In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother, Rose, gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter, Ruth, embroidered this history on the bag - including Rose's message that "It be filled with my Love always." In this book, a historian carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley. From Rose's last resourceful gift to her daughter, the author then follows the paths their lives - and the lives of so many like them - took to develop a unique, innovative history of the lived experience of slavery in the United States. As she follows Ashley's journey, the writer metaphorically "unpacks" the sack, deepening its emotional resonance and revealing the meanings and significance of everything it contained--Publisher's description. 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, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today--Publisher's description.

Prologue: Emergency packs -- Introduction: Love's practitioners -- Ruth's record -- Searching for Rose -- Packing the sack -- Rose's inventory -- The auction block -- Ashley's seeds -- The bright unspooling -- Conclusion: It be filled -- Sampler : a note on terms -- Little sack of something : an essay on process.