Hawkins Wilson wrote a letter to the Freedmen’s Bureau searching for the family he was separated from as a 6-year-old. It was May of 1867. He described his mother, uncle, and siblings and their location in Virginia before his enslaver took him away to Galveston, Texas.
Watch the story of how his letter achieved its goal in 2022 in the exquisite video “A Dream Delivered: The Lost Letters of Hawkins Wilson.”
Well done, Ancestry, and thank you Anthony Anderson, Dr Henry Louis Gates, and Nicka Sewell-Smith for sharing this touching story.