Friday, October 21, 2016

Origins of Ashley's Sack

Over the past year, I've been trying to trace the origins of Ashley's Sack, one of the most moving and enigmatic objects on display in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

On loan from Middleton Place Foundation near Charleston, SC, embroidered text on the bag reads:

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 
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Who, many of us have wondered, were Rose, Ashley, and Ruth?  Where did they live and what can we recover of their lives? What circumstances might have led to the historical sale of nine year old Ashley, and to her grand-daughter Ruth's decision to embroider this long-term family narrative in 1921?

Now, the noted journal  Southern Spaces has published  my research, based on archival and oral historical work in South Carolina and elsewhere:   https://southernspaces.org/2016/slaverys-traces-search-ashleys-sack

Please feel free to share your reflections on these findings, in the comment space below.  What are your thoughts on this object, and on the lives of the women chronicled upon it?  It would be fascinating to hear from those who have seen Ashley's Sack at Middleton Place or at the new Smithsonian museum, or to hear from collateral relatives of Rose, Ashley, and Ruth.

Selected comments will be re-posted at the conclusion of the Southern Spaces piece.