George W. Moveety finds his family
The Chicago Weekly Tribune (Chicago, IL)
November 17, 1886
After Thirty-three Years. LAFAYETTE, Ind., Nov 15--An incident transpired here today singularly illustrative of the infamies of the late system of negro slavery in the United States, and of the unholy rebellion that led to its overthrow. George W. Moveety, a respected colored man of our city, was born a slave in Southampton County, Virginia, and in 1853, when in his 23rd year, was taken from his mother and sister and sold on the block to a negro trader, who took George to Mississippi and resold him to a cotton planter. The War came, and before it was over, George ran off, got into the Union lines, and became a soldier for his country and race's liberty. At its close he settled in Indiana, and a few years ago came here. Today he chanced to step into the Wabash Depot, and while there was electrified and almost struck dumb to find his sister, now Mrs. Petrin, and her husband and his old mother, both of whom he had not seen or heard of for a third of a century, and who he supposed were dead. They were en route to Iowa, and by the merest chance they were thus brought face to face as freemen, and not as chattels as in ante-bellum days. The meeting was a happy one, and the two families will soon be permanently together.
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