Rev. Thomas Henry searching for his son Asberry/Rousbey Henry

I read several ads from several locations before choosing this ad: http://informationwanted.org/mapping-the-ads/ What I noticed about this ad in particular compared to the others I read was two things. First, I noticed that not only was the ad placed to receive any responses in the care of a reverend but it was also placed by a reverend. Many of the ads I read were placed by non-clergy persons looking for family. The second thing I noticed was the date of this advertisement. Many ads I read were anywhere from 10-20 years after the end of the Civil War in 1865, placed in the late 1800s. This ad was placed on June 3, 1865 in The Christian Recorder out of Philadelphia, PA, only two short months after the end of the Civil War.

Rev. Thomas Henry was looking for his son Asberry/Rousbey Henry who was sold from Hagertown, Maryland to Tallahassee, Florida in 1838. This is long before the Civil War was even a thought, more than 20 years prior to the start of the war. It is interesting that the Reverend was able to keep in some form of communication of his son's whereabouts up until 1847 when they last had contact. It seems that this would have been much more difficult in pre-civil war times when slaves had no rights, of any kind, whatsoever. It was another 18 years before the ad was placed in search of his son. I am curious as to how old his son was when sold. Wikipedia states: "The life expectancy in 1850 of a white person in the United States was forty; of a slave, thirty-six." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_health_on_plantations_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20life%20expectancy%20in%201850,a%20slave%2C%20thirty%2Dsix. ) So at the time of the ad placement his son would be over 27, most likely closer to 35 as, "generally, in the U.S. South, children entered field work between the ages of eight and 12." (http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/case-studies/57) If indeed Asberry was around 8 years old when sold in 1838 it was entirely possible his son may no longer have been living at the time of his father's ad.

For Reverend Henry it was probably easier for him to place an ad in the North that soon after the end of the war compared to freed peoples in the South, primarily because it was more socially acceptable in the North. As stated in The American Yawp (http://www.americanyawp.com/text/15-reconstruction/) "In the South, limits on human freedom endured and would stand for nearly a century more." This soon after the ending of the war it is clear that African Americans in the South, while legally free, weren't free to do as they will, including using publication ads to try and find family.

It would seem that, whether you were living in the North and were more readily able to us publication ads to try and family or, whether you lived in the South and had to endure many more years of racism and inequality, either way it would be a challenge of patience and hope against hope. I'm not sure I could have retained the hope of being reunited with lost family after so much time, distance, violence, and lack of resources. Yet, as these ads can attest, many people did have such hope and it is remarkable to see after so much suffering. I'm curious to know how many families were reunited as a result of these types of ads. Do you think you would have been able to hold onto hope under such circumstances and against such odds?