Lost Friends
July 13, 2015 11:40 AM   Subscribe

Lost Friends: Advertisements from the Southwestern Christian Advocate:
Two dollars in 1880 bought a yearlong subscription to the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a newspaper published in New Orleans by the Methodist Book Concern and distributed to nearly five hundred preachers, eight hundred post offices, and more than four thousand subscribers in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The "Lost Friends" column, which ran from the paper's 1877 inception well into the first decade of the twentieth century, featured messages from individuals searching for loved ones lost in slavery.
posted by metaquarry (15 comments total) 43 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 11:46 AM on July 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


I wish to inquire for....

my mother
my daughter
my uncles
my brother


I'm gonna shut my door and cry a while now.
posted by rtha at 11:52 AM on July 13, 2015 [4 favorites]


In my job, I end up reading old letters now and then, and the ones from immigrants are often heartbreaking, because they are writing to family members they know they are unlikely to ever see alive again, and the pain of their separation is often palpable.

How much worse to be taken from someone you love. How much worse to be moved across the country. How much worse to not know where they are, or if they are alive, or if you will ever find them again.

The Methodist Book Concern was doing good work, and the Historic New Orleans Collection is likewise doing good work, the former by making it possible for some to reconnect, the latter by giving us a sense of how many were lost, and how awful this was, and how many likely never saw their loved ones and family again.
posted by maxsparber at 11:54 AM on July 13, 2015 [7 favorites]


DEAR EDITOR - I wish to inquire about my husband, George Washington Stepto. He belonged to Dr. McFarlin, of New Orleans. When we were separated, abut 34 years ago, we had a daughter, Mary E. Stepto, who is now with me. Any information of him will be gratefully received. Address me at Pittsfield, Texas, in care of Rev. A.C. Culbreath. CRECY STEPTO.

Almost-exclusively dispassionately worded, but clear evidence of agonizing pain and loss - unsettling reading.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:58 AM on July 13, 2015 [7 favorites]


Heartbreaking.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 1:36 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Thinking of the difficulty the name changes mentioned in some of the advertisements presented for finding relatives and friends, and the banal horror of not even being able to keep your own name.
posted by immlass at 1:40 PM on July 13, 2015 [4 favorites]


Sister's name was Lucy; she was sold when four days old.

Oh, this is heartbreaking.
posted by SisterHavana at 3:55 PM on July 13, 2015 [4 favorites]


.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 4:22 PM on July 13, 2015


These are harrowing. And a visceral exposure of the lie of the "kind master". No day to day "kindness", even if it did exist, could begin to make up for the evil of truly being owned - wrenched from your family as casually as dividing up Mom's old china.
posted by Ausamor at 6:38 PM on July 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Re-read Huckleberry Finn (Samuel Clemons / Mark Twain) and hurt with the reading as the runaway slave Jim aches for leaving his wife and children behind, how the first thing he's going to do when he gets freedom is to work to get enough money to buy his family out of slavery. Huck and Jim drifting down the Mississippi at night, Huck sometimes come awake to hear Jim anguishing with missing them.

Clemons is such a great writer and this is such a huge story, I read it and I can feel Jim hurting, and Huck being there, hard as he can, trying to understand what he's too young and green to get totally but Jim is in his heart and he's trying to get it.

It isn't a pretty book -- it's way too human to be pretty -- but it is so goddamn beautiful.

I'm the sort who reads books again when I love them; I bet I've read Huckleberry Finn 25 times, not to mention that Audible has a great version of it voiced / read by Elijah Wood -- I just can't recommend that highly enough.
posted by dancestoblue at 6:57 PM on July 13, 2015 [5 favorites]


Incredible.
posted by latkes at 7:48 PM on July 13, 2015


BackStory (which is pretty uniformly great) did an incredible short segment on this topic; you can listen to it here.
posted by you're a kitty! at 9:06 PM on July 13, 2015


The only thing more stunning than the pain humans can inflict is the pain humans can bear.
posted by kinnakeet at 10:09 PM on July 13, 2015


i want to hug my family.
posted by you're a kitty! at 10:20 PM on July 13, 2015


Heartbreaking.
posted by mareli at 3:11 PM on July 14, 2015


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