Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery

265 Pages·2012·14.14 MB·English

by  Heather Andrea Williams

Help Me to Find My People
The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History & Culture
Waldo E. Martin Jr. & Patricia Sullivan, editors
Heather Andrea Williams
The African American Search for
Family Lost in Slavery
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
This book was published with the assistance of the John Hope
Franklin Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.
©2012 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Sally Fry
Set in Minion and Jenson by Rebecca Evans
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member
of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Heather Andrea.
Help me to ind my people : the African American search
for family lost in slavery / by Heather Andrea Williams.
p. cm. — (The John Hope Franklin series in
African American history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8078- 3554-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Slavery — S ocial aspects — U nited States — H istory.
2. African American families — H istory. 3. Slaves — F amily
relationships — U nited States — H istory.  I. Title.
E443.W63 2012
306.3′620973 — d c23
2011050216
16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of my father,
Andrew E. Williams,
and for Clay, again

Contents
Introduction 1
Part 1. Separation
Chapter 1. Fine Black Boy for Sale
Separation and Loss among Enslaved Children 21
Chapter 2. Let No Man Put Asunder
Separation of Husbands and Wives 47
Chapter 3. They May See Their Children Again
White Attitudes toward Separation 89
Part 2. The Search
Chapter 4. Blue Glass Beads Tied in a Rag of Cotton Cloth
The Search for Family during Slavery 119
Chapter 5. Information Wanted
The Search for Family ater Emancipation 139
Part 3. Reunification
Chapter 6. Happiness Too Deep for Utterance
Reuniication of Families 171
Epilogue
Help Me To Find My People
Genealogies of Separation 189
Notes 203
Bibliography 225
Acknowledgments 235
Index 239