Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Tuesday, July 10, 2012
6:00 to 8:00 PM

The pain and hope in the search for lost kin

Immediately following the Civil War, African Americans placed "information wanted" advertisements in newspapers, searching for missing family members. Heather Andrea Williams was inspired by the power of these ads and uses slave narratives, letters, interviews, public records, and diaries to guide readers back to the devastating moments of family separation during slavery. Williams explores the heartbreaking stories of separation and the long, usually unsuccessful journeys toward reunification. Williams follows those who were separated, chronicles their searches, and documents the rare experience of reunion. She also explores the sympathy, indifference, hostility, and empathy expressed by whites about sundered black families. Williams shows how searches for family members in the post–Civil War era continue to reverberate in African American culture in the ongoing search for family history and connection across generations.

Heather Andrea Williams is associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of "Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom."

A book signing will follow the talk. 

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