Educator Resources
How Teachers Are Using Last Seen Ads
Listen to teachers talk about their experience teaching the ads in their classrooms.
LaMonique Adom, 3rd Grade Teacher
Abigail Henry, High School Teacher
Resources for Educators
Information Wanted ads are rich primary sources for teaching the histories of slavery, domestic slave trade, emancipation, literacy, communication, and migration.
Teachers can use these ads in numerous ways to show students the effect of the domestic slave trade on those who experienced it firsthand. Written by formerly enslaved people, Information Wanted and Lost Friends ads reveal the voices of thousands of people otherwise absent from the historical record.
Below we have provided several resources to help you incorporate these ads into your curriculum, including a short essay and several articles explaining the history of the domestic slave trade and providing you context to use the ads; ready-to-go lesson plans and short activities you can use in your classroom; and additional online resources to support you when you teach this Hard History.