ALL THAT SHE CARRIED

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