Name/Title
SackEntry/Object ID
L.2011.004.4Description
Ruth Middleton (dates unknown)
Ashley's sack
Charleston, SC, ca. 1850, sack; 1921, needlework
Plain-weave cotton ground; cotton lock stitch fabrication; three strand-cotton embroidery floss, back-stitch embroidery
H. 29 11/16 x W. 15 3/4 inches
Lent by Middleton Place Foundation, Charleston, SC
In 1921, Ruth Middleton was inspired to inscribe on a family heirloom, a mid-nineteenth-century dry goods sack, what she knew about its enslaved owners. Using brown-, green-, and rose-colored embroidery thread, she recorded in neat handworked back-stitches the descent of the sack from her great-grandmother to her grandmother, both of whom had been slaves on a South Carolina plantation:
To save space we can format so that each line wraps and place a forward slash between.
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 handfuls 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
Sacks made of plain-weave cotton, like this example, were manufactured for flour, seeds and other food staples beginning in the late 1840s with the invention of the industrial sewing machine. Unlike stitching by hand, the double locking chain stitch produced by the machine made a seam strong enough to hold heavy contents. Constructed in the same way, Ashley's sack had seen much use by the time Ruth Middleton added her inscription; the numerous worn spots had been reinforced with rectangles of cloth carefully hand-sewn in place.
Searches through surviving Middleton family probate records from the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have revealed at least nine enslaved women named Rose; however, the name Ashley has not come to light.Collection
Middleton Place Foundation C/O: Historic CharlestLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Tertiary Object Term
SamplerNomenclature Secondary Object Term
EmbroideryNomenclature Primary Object Term
NeedleworkNomenclature Class
ArtNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsIntake
Loan In
L.2011.004Lender
Charles Duell, PresidentDate Received
Jan 12, 2011Date Returned
Feb 1, 2011Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
January 12, 2011Updated By
admin@catalogit.appUpdate Date
December 7, 2012