After the War

On Facebook Suca Johnson pointed me to this website: Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery  where Villanova graduate students in history are collecting newspaper classified ads that appeared after the Civil War.  African American families broken up by slavery  began the search for one another.  Here’s one I found especially moving:

“Abraham Blackburn, Newburgh, NY, finds his mother after writing 256 letters of inquiry,” Newspaper report of family reunification, Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) (reprinted from the Newburgh Journal), December 8, 1886. link