Reconstruction ended in the US in 1877, and during that year, as well as the years immediately post civil war, there was an especially huge push for black people to find loved ones who were sold off the other states or countries during slavery, especially those who had children fathered by their masters as their masters were the ones who sold off the child/ren or had the best information on finding them. People would send letters, put ads in newspapers, even take trips themselves to go find loved ones that they had lost due to the scurge that was slavery. And I keep thinking about Louis du pointe du lac, sending all those messages to find his daughter that was sent out of state by her white father