We take a final look at the efforts by former slaves to find their loved ones after being separated by the cruelties of slavery. Washington, D.C., circa 1916. "Slaves reunion. Lewis Martin, age 100; Martha Elizabeth Banks, age 104; Amy Ware, age 103; Rev. Simon P. Drew, born free." Cosmopolitan Baptist Church, 921 N Street N.W. After emancipation, some African American … [Read more...] about Saturday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation
Emancipation
Friday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation
It's Friday! It' Friday! We continue to probe how slavery affected the black family and ways slaves fought to reunite after emancipation. Today, we take a look at another excerpt from Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery by Heather Andrea Williams. Published by The University of North Carolina Press. Their griefs are … [Read more...] about Friday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation
Thursday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation
Good Thursday Morning POU! It is important to define “family” as it has been used by African Americans. Scholars generally agree that since the beginning of slavery in the United States, African Americans have viewed their families in terms of kin networks. These kin networks formed the social basis of African-American communities. Slaves were often forcefully removed from … [Read more...] about Thursday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation
Wednesday Open Thread: Familes and Freedom – The Fight To Reunion After Emancipation
Good Morning POU! I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land. — Attributed to Harriet Tubman As soon as Hawkins Wilson, an enslaved African American from the region outside of Galveston, Texas, realized that he was free, he knew exactly what he would do. He would begin a search to find his family — a … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: Familes and Freedom – The Fight To Reunion After Emancipation
Tuesday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation
Good Morning POU! I've heard this question so many times, and I've asked it myself. I never knew there was a origin to it, now I know. “Who are your people?” It’s a question exchanged often by black Southerners to identify kith and kin. But few remember that its roots can be traced to the aftermath of the Civil War. Once emancipated, former slaves desperately … [Read more...] about Tuesday Open Thread: Families and Freedom – The Fight To Reunite After Emancipation