CBH Talk | Judith Giesberg Discusses “Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families”

Join historian Judith Giesberg for a discussion of her groundbreaking book, Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families, which brings to light the resilient efforts of formerly enslaved people to reunite with family members torn apart by slavery. Drawing from the extraordinary archive she founded – containing nearly 5,000 “information wanted” ads and letters placed in newspapers after 1865 –  Giesberg uncovers the heartbreaking stories of mothers, fathers, siblings, and spouses who were separated at slave auctions and who later searched for their loved ones, sometimes for generations.

These letters and advertisements typically spent decades buried in the storage of local historical societies or on microfilm reels that time forgot. In Last Seen, Giesberg weaves deeply personal narratives with in-depth historical research, highlighting the determination of those who refused to let the horrors of family separation define their futures. Through these stories, she sheds new light on a vital, little explored, chapter in American history.

Giesberg is led in conversation by Columbia University historian Stephanie McCurry, whose book Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South, was a 2011 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History.