BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//National Civil War Museum - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:National Civil War Museum
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for National Civil War Museum
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:UTC
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0000
TZOFFSETTO:+0000
TZNAME:UTC
DTSTART:20240101T000000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250426T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250426T140000
DTSTAMP:20260502T045606
CREATED:20250103T201333Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250107T194258Z
UID:4119-1745672400-1745676000@www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org
SUMMARY:Civil War Book Talk with Dr. Judith Giesberg "Last Seen - The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families"
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a free\, in-person book talk\, Last Seen\, with Dr. Judith Giesberg on April 26\, 2025\, from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm\, followed by a book signing.\nAbout the book: Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements\, the riveting\, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery. Of all the many horrors of slavery\, the cruelest was the separation of families in slave auctions. Spouses and siblings were sold away from one other. Young children were separated from their mothers. Fathers were sent down river and never saw their families again. \nAs soon as slavery ended in 1865\, family members began to search for one another\, in some cases persisting until as late as the 1920s. They took out “information wanted” advertisements in newspapers and sent letters to the editor. Pastors in churches across the country read these advertisements from the pulpit\, expanding the search to those who had never learned to read or who did not have access to newspapers. These documents demonstrate that even as most white Americans—and even some younger Black Americans\, too—wanted to put slavery in the past\, many former slaves\, members of the “Freedom Generation\,” continued for years\, and even decades\, to search for one another. These letters and advertisements are testaments to formerly enslaved people’s enduring love for the families they lost in slavery\, yet they spent many years buried in the storage of local historical societies or on microfilm reels that time forgot. \nJudith Giesberg draws on the archive that she founded—containing almost five thousand letters and advertisements placed by members of the Freedom Generation—to compile these stories in a narrative form for the first time. Her in-depth research turned up additional information about the writers\, their families\, and their enslavers. With this critical context\, she recounts the moving stories of the people who placed the advertisements\, the loved ones they tried to find\, and the outcome of their quests to reunite. \nThis story underscores the cruelest horror of slavery—the forced breakup of families—and the resilience and determination of the formerly enslaved. Thoughtful\, heart-wrenching\, and illuminating\, Last Seen finally gives this lesser-known aspect of slavery the attention it deserves. \nAbout the author: Dr. Judith Giesberg is professor of history and Robert M. Birmingham chair in the humanities at Villanova University. She is the founder and director of the Last Seen archive\, and the author of several books on Civil War history\, including Army at Home\, Emilie Davis’s Civil War\, and Last Seen (ISBN 9781982174323). \n \nPhotograph (c) Mark Tassoni
URL:https://www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org/event/last-seen-an-in-person-book-talk/
LOCATION:The National Civil War Museum\, 1 Lincoln Circle at Reservoir Park\, Harrisburg\, PA\, 17103\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.nationalcivilwarmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/last-seen-9781982174323_xlg-e1735935099255.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR