Ashley's sack

Ashley's sack
Courtesy Middleton Place Foundation
MaterialCotton, thread
Size29+11⁄16 × 15+3⁄4 inches
75 × 40 cm
Created1850s; embroidering added 1921
DiscoveredNashville, Tennessee
Present locationCharleston, S.C.[1]

Ashley's sack is a mid-1800s cloth sack featuring an embroidered text that recounts the slave sale of a nine-year-old girl named Ashley and the parting gift of the sack by her mother, Rose. Rose filled the sack with a dress, braid of her hair, pecans, and "my love always". The gift was likely passed down to Ashley's granddaughter, Ruth (Jones) Middleton, who embroidered their story on to the sack in 1921.[2][3]

Ashley's sack was given to Middleton Place, in Dorchester County, South Carolina, one of the nation's preeminent slavery-era plantation sites. While still owned by Middleton Place, the sack was on long-term loan to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. until 2021 when it returned to Middleton Place. According to Tracey Todd, vice president of the Middleton Place Foundation, the sack is a rare material artifact from a period in United States history when human slavery was legal. Todd stated: "The sack allows us to relate to the enslaved people and feel the same pain today — if you have lost a child or been separated from a parent — that Rose and Ashley felt ... Ashley's Sack is a portal to understanding more about our shared history."[4][5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference si01 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Artifacts that will send a chill down your spine". 60 Minutes. CBS News. February 28, 2016. Archived from the original on July 2, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  3. ^ Cantu, Leslie (December 29, 2015). "'Filled with my love' Slave artifact to be displayed in new Smithsonian museum". The Summerville Journal Scene. Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  4. ^ Bergengruen, Vera (September 23, 2016). "This scrap of cloth is one of the saddest artifacts at new DC museum". The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  5. ^ Goggins, Ben (January 28, 2016). "Looking for Pearls: Ashley's Sack, Davenport dolls give insight into lives of slaves". Savannah Morning News. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017.