Judith Giesberg "Last Seen" Launch Party

Main Point Books welcomes Villanova University professor Judith Giesberg as she launches "Last Seen,"her newbook on the stories of formerly enslaved people looking for lost family members. The book is drawn from an archive she co-created that contains more than 3,500 advertisements and letters that were printed mainly in African-American newspapers after the Civil War. The book is a powerful testament to the power of family in the freed Black community.

Registrations are requested via Eventbrite; walk-ins are welcome as space permits. The event will be in our lower level event space. Books are available in advance through Eventbrite and the store's website, and will be for sale during the event.

About the Project

Drawing from an archive of nearly four thousand letters and advertisements, this is the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who, after emancipation, searched for family stolen away during slavery, a quest that continued for decades and underscores the cruelest horror of slavery: the forced breakup of families. It tells the stories of ten people as they look for the family they lost in slavery. It follows the survivors of slavery's extraordinary violence as they work to repair the connections to their blood relations and kin, rebuild in freedom the family that was taken from them, and to heal from the trauma of loss.

Host or Publisher Main Point Books