In the summer of 1865 , a former slave by the name of Jourdan Anderson sent a letter to his former master . And 147 years later , the document reads as richly as it must have been back then.
The roughly 800-word letter , which has resurfaced via various blogs , websites , Twitter and facebook , is a response to a missive from Colonel P.H. Anderson , Jourdan's former master back in Big Springs, Tennessee, Apparently , Col. Anderson had written Jourdan asking him to come to the big house to work .
In a tone that could be described either as "impressively measured" or "the deadest deadpan comedy ," the former slave , in the most genteel manner , basically tells the old slave master to kiss his rear end . He laments his being shot at by Col. Anderson when he fled slavery , the mistreatment of his children and there "was never pay-day for the Negroes any more than for horses and cows.
Below is Jourdan's letter in full , as it appears on letterofnote.com . To take a look at what appears to be a scan of the original letter , which appeared in an August 22 , 1865 edition of the New York Daily Tribune . As Letters Of Notes points out , the newspaper account makes clear that the letter was dicater .
*******************************************************************
Dayton, Ohio ,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master , Colonel P.H. Anderson , Big Spring , Tennessee
Sir , I got your letter , and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdan , and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again , promising to do better for me than anyone else can . I have often felt uneasy about you . I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this , for harboring Rebs they found at your house . I suppose they never heard about you going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable . Although you shot at me twice before I left you , I did not want to hear of your being hurt , and I am glad you are still living . It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again , and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther , Green and Lee. Give my love to them all , and tell them I hope we will meet in a better world , if not in this . I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hosiptal , but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intends to shoot me if he ever got a chance .
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me . I am doing tolerably well here . I get twenty-fine dollars a month , with victuals and clothing ; have a comfortable home for Mandy ... the folks call her Mrs. Anderson , ... and the children ...Milly , Jane and Grundy ... go to school and learning well . The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher . They go to Sunday School , and Mandy and me attend church regularly . We are kindly treated . Sometimes we hear them saying , "Them colored people were slaves " down in Tennessee . The children feel hurt when they hear those remarks ; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson . Many darkeys would have been proud , as I use to be , to call you master . Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me , I will better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again .
As for my freedom , which you say I can have , it is nothing to be gained on that score , as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville . Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly ; and we have conducted to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you . This will make us to forget and forgive the old scores , and rely on your justice and friendship in the future .I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy twenty years . At twenty-five dollars a month for me and two dollars a week for Mandy , our earning would amount to eleven thousand six hundred dollars . Add to this the interest for the time our wages was kept back , and deduct what you paid for our clothing , and three doctor's visits to me , and pulling a tooth for Mandy , and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled tp . Please send the money by Adams Express , in care of V. Winters , Esq. , Dayton Ohio . If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past , we can have little faith in your promises in the future . We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers , in making us toil for you for generations without recompense . Here I draw my wages every Saturday nught ; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negores any more than fot the horses and cows . Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire .
In answering this letter , please state if there would be safety for my Milly and Jane , who are now grown up , and both good-looking girls . You know how it was with Matilda and Catherine . I would rather stay here and strave ... and die , if it come to that ... than my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickness of their young masters . You will also please state if there has been any schools open ed for the colored children in your neighborhood . Tje great desire of my life now is to give my children an education , and have then form virtous habits.
Say howdy to George carter , and Thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me .
From your old servant ,
Jourdan Anderson
