In the years following the Civil War, many formerly-enslaved people turned to a unique system to try to locate family members scattered in the chaotic years preceding Emancipation. They published or shared small classified advertisements, printed mostly in newspapers that catered to Black churches in the South, particularly the Southwestern Christian Advocate, seeking news of family members sold, scattered by economic disruption, or lost to conscription. Dozens of these advertisements are reproduced in The Book of Lost Friends, and their cumulative emotional impact gives the fictionalized story of one such searcher a stunning depth.
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