of All That She Carried: The History of a Black Family Keepsake, Lost & Found (Penguin Random House, 2021)

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Authors

Ellie CawthornePodcast editor, HistoryExtra

Ellie Cawthorne is HistoryExtra’s podcast editor. She also contributes to BBC History Magazine, runs the podcast newsletter and hosts several live and virtual BBC History Magazine events.

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