What do you notice? What do you wonder?
The ad for my first primary source analysis was “Thomas Vaughan searching for parents”. I chose this ad because it was interesting and sad how the son was left alone without his parents who were missing at the same time. His father Isaac Fisher, and mother Fanny Bowles, were formerly slaves. This ad was made to spread information about those people and make it easier to find them or to report about them if anyone sees them. I wonder if he did find his parents later on. This ad was so old. The time period affects how information was received or given. Now, we have the technology, phone numbers, and many other ways to use to find someone. “Many formerly enslaved people (known as freedpeople) left plantations to search for family members who had been sold away. They published newspaper ads seeking information about long lost relatives”. People were trying to bring back their family together after everything that happened. I believe it was difficult and challenging to find missing people back in the days.
Time/Place and Implications/Conclusions
“Thomas Vaughan searching for parents” ad was released in California on February 26, 1870. Though the last time he heard from his parents was in 1861. This was during slavery and the civil war. In this time period, slavery wasn’t abolished and many black men and women tried to escape slavery in order to live freely as American cItizens. As it was mentioned in the module 2: Emancipation and Reconstruction, it was mentioned how property and citizenship were important especially for those under slavery. Children were also getting separated from their parents to eliminate the chance of them escaping. Women tried to regain the custody of their children who were taken to work for white masters. Women preferred to work hard to get their family than they did under slavery. Slavery had really a big impact on people in the time period, and how family members were separated from each other. This is why people started doing the ads in order to search for their missing members. They wanted their freedom back. Thomas Vaughan's parents disappeared when they were slaves, even after slavery was abolished there was no sign of them.
Discussion question
Do you think Thomas found his parents? For those who tried to reunite the family, do you think they succeeded? If you were living in that time period what would you have done?
Hi Amany! This is an interesting ad. I am stuck on the date and location--thinking about Thomas Vaughn being in California in 1870 and wondering what his economic situation was, whether he had access to community networks or a steady source of income. I wonder if his economic situation had anything to do with his efforts to find his parents, possibly to relocate them out to California with him. I like the questions you posed at the end, and I do agree with @KTon that the Civil War might have unfortunately played a role in Vaughn's separation from his parents, or maybe even their deaths.
Amazing Analysis!
I do not believe that Thomas found is parents because they must have been very old when he has started searching for them and might fallen ill or gotten killed from the war. I feel like most families who were trying to reunite were unsuccessful in finding each other because of the lack of communication they had back then and the likelihood of them dying due to the war.
Great work! I like how you mention the hardships he has been through to be able to find his parents. The ads released about nine years after he last heard from his parent, so I think it could be quite hard to find them. I think there would be some situations that succeeded, but also some would fail. If I were living in the same period, I would do the same thing as them that is finding my lost family members.
Nice job! This ad is very interesting. I think that Thomas wasn’t able to find his parents. For the people who tried to reunite with family, I think some were able to however, most were not able to. If they were able to, I think it would have taken years and years to find them again. The newspapers can only do so much.