Sources: Slate magazine:
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Formerly enslaved African-Americans would place ads in newspapers around the country in their quest to find the loved ones taken away from them—or who they were stolen from. This is something that began in the 1830s. The ads usually started with "Information Wanted."
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The number of these notices exploded after the Civil War as Black folk attempted to reunite with family members separated by war, slavery and emancipation. The ads ran into the early 1900s and appeared in newspapers from around the country.
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In her book, "Help Me To Find My People: The African-American Search for Family Lost in Slavery," historian Heather Williams writes that advertisements like these were made necessary because the federal government was largely unprepared to help separated families reunite.
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“It makes you rethink that idea that the generation that grew up after the Civil War really wanted to distance themselves from slavery, wanted to forget about it, when these ads are running in these newspapers 50 years after," historian Judith Giesberg told NPR.
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Although there is no way to know exactly how many of the 1,000s of ads resulted in reunion, the Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery database includes almost 100 ads announcing successful searches and reunions.
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Source: NPR's Code Switch blog:
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@GullahSc
Thank you for citing your sources. I've heard of these ads being placed by
#AfricanAmericans
in search of their lost can but not prior to the
#USA
#civilwar
.
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