Packed Sacks and Pieced Quilts

What is the role of material objects in the study and understanding of enslaved people’s experiences? Focusing on the examples of the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Massachusetts, story quilts created by Harriet Powers, and the cloth bag known as Ashley’s Sack, the article considers how things can engage visitors at historic sites, capture students’ imaginations in the classroom, and function as fruitful sources in historical research. Combined with the documentary record and oral history accounts, material objects can enrich our interpretations of enslaved peoples’ social conditions, emotional lives, and historical times.