Summary Of Dr. Williams 'Help Me To Find My People'

In her lecture, Dr. Williams sets out to explain her writing process for her book “Help me to Find My People”, which is about the emotional and physical violence of slaves being separated from their families, and then attempting to reunite their families after slavery is abolished. Slaves were separated whenever their masters died, or wanted to sell their slaves or their slaves’ children. Sometimes masters fell in debt and had to sell some slaves, as in the case of an account that Dr. Williams gives. This slaveowner recognizes he’s doing something wrong, but feels little regret, as slaveowners deluded themselves into thinking that slaves didn’t feel as deeply. Marriage was not legally permitted for slaves as slaves were not allowed to sign legal contracts, and because the social system in place called for a husband providing for his family, which wasn’t a possibility in the case of slaves.

Williams has discovered during her research. There are two psychological terms she associates with this search: ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief. Ambiguous loss is the loss felt when someone is presumed dead, but their loved ones continue holding on to the hope that they’re still alive. Slaves felt this when they continued to search for their families against all odds of them having survived. Disenfranchised grief is when one experiences grief that isn’t socially acceptable, like when separated families grieved for their family members. Slave owners often whipped and punished slaves for grieving the loss of their families for an extended period of time. The last newspaper ad Dr. Williams found was from 1903, which suggests that many were unsuccessful in finding their families. Even if they did find them, they often found that their wives or husbands had remarried, and that their children didn’t recognize