A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a deeply layered and insightful testament to people who are left out of the archives
Tiya Miles Books
Tiya Miles delves into the intersection of African American and Cherokee experiences, uncovering untold histories and connections. Her prose masterfully blends rigorous historical research with speculative elements, creating narratives that resonate with themes of identity, memory, and the enduring presence of the past. Miles's work is characterized by its profound exploration of the complexities of human relationships and cultural legacies. She offers readers a distinctive voice that brings marginalized histories to vivid life.
Harriet Tubman is often viewed as a mythical figure, yet her true story reveals a resilient woman who defied the odds to escape slavery and lead others to freedom. Tiya Miles delves into Tubman's life, exploring her connections with nature and other enslaved women, while illuminating her profound mysticism. This intimate portrayal challenges the simplified narrative, presenting Tubman not just as a historical icon but as a source of inspiration for contemporary struggles. Miles' work offers a deeper understanding of Tubman's legacy and its relevance today.
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
- 416 pages
- 15 hours of reading
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
The Cherokee Rose, written by Tiya Miles, award-winning historian and recipient of a recent MacArthur "Genius Grant," explores territory reminiscent of the works of Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, and Louise Erdrich. This luminous but highly accessible work examines a little-known aspect of America's past slaveholding by Southern Creeks and Cherokees and its legacy in the lives of three young women who are drawn to the Georgia plantation where scenes of extreme cruelty and equally extraordinary compassion once played out. The novel is based on historical sources about the Chief Vann House Historic Site in Chatsworth, Georgia, and the Moravian mission sponsored there in the early 1800s. Miles uncovered this fascinating history while researching her book The House on Diamond Hill. In The Cherokee Rose, she has fictionalized the story and introduced contemporary aspects to make this history more accessible.The characters in The Cherokee Rose include Jinx, the free-spirited historian exploring her tribe's complicated racial history; Ruth, whose mother sought refuge from a troubled marriage in her beloved garden and the cosmetic empire she built from its bounty; Cheyenne, the Southern black debutante seeking to connect with a meaningful personal history; and, hovering above them all, the spirit of long-gone Mary Ann Battis, a young woman suspected of burning a mission to the ground and then disappearing from tribal records. The story of the women's discoveries about the secrets of a Cherokee plantation traces their attempts to connect with the strong spirits of the past and reconcile the conflicts in their own lives.
A National Book Award-winning, The New York Times best-selling historian shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America
Worek jest pojemny: pomieścił znoszoną sukienkę, trzy garście orzechów pekan oraz warkocz Rose. Dzięki tym przedmiotom dziewięcioletnia Ashley wiedziała, że chociaż sprzedali ją handlarze niewolników, nigdy nie zostanie sama, bo matka sercem będzie przy niej. Służył kolejnym pokoleniom kobiet: najpierw zniewolonej Rose, potem jej córce Ashley, aż w końcu prawnuczce Ruth, która wyszyła na worku jego historię, kończąc słowami prababci: Moja Miłość jest w nim na zawsze. Płócienny worek jest świadkiem historii czarnych kobiet, dowodem ich cierpienia, siły i triumfu. Piekło niewolnictwa w Karolinie Południowej, rozdzielanie rodzin i odbieranie im godności nie zniszczyło miłości matki do córki ani rodzinnych więzów. Tiya Miles snuje opowieść o życiu Rose, Ashley i Ruth, szukając ich śladów w źródłach często niekompletnych z powodu systemowego pomijania czarnych. Autorka wypełnia luki w dokumentach, odwołując się do przedmiotów codziennego życia, co pozwala opowiedzieć wielowymiarową historię niewolnictwa i niepewnej wolności w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Pokazuje, czym dla zniewolonych była garść orzechów, jak wyzwalająca, ale i niebezpieczna mogła być sukienka oraz jaka otucha płynęła z możliwości okrycia się na podeście aukcyjnym, nawet jeśli służył do tego płócienny worek. Książka zdobyła wiele nagród, w tym National Book Award w kategorii non-fiction.