Dean 'blesses the memory' of an enslaved black woman

On Sunday 14 July, the Dean of Southwark, Mark Oakley, preached a sermon in memory of Rose, a black enslaved woman in South Carolina.

When Rose’s master died, she was separated from her little girl, Ashley, who was taken to auction. Rose would never see her again. Just before they were parted from each other, Rose gave her child an old sack with a few things in it. The sack was handed down in the family over the years and can now be seen in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. On the sack there is embroidery which says:

‘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 Rose’s hair. Told her it be filled with my Love always. She never saw her again. Ashley is my grandmother. Ruth Middleton. 1921’.

The Dean, inspired by this story, spoke of such love, courageous and undaunted, as ‘a revolutionary act’ in times that are hardened and combative:

‘By loving, Rose refused to accept the tenets of her time: that people could be treated as property, that wealth was a greater value than dignity, that some lives had no worth beyond capital and gain. Hers is just one strong example from the collective experience of enslaved Black women, who practiced love and preserved life when all hope seemed lost…through that sack, we glimpse the visionary attitude of enslaved Black mothers, the miraculous love they bore, the insistence on radical humanisation even when times are against you.’

The Dean continued:

‘That is why ‘love’ is at the heart of our refreshed vision of this Cathedral and without any apology. It was love that was preached and lived out by the one we call our friend and teacher, who we dare to say we are followers of, Jesus of Nazareth. And in divisive and divided times such as ours, we need exemplars to inspire us, subvert us, wake us up out of our selfish sleep of self- satisfied self-reference, a world in which high self-esteem is couple with low self-awareness: a fatal combination for a society and a soul. This Cathedral, please God, will work hard always to ‘make space for love’, and that is the task we our setting ourselves. And it is people like Rose, a black enslaved woman, deprived and devalued, who will be our inspiration that love will be revolutionary here’.

The full sermon can be found below. 

​Rose’s story can be found in Tiya Miles’ book ‘All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake’ (Profile Books, 2024).