Through the letters and testimony of freed slaves, this work tells the story of the remaking of the black family during the tumultuous years of the American Civil War era. Former slaves, free blacks and their contemporaries recount the elation accompanying the reunion of brothers and sisters separated for half a lifetime and the anguished realization that time lost could never be made up. There is also the satisfaction of legitimizing a marriage once denied by law and the unspeakable sadness of discovering that a long-lost spouse had remarried, the pride of establishing an independent household and the shame of not being able to protect it.