Introduction
Welcome to our digital history project for HIST 3160 -
Women in U.S. History at Western Michigan University (Spring 2023)
Women in U.S. History at Western Michigan University (Spring 2023)
Ashley's Sack, now on display at the National Museum for African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
The book that inspired this digital history project
In this short essay, we (Group 1) wrote about the book that we read and discussed in class this semester, All That She Carried by Tiya Miles. We chose a number of quotes from the book that we think are important in communicating some of the historian's main points about the story of Ashley's sack.
Short essay on Miles book (1).pdfCollege students' take on the
historian's methods
historian's methods
Below are essay samples from two students who wrote about Tiya Miles's methodological approach to piece together the story of Ashley's sack. In class, we had discussions about the challenges that historians face when attempting to write the history of women, particularly women of color, and one of those challenges has been the availability of sources. What happens when the sources are scarce or non-existent? Moira Cooper and Ian Russel, both students in our class, address this question in the essays below.
Moira Cooper Hist 3160 - Book Report.pdfPaper by Moira Cooper
Ian Russel HIST 3160 Book Report.pdfPaper by Ian Russel
Timelines
We created a timeline to highlight major historical moments in the history of the Black family at the center of All That She Carried. The second timeline, by student Leyla Celik, takes us to the present and her conclusion is particularly compelling.
LeylaCelik_TimelineAllThatSheCarried.pdf