During the month of February, the Liberty County Historical Commission will celebrate the achievements of African Americans and their role in U.S. history. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.
“While reflecting on this annual celebration and the history of African Americans in this country, I would like to share insight into this difficult part of our history. Recently I read a book by a favorite author, Lisa Wingate, The Book of Lost Friends. I was instantly intrigued by the story held within its pages,” said LCHC Chair Linda Jamison. “For many decades slavery tore apart African-American families. Children were sold off from their mothers and fathers, husbands were taken from their wives. Many desperately tried to keep track of their family members, even running away to find loved ones. One can only imagine the raw grief which must have been inflicted upon these families.”
Slaves were valuable “property,” and many times were divided among heirs after the death of the owner with no thought given to family groups. In other cases, slaves were sold at public auction due to mismanagement and deep debt of their owners. Post emancipation, most African-Americans took the last name of their previous owner to cement their identification.
“As a history buff and genealogist, I am all too aware of the difficulty in tracing family histories and black lineage much beyond emancipation. In fact, it is quite difficult due to the lack of records. In this sad part of our history, early census records did record slave schedules, most of which only indicated the owner’s name and the first name, gender, race designation such as Black, Mulatto (biracial) and other vague information,” Jamison said.
Some records remain from plantations that survived the Civil War and are housed in state archives, but they are rare. Family historians turn to letters, other public records, slave narratives and other historical documents to re-create the heartbreaking scenes of separations that happened on plantations, farms, in marketplaces and on auction blocks.
After the Civil War and emancipation, unification efforts intensified. Freed slaves posted ads in newspapers and wrote letters seeking any information or clue to where family members might be located. In 1880 an annual subscription could be purchased to the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a newspaper published in New Orleans by the Methodist Book Concern and distributed to nearly 500 preachers, 800 post offices, and more than 4,000 subscribers in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. “Lost Friends” notices, which ran well into the 20th century, included messages from individuals and family members searching for loved ones who were lost in slavery.
These notices have been collected and digitized by The Historic New Orleans Collection (hnoc.org) in New Orleans, Louisiana. The searchable database provides access to more than 2,500 advertisements that appeared in the Advocate between November 1879 and December 1900. The database continues to expand as records are discovered.
“Lost Friends” advertisements tell stories that intertwine names and places and connect families. Many are especially detailed and show clear narratives of families being ripped apart and scattered across several states. It is an invaluable tool for tracing African American ancestry and has reunited many families.
“Lisa Wingate’s book, The Book of Lost Friends, was based on one of these advertisements. It follows Hannie, a formerly enslaved woman who embarks on a journey with two unlikely travelling companions to trace the paths of her family members. It is a touching and eye-opening book which I recommend as we honor Black history in February,” Jamison said.
People always talk about the beatings, hardworking, and rape, but rarely do they mention the selling off and separation of family members. When you see no compassion for unarmed black men gunned down by cops it comes from this!
Read this story in the link below and tell us how this relates to your comment? Carjacking and armed robbery? Who’s fault is this? The white man make them do this? Is this ok in your eyes? Quit hiding behind race. People who break the law regardless of color need to be punished.
https://bluebonnetnews.com/2022/01/24/lcso-work-truck-carjacked-in-plum-grove-area-early-monday/
Please print a comment when it is the truth.
Greg. We need to understand some people will never change. You know it is ok to gun down innocent store clerks and people on the street. Watch the news, it isn’t the cops doing the damage.
For Testytimes:
“In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit[ed] about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population,” she wrote.
Yet of the 996 fatal police shootings in 2018, only 209, or 21 percent, involved black suspects, meaning, according to Mac Donald, that the share of black suspects shot by the police was in fact “less than what the black crime rate would predict.”
The startling number here: There were nearly 3,000 more Black victims who wound up dead in America from criminal violence than there were white victims, though Blacks, at 12-13% of the U.S. population, are only one-fifth the size of the white population.
Translation: Black Americans are being shot, stabbed and beaten to death at a rate six to seven times that of whites. And by the end of this year, well over 10,000 Blacks will have been made the victims of homicide in America.
Testytimes. Any comment?
A little update for Testy. …….. Phoenix police was called to a shooting at a home. When an officer approached to help, the suspect opened fire, striking him multiple times, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams told reporters.
“There was a baby in the home, who at some point was placed in a carrier and placed outside,” Williams said.
She added, “As officers went to bring that baby to safety, the suspect continued to shoot, firing and striking four other officers. At that time our officers returned fire. The suspect then barricaded himself in the home.”