http://informationwanted.org/items/show/3357
I found this article by searching 'Kansas'. which is where I was born and raised. This particular ad is from
the Kansas City Gazette out of Kansas City, Kansas.
I chose this article because I really liked that it was a happy story. It was different from all the rest.
No one was searching for information or whereabouts of anyone, it was just "A Romance of Slavery".
I found it particularly interesting that the two newlyweds were both owned by the same master when they were children. They were separated after the emancipation of slaves in 1863. and did not reunite and marry until 1899, when the article was published. which makes me wonder how did they find each other? was it just pure luck that they both ended up moving to the same area 35 years later? Kansas city Kansas after the war was still an up and coming city but the state as a whole, was advertised as a good place for African Americans to settle. KCK is just across the state lines from Kansas City Missouri where there was many slave owners before the emancipation. I'm not sure where they were enslaved at but I wonder if they were part of the Exodusters movement that migrated from the south to Kansas in 1879. Whether they were part of the Exodusters or from a master in Missouri, it still makes me wonder how they miraculously settled in the same city and reunited after all those years. freed slaves had many options on where they could settle after the emancipation (https://maryklann.wixsite.com/hist110/post/module-2-emancipation-and-reconstruction). I also noticed that there is a 15 year age difference between them. Richard would have been 19 at the time of emancipation and Jane would have been 4 years old. I'm sure families of the same master were pretty close, so I am assuming they knew each other from their parents being friends. Overall,
the reunion of these two seems to be complete fate after 35 years of separation. They chose a good place to settle down.
Question: Do you think it was fate that they reunited? or was it possibly planned?
Because of the age difference you noted, I'm inclined to think it was by chance that they met again. But your analysis in the post was great--I also wonder if their location in Kansas was as a result of the out migration that occurred in the years following the war.
Thinking about this situation more, it makes a lot of sense to me that they would see something in each other since they shared such a significant memory of being enslaved in the same place. A lot of these ads are about reconstituting lost communities and families. This seems like a version of that.
I very much like that this was a happy ending ad comparatively speaking. I think it must have been more fate and luck than planning. I'm not sure it was even possible for slaves to plan for anything that far into the future. So much was unknown for them. They were both much older when married and I hope they were able to live many happy years together.
They were in the same city so it was highly likely they would meet so I think it was fate for them.