'All That She Carried' weaves together generations of Black women

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

All That She Carried is the history of a single bag. Historian and author Tiya Miles used what few historical records she could find to tell the stories of three generations of Black women with ties to that sack dating back to 1850. Miles' journey started because of a simple message embroidered on the bag by one of its owners, Ruth Middleton. She told Here & Now's Scott Tong that people have emotional reactions to seeing the sack, because it means the families survived to pass it down to future generations.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Taya Miles is a historian, which means she's
0:08.7	part-time traveler and part private investigator. Her new book, All That She Carried, is the history of
0:14.4	one bag, a cotton sack, and the generations of black women who owned it. The book just won this
0:20.2	year's National
0:20.8	Book Award for nonfiction, and it's easy to see why. This act dates back to 1850, and Miles
0:27.2	uses whatever scant historical records she could find to tell these women's stories, and their
0:32.6	loves and losses, not to mention the history of this country. There's something else about this sack that's important, too.
0:39.0	There's a message embroidered right onto it by Ruth Middleton, one of the SAC's owners.
0:44.0	And Taya Miles kicks off this interview with here and now Scott Tong by reading it.
0:49.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:53.7	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:00.3	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:07.6	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.5	So can I ask you just start by reading the words that are embroidered onto this bag, which is still around?
1:20.7	Yes, I've been honored to read them.
1:23.6	My great grandmother Rose, mother of Ashley, gave her this sack when she was sold at age nine in South Carolina.
1:34.2	It held a tattered dress, three handfuls of pecans, a braid of Rose's hair, told her it be filled with my love always. She never saw her again.
1:51.5	Ashley is my grandmother, Ruth Middleton, 1921. Wow. And we're going to talk about Ruth and Rose and Ashley. I first want to ask you, what is it about this object, this story that captivated you to do so much historical sleuthing into the story?
2:12.7	Well, the object itself is unique and beautiful and moving and mysterious.
2:22.4	When a person sees it for the first time, I think they just fall into the story as sad as it is.
2:30.2	And also into the recognition that despite this drama that occurred generations in the past,
2:38.3	the family did survive. They did pass down this object, which was a testament to their love.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.