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A short description of this book is that it analyzes an heirloom. That is very far from doing it justice, however. The object in question has been dubbed “Ashley’s sack”, and it is owned by Middleton Place Foundation, which is a former plantation turned into a National Historic Landmark and museum. The sack is currently on loan to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is a cloth bag, dating from the 1850’s, and although it will probably never be possible to trace every step in its journey, what has been learned about it already is amazing.
The main thing that makes this item unique is the embroidery. In the early 1900’s, the following was stitched onto the bag:
My great grandmother Rose
mother of Ashley gave her this sack when
she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina
it held a tattered dress 3 handfulls of
pecans a braid of Roses hair. Told her
It be filled with my Love always
she never saw her again
Ashley is my grandmother
Ruth Middleton
1921
The author, historian Tiya Miles, looked at every aspect of the sack, including the milieu that caused its creation. She worked with genealogists to try to determine exactly who Rose and Ashley were. She researched the fabric the sack was made from, and what its original use might have been. She looked at the availability of pecans in Charleston in the 1850’s, the significance of a braid of hair, and even the significance of the embroidery itself. It is a thoughtful, granular examination of an item that brings some museum goers to tears.
If this was your family, how would you research them? While I doubt that any of us own an heirloom as poignant and culturally significant as Ashley’s sack, many of us do have things inherited from various ancestors. I have several, ranging from a dresser, that supposedly journeyed from Minnesota to Missouri, to a small compact that held face powder and rouge. While I have not attempted as deep of an analysis, I know a little bit about each item. I would love to find the time to do an in-depth research project on each one. That research would undoubtedly shed light on other aspects of my ancestor’s lives.