Help Me to Find My People
Audio only

Help Me to Find My People

The African American Search for Family Lost in SlaveryBy Heather Andrea WilliamsNarrated by Robin Miles
Length9h 50m

About this audiobook

After the Civil War, African Americans placed poignant "information wanted" advertisements in newspapers, searching for missing family members. Inspired by the power of these ads, Heather Andrea Williams uses slave narratives, letters, interviews, public records, and diaries to guide listeners back to devastating moments of family separation during slavery when people were sold away from parents, siblings, spouses, and children. Williams explores these heartbreaking stories and the long, usually unsuccessful journeys toward reunification. Examining the interior lives of the enslaved and freed people as they tried to come to terms with great loss, Williams grounds their grief, fear, anger, longing, frustration, and hope in the history of American slavery and the domestic slave trade. Williams follows those who were separated, chronicles their searches, and documents the rare experience of reunion. She also explores the empathy, sympathy, indifference, and hostility expressed by whites about sundered black families. Williams shows how searches for family members in the post–Civil War era continue to reverberate in African American culture in the ongoing search for family history and connection across generations.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.4 (627)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenrePsychology, History
Length9 hrs 50 mins
Narrated byRobin Miles
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 24, 2012
LanguageEnglish
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
Pearl of Great Price
Pearl of Great PriceJoseph Smith3h 8m4.7 (7.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Redeemer’s Return
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m4.7 (589)$20
The Happiest Man on Earth
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
Motherland
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to Die
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
Revolutionaries
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of Battle
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of Auschwitz
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's Promise
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Saving My Enemy
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m4.6 (2.3K)$20
On Democracies and Death Cults
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the River
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m4.8 (102)$0.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and Beyond
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
Endurance
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m4.6 (40.8K)$20
Beyond
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00

You may also like

Shelter Me
Shelter MeJuliette Fay13h 16m4.0 (9.6K)$23
Slave Narratives
Slave NarrativesUnited States. Work Projects Administration4h 34m4.4 (1.8K)$1 · $0.00
That's What Friends Are For
That's What Friends Are ForWade Rouse10h 35m4.0 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Woodrow on the Bench
Woodrow on the BenchJenna Blum5h 1m4.4 (3K)$24 · $0.00
In the Event of Death
In the Event of DeathKimberly Young10h 37m4.1 (1.3K)$20 · $0.00
Someday, Maybe
Someday, MaybeOnyi Nwabineli11h 7m4.0 (18.7K)$29 · $0.00
After Birth
After BirthElisa Albert6h 9m3.5 (4.8K)$24 · $0.00
The Courage to Heal
The Courage to HealEllen Bass, Laura Davis25h 33m4.3 (10.4K)$53 · $0.00
Learning to Speak Alzheimer's
Learning to Speak Alzheimer'sJoanne Koenig-Coste6h 54m4.3 (1.6K)$24 · $0.00
Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember
Tell Me Everything You Don't RememberChristine Hyung-Oak Lee7h 26m3.7 (1.6K)$24 · $0.00
We All Want Impossible Things
We All Want Impossible ThingsCatherine Newman6h 55m4.2 (72.7K)$24 · $0.00
Love Like There's No Tomorrow
Love Like There's No TomorrowOcieanna Fleiss6h 24m4.1 (1.3K)$10 · $0.00
Bad Bella
Bad BellaAli Standish2h 55m4.4 (298)$18 · $0.00
Jabberwocky
JabberwockyDr. Steven Gardner6h 20m4.4 (263)$25
Passages in Caregiving
Passages in CaregivingGail Sheehy12h 42m4.3 (554)$33 · $0.00
The Invisibility Cloak
The Invisibility CloakGe Fei3h 45m3.7 (2.5K)$15 · $0.00
No Happy Endings
No Happy EndingsNora McInerny7h 58m4.3 (9.6K)$26 · $0.00
Inheriting Edith
Inheriting EdithZoe Fishman8h 22m3.9 (12.8K)$26 · $0.00
Separation Anxiety
Separation AnxietyLaura Zigman7h 58m3.6 (12K)$26 · $0.00
Ravelstein
RavelsteinSaul Bellow8h 28m3.7 (6.6K)$17