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.