• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

History 111

Fall 2019

  • Syllabus
  • Course schedule
  • Assignments
  • Resources

Fugitive Slave Ads and “Last Seen” ads

by Leslie Madsen · Dec 10, 2019

1. Visit the Freedom on the Move website.

  • Click on “Search.”
  • Use a Gmail (your Boise State account should work) or Facebook account to log in and view the ads, or set up an account.
  • Use the worksheet to analyze those ads.

2. Browse the ads on the “Last Seen” archive.

  • Select three ads that are of particular interest.
  • Use the worksheet to analyze those ads.

You can download the worksheet (.docx).

3. Answer these questions:

  • Based on the text of chapters 14 and 15 and the primary sources accompanying those chapters, how did the lives of enslaved peoples change during the Civil War and Reconstruction?
  • To what extent do the ads capture or hint at these changes?
  • What do we learn from reading the ads alongside the American Yawp‘s primary sources that we might miss if we had read only one set of documents?
  • If you were writing a book about this era, what additional kinds of primary sources would you seek, and why?

Filed Under: Material from class sessions

Copyright © 2026 · No Sidebar Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in