Dollie Ingram is searching for her mother, Margaret Ingram

The first thing I notice is that the ad very explicitly mentions that Dollie Ingram is a person of color. Being pretty unfamiliar with these ads, I wonder if this was a common thing that newspapers did, where they would, if the story ever involved an African American, make it clear that they were african american. The next thing I notice is that Dollie’s mother, Margaret, is described to have “formerly belonged” to Henry Ingram, suggesting that Henry was a slave owner who, unfortunately like many others, abused their slaves not only physically, but sexually as well. It is truly tragic to think about how Margaret may not have even been the only one, and how there are probably several others like Dollie who were taken from their mothers when they were children and who all shared the same father that never even intended on being involved in any of their lives. The last thing that stood out was how the ad mentioned that “any information, whether Margaret was dead or alive, will be thankfully received.” In my opinion, I feel like the newspaper didn’t have to make the situation sound any more morbid by including the phrase “dead or alive.” However, it seems like they did include it because it was a very likely possibility that Margaret, having been through the hardships of slavery, was indeed gone.

The ad dates back to 1871, which was post Civil War and right in the middle of the Reconstruction Era. While not necessarily the case, Dollie’s situation bears striking resemblance to information described in the Module 2 blog post, which stated that “in Missouri, children were often hired out to different households or geographically separated from their parents to discourage escape attempts.” The ad mentions that Dollie was separated from her mother in Arkansas and was taken to Missouri when she was a child, suggesting that Dollie very well might have been a victim of this human trafficking. Another significant detail that is important to recognize is that even after the Civil War, violence and racial terrorism in the South persisted (Module 9). Going back to how the ad specifies that info on Margaret “whether dead or alive,” I realize this may have been necessary to include after all considering that Margaret may have tragically been a victim to groups such as the KKK on top of the suffering of slavery that I initially reasoned.

Analysis of the context behind the ad reveals the larger trend that ads in other newspapers could have related to Dollie’s in the sense that many children were forcefully separated from their mothers/parents for the sole purpose of discouraging escape attempts among slaves. Dollie’s ad emphasizes an act of control, on top of slavery, that slave owners engaged in, which gave rise to an aspect of oppression that subjected children to lives without parents and left them to fend for themselves in a society that already viewed and treated them as subhuman.

Question to consider: Besides for the purpose of discouraging escape, why do you think slave owners separated the children of slaves from their mothers/parents?