Help Me to Find My People
- Author Heather Andrea Williams
- Narrator Robin Miles
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Run Time 9 hours and 51 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Ethnic studies, History, History of the Americas, Society and culture: general.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- €9.95
- €8.95
- €7.95
- €6.95
- €5.95
Listen to a sample
What to expect
After the Civil War, African Americans placed poignant "information wanted" advertisements in newspapers, searching for missing family members. Inspired by the power of these ads, Heather Andrea Williams uses slave narratives, letters, interviews, public records, and diaries to guide listeners back to devastating moments of family separation during slavery when people were sold away from parents, siblings, spouses, and children. Williams explores these heartbreaking stories and the long, usually unsuccessful journeys toward reunification. Examining the interior lives of the enslaved and freed people as they tried to come to terms with great loss, Williams grounds their grief, fear, anger, longing, frustration, and hope in the history of American slavery and the domestic slave trade.
Williams follows those who were separated, chronicles their searches, and documents the rare experience of reunion. She also explores the empathy, sympathy, indifference, and hostility expressed by whites about sundered black families. Williams shows how searches for family members in the post–Civil War era continue to reverberate in African American culture in the ongoing search for family history and connection across generations.
Critics Review
-
“Williams examines the historical fact of family separation and renders its emotional truth. She is the rare scholar who writes history with such tenderness that her words can bring a reader to tears…[The book] has a propulsive narrative flow, and with each successive chapter the suppleness of Williams’ prose grows.”
New York Times Book Review -
“Inspired by ‘information wanted’ advertisements that African Americans placed in newspapers to find loved ones after the Civil War, Williams examines the emotional and psychological effects of separation and reunion on both free and enslaved African Americans…An important addition to African American history collections.”
Library Journal -
“Offers is a close examination of the emotions of slaves and their owners…Allows the enslaved and formerly enslaved to speak for themselves on loss and the physical and emotional tribulations of slavery…Williams’ source materials and her own narrative evoke the longing, fear, grief, and hope that have endured as black families continue to search genealogies to reconnect to family members lost to the cruelty of slavery.”
Booklist -
“History,
AudioFile
as we are reminded by this book, is told from the perspective of those with
power. Robin Miles’ confident oratorical style gives the listener a sense of
empowerment regarding the attempts of African-Americans to recover their family
histories lost through the institution of slavery. Miles’ tone is crisp, her
pace steady, and her style journalistic, all of which suit the theme set out by
the author. Though full of facts and minute biographical details, Miles’ evenly
paced reading draws the listener into the personal aspects of these stories.
She differentiates between the male and female recollections by changes in
tone. She also creates successful narrative personas to delineate the journal
entries, reported dialogue, and overall narrative text.” -
“A stunning narrative. Relying upon an astonishing variety
William Darity, Jr., arts and sciences professor of public policy, African and African American studies, and economics, Duke University
of sources, Williams documents one of the deepest prices paid by those
subjected to enslavement—forced separation from their loved ones—and chronicles
the long and difficult journeys they undertook to search for loved ones.” -
“Williams speaks to scholars and to everyone interested in
Michael Tadman, University of Liverpool
African American roots and family history as she delves into the short-run and
long-run impact of family instability and disruption. This is a study of real
importance.”
More from the same
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.