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A family of formerly enslaved people outside their house in Fredericksburg, Virginia, circa 1862–1865.

The Missing Persons of Reconstruction

Enslaved families were regularly separated​. A new history chronicles the tenacious efforts of the emancipated to be reunited​ with their loved ones.
by Joshua D. Rothman via The New Republic on February 26, 2025
A drawing of Confederate soldiers on horseback violently forcing Black people to walk south.

After Confederate Forces Took Their Children, These Black Mothers Fought to Reunite Their Families

Confederates kidnapped free Black people to sell into slavery. After the war, two women sought help from high places to track down their lost loved ones.
by Robert K. D. Colby via Smithsonian on February 6, 2025
Black and white photograph of William Still, sitting, pasted against a blue tinted backdrop of a U.S. state map

The Forgotten Father of the Underground Railroad

The author of a book about William Still unearths new details about the leading Black abolitionist—and reflects on his lost legacy.
by Andrew K. Diemer via Smithsonian on November 9, 2022
Chalk drawing of parent holding hands with child thinking about two-parent family

The “Benevolent Terror” of the Child Welfare System

The system's roots aren't in rescuing children, but in the policing of Black, Indigenous, and poor families.
by Dorothy E. Roberts, Nia T. Evans via Boston Review on March 31, 2022
Thirteen incarcerated children at Manzanar's Children's Village.

Manzanar Children’s Village: Japanese American Orphans in a WWII Concentration Camp

In June 1942, Kenji and just over one hundred other children were taken from their parents and relocated to Manzanar.
by Natasha Varner via Tropics of Meta on November 19, 2021
Immigrant mother and child embracing

As American as Family Separation

Though the cruelties of the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy were unique, they were part of an American tradition of taking children from parents.
by Hari Kunzru via New York Review of Books on June 9, 2021
Collage of a photograph of a boy over a photo of Castro and his entourage.

My Brother’s Keeper

Early in the Cuban Revolution, my mother made a consequential decision.
by Ada Ferrer via The New Yorker on February 18, 2021

America’s Long War on Children and Families

Trump’s family separation policy belongs to a much longer history of U.S. government forces taking children from families that don't match the American ideal.
by Paul M. Renfro via Boston Review on June 22, 2020
People standing in line at a detention center, watched by an enforcement officer.

America’s Long History of Imprisoning Children

Through slavery, Indian boarding schools, Japanese internment, mass incarceration, and anti-Communist wars against civilian populations in Latin America.
by Laura Briggs via Literary Hub on June 19, 2020
A circa 1830 illustration of a slave auction in America. Rischgitz/Hulton Archive—Getty Images.

'The Slaves Dread New Year's Day the Worst': The Grim History of January 1

New Year's Day used to be widely known as "Hiring Day" or "Heartbreak Day"
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on December 27, 2019
Elizabeth Warren at a debate podium.
partner

Why Family Separation Is So Central to Trump’s Immigration Vision

Strengthening family ties has been key to overcoming nativism — and in 2020, it can do so again.
by Maddalena Marinari via Made By History on December 21, 2019

An Irrevocable Separation

When the government executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the welfare of their two boys was a secondary concern.
by Robert Meeropol via The Marshall Project on July 2, 2018

Trumpism, Realized

To preserve the political and cultural preeminence of white Americans against a tide of demographic change, the administration has settled on a policy of systemic child abuse.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on June 20, 2018

The Roots of Trump’s Immigration Barbarity

The outrage over family separation creates an opportunity to reverse the bipartisan consensus that has long victimized immigrants.
by Daniel Denvir via Jacobin on June 20, 2018
Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.
partner

Why Laura Bush Speaking Up on Separating Families Matters So Much

The language that has long been critical to covertly mobilizing activism.
by Jim Downs via Made By History on June 20, 2018
partner

Religious Groups Are Fighting Trump to Keep Families Together

But they didn’t always oppose ripping kids from their parents.
by William S. Cossen via Made By History on June 19, 2018
A Japanese American woman holds a baby at an internment camp.

‘At Least During the Internment …’ Are Words I Thought I’d Never Utter

I was sent to a camp at just 5 years old — but even then, they didn't separate children from families.
by George Takei via Foreign Policy on June 19, 2018
An "Information Wanted" advertisement from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Courtesy of the National Archives.

Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery

Last Seen is recovering stories of families separated in the domestic slave trade. The following explains how the project engages with these family histories.
via Villanova University on August 1, 2016
Adolphe Duperly’s painting depicting the destruction of the Roehampton Estate in Jamaica during the Baptist War in January 1832.

For Enslaved People, the Holiday Season Was a Brief Window to Fight Back

The week between Christmas and the new year offered a rare opportunity for enslaved people to reclaim their humanity.
by Ana Lucia Araujo via The Conversation on December 18, 2024
Students at an Indian boarding school.

Acknowledgment as Denialism: The Myth of Reparations in the US

What is an apology from the President of the United States worth if reparations do not include cessation of settler colonial violence?
by Ja'loni Owens via Scalawag on December 11, 2024
A black and white photo of an American soldier on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2005.

God’s Directive

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, evangelical American missionaries followed military tanks into Afghanistan and Iraq to convert Muslims.
by Rozina Ali via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024
State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill Administration Building, with a restricted entrance sign in front of its doors.

The Porous Prison

How incarcerated people have become separated from American society.
by Charlotte Rosen, Reiko Hillyer via Public Books on October 3, 2024
Harriet Tubman.

How a Young Harriet Tubman Found Solace in Syncretic Religion

Childhood trauma led Minty Ross (Harriet Tubman) to seek divine intervention.
by Tiya Miles via Literary Hub on June 18, 2024
Japanese American community leaders Tom Yamaski, Ted Okahashi, and Karl Yoneda, who holds his son, Tommy, at a meeting at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in Owens Valley, Calif. on May 5, 1942. Yoneda's wife, the activist Elaine Black Yoneda, who was not Japanese, also spent time in the camp.
partner

On Loving Day, Remember the Families Separated by the U.S.

During Japanese-American incarceration, what happened to mixed-race families and individuals?
by Tracy Slater via Made By History on June 12, 2024
Book cover of "In the Shadow of Liberty," featuring city scenes and barbed wire.

Intended to Be Cruel

On Ana Raquel Minian’s “In the Shadow of Liberty.”
by Sara Campos via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 2, 2024
Members of the Mason family, St. Inigoes, Maryland, circa 1890–1909.

How Bondage Built the Church

Swarns’s book about a sale of enslaved people by Jesuit priests to save Georgetown University reminds us that the legacy of slavery is the legacy of resistance.
by Tiya Miles via New York Review of Books on May 2, 2024
Deb Haaland.

Deb Haaland Confronts the History of the Federal Agency She Leads

As the first Native American Cabinet member, the Secretary of the Interior has made it part of her job to address the travesties of the past.
by Casey N. Cep via The New Yorker on April 29, 2024
Two people hanging poster of a man looking for his family, holding a photo of himself as a child.

Searching for Guatemala’s Stolen Children

Journalist Rachel Nolan investigates tens of thousands of forced adoptions and the U.S. policy that enabled them.
by Cora Currier via The New Republic on January 25, 2024
Files in Guatemala’s Historical Archive of the National Police. Photo by Luis Soto.

Rachel Nolan: In the Best Interest of the Child

A new book gets inside Guatemala’s international adoption industry and the complicated context of deciding a child’s welfare.
by Rachel Nolan, Erin Siegal McIntyre via Guernica on January 16, 2024
Cuban refugee children.

When the U.S. Welcomed the ‘Pedro Pan’ Migrants of Cuba

Cold War America resettled unaccompanied minors as an anti-communist imperative. Today, the nation forgets this history.
by John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco via Zócalo Public Square on January 8, 2024
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