What do you notice? What do you wonder?
I chose this ad because it amazed me that even after forty years, these siblings were able to find each other. Although they were both slaves from the same family, they both had very different lives and found their own path of success. Mary was left with a wealthy white woman’s fortune and William started his own dray business. They were able to have their own identities and through this they found each other again. This isn’t specific to this article or any one article or ad, but I wonder how people find each other like this. In this day and age you can do a quick Google search and probably find a long lost family member. In the late 19th century, they didn’t have those kinds of resources. It truly amazes me that forty years isn’t too long for a reunion.
Time/Place
This article was posted in 1897, about 20 years after the end of Reconstruction. After the Civil War, many former slaves chose to leave the south to lead new lives as freed people. During this time, Jim Crow laws were being implemented in the South, heavily enforcing racial segregation. William and Mary were both not living in the South: William was in Michigan and Mary was in California. Additionally, This was the time of booming industrial innovation in America so it made sense that William made a small fortune in his dray business, where moving supplies was essential.
Implications/Conclusions
With their new freedom, many former slaves had the means to search for family members they were separated from many years ago. It must have been difficult trying to piece together the few memories they had to reunite bloodlines, especially when many people, like William, changed their names. Through new technological advancements, there were new ways to communicate and information spread more quickly. Despite the hardships, through the means of these ads many people were able to find their families again, some after 40 years like William and Mary. However, it saddens me knowing that many people didn't have 40 years to spare and never found their families again or their ads were lost and never put into this database.
My question is this:
Knowing that sometimes family connections were never found, would you still make the effort to do so?
Amazing analysis!
In this case, not having any information of my family's whereabouts for more than 4 decades I would have definitely lose hope trying to find them. If there were some small snippets of information however I would keep finding them until the end.