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Last Seen
The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
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Table of Contents
About The Book
Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements, the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery.
Of all the many horrors of slavery, the cruelest was the separation of families in slave auctions. Spouses and siblings were sold away from one other. Young children were separated from their mothers. Fathers were sent down river and never saw their families again.
As soon as slavery ended in 1865, family members began to search for one another, in some cases persisting until as late as the 1920s. They took out “information wanted” advertisements in newspapers and sent letters to the editor. Pastors in churches across the country read these advertisements from the pulpit, expanding the search to those who had never learned to read or who did not have access to newspapers. These documents demonstrate that even as most white Americans—and even some younger Black Americans, too—wanted to put slavery in the past, many former slaves, members of the “Freedom Generation,” continued for years, and even decades, to search for one another. These letters and advertisements are testaments to formerly enslaved people’s enduring love for the families they lost in slavery, yet they spent many years buried in the storage of local historical societies or on microfilm reels that time forgot.
Judith Giesberg draws on the archive that she founded—containing almost five thousand letters and advertisements placed by members of the Freedom Generation—to compile these stories in a narrative form for the first time. Her in-depth research turned up additional information about the writers, their families, and their enslavers. With this critical context, she recounts the moving stories of the people who placed the advertisements, the loved ones they tried to find, and the outcome of their quests to reunite.
This story underscores the cruelest horror of slavery—the forced breakup of families—and the resilience and determination of the formerly enslaved. Thoughtful, heart-wrenching, and illuminating, Last Seen finally gives this lesser-known aspect of slavery the attention it deserves.
Of all the many horrors of slavery, the cruelest was the separation of families in slave auctions. Spouses and siblings were sold away from one other. Young children were separated from their mothers. Fathers were sent down river and never saw their families again.
As soon as slavery ended in 1865, family members began to search for one another, in some cases persisting until as late as the 1920s. They took out “information wanted” advertisements in newspapers and sent letters to the editor. Pastors in churches across the country read these advertisements from the pulpit, expanding the search to those who had never learned to read or who did not have access to newspapers. These documents demonstrate that even as most white Americans—and even some younger Black Americans, too—wanted to put slavery in the past, many former slaves, members of the “Freedom Generation,” continued for years, and even decades, to search for one another. These letters and advertisements are testaments to formerly enslaved people’s enduring love for the families they lost in slavery, yet they spent many years buried in the storage of local historical societies or on microfilm reels that time forgot.
Judith Giesberg draws on the archive that she founded—containing almost five thousand letters and advertisements placed by members of the Freedom Generation—to compile these stories in a narrative form for the first time. Her in-depth research turned up additional information about the writers, their families, and their enslavers. With this critical context, she recounts the moving stories of the people who placed the advertisements, the loved ones they tried to find, and the outcome of their quests to reunite.
This story underscores the cruelest horror of slavery—the forced breakup of families—and the resilience and determination of the formerly enslaved. Thoughtful, heart-wrenching, and illuminating, Last Seen finally gives this lesser-known aspect of slavery the attention it deserves.
About The Author
Photograph (c) Mark Tassoni
Judith Giesberg is professor of history and Robert M. Birmingham chair in the humanities at Villanova University. She is the founder and director of the Last Seen archive, and the author of several books on Civil War history, including Army at Home, Emilie Davis’s Civil War, and Last Seen.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 4, 2025)
- Length: 336 pages
- ISBN13: 9781982174354
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Raves and Reviews
“Heartbreaking, and essential.”
—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths
“Love speaks across miles, decades and centuries in this meticulously excavated tribute to the formerly enslaved mothers, fathers, siblings, and kin who published “last seen” advertisements in search of loved ones stolen from them in bondage. Patience and Clara Bashop, Hagar Outlaw, Tally Miller, and the other seekers featured here may or may not have succeeded in having their beloveds restored to them, but the power of their loving, the spirit of their loved ones, and the immense scope of their courage breathe off the page in this vital work of recovery.”
—Ilyon Woo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Master, Slave, Husband, Wife
“Last Seen narrates the stories behind family separations and the indefatigable efforts of formerly enslaved people to find lost loved ones after the Civil War using thousands of “information wanted” advertisements in newspapers. Judy Giesberg brings to life poignant tales of hopeful (though rarely successful) parents, siblings, and other kin through her diligent research to trace the paths and flesh out micro-biographies of some of those who searched against all odds. This is essential reading for understanding both the cruelties of slavery and the resiliency of the generations harmed.”
—Tera W. Hunter, Chair of African American Studies at Princeton University
“The gripping stories of loss and love in Last Seen trace the journeys of slavery’s survivors in America who, for decades, tried to reunite their shattered families. By exposing the heartbreak of forced separations at slave auctions and the horrors of trafficking children, author Judith Giesberg brilliantly banishes the myth that enslaved people were content with their situation. Scrupulously researched, Last Seen is an eye-opening account of the long-lasting damage and disarray caused by the greed and cruelty of America’s slave trade. And the common thread in this tapestry of truth is the enduring power of hope.”
—Ann Hagedorn, award-winning author of Beyond the River and Savage Peace
“Last Seen is a powerful, wrenching, and necessary work that shows us how central family histories are to understanding American history. The stories of parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, desperately seeking and mostly not finding one another in the wake of slavery's violence reveal the indelible horrors of family separation. They also show that, rather than a recent or isolated phenomenon, family separation has been a recurring consequence of politics and policy.”
—Karin Wulf, Director of the John Carter Brown Library and Professor of History, Brown University
“This unvarnished account reminds us that centuries of suffering have yet to be fully acknowledged or atoned for. Informative and sobering.” —Kirkus Reviews
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- Author Photo (jpg): Judith Giesberg Photograph (c) Mark Tassoni(0.1 MB)
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