Letter from freed slave to former master draws attention

[malaise]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/letter-freed-slave-former-master-draw-attention-151653952.html?fb_action_ids=3217370838232%2C3217368878183%2C336098889754153%2C336098299754212%2C355841491093365&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&code=AQBQbIafjA4WIhJYZeRcL8ejOErzUaVxgO98E-ANfEMaiLh27hlF5haCuRgxHPadeSsOqo4MJvGBh9VdOLwwbtuoK1-dqOfa2ARpMuEYPDY5Creg0gKyVECXalfGFYFJAvn5mhC6gqRo1mT00wGEZAE0pcdJeuGH8mS147JqWBoLO9GJ_XHYz04cv6cKp_lcJE8#_=_
<snip>
A newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master is creating a buzz. Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting that Jourdan return to work on his farm.

In the time since escaping from slavery, Anderson had become emancipated, moved to Ohio where he found paid work and was now supporting his family. The letter turned up in the August 22 edition of the New York Daily Tribune. Some excerpts:

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there 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 concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive 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 earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been 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 to. Please send the money by Adams's 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 night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.
--------------------
Too good
Don't forget Slavery by Another name on PBS February 13th

[Brickbat]

1. While it's certainly delicious, this letter doesn't read right to me.

It's like an 1870s e-mail forward. I'd like to see the original letter.

[grasswire]

5. it's allegedly printed in an 1865 newspaper

Unless they have faked that image, which is at the link in the article.

[Brickbat]

6. Right, I know. As I said, I'd like to see the original letter.

[Fuzz]

7. I agree. It reads too perfectly. If it is real, wow, great letter.

[malaise]

9. Check this link

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=45660

[Brickbat]

10. That is very helpful, and it makes much more sense to me that this is a letter dicated to someone

who may have embellished it.

[malaise]

12. Huh? n/t

[grasswire]

11. VERY interesting

From a post on snopes:

"As further support of the authenticity of the letter and its contents, I direct the reader to the 1870, 1880, and 1900 federal censii for Dayton, Ohio which show Jordan Anderson (b Dec 1825 in Tennessee) in a household with his wife Amanda (b Oct 1829 in Tennessee). In the 1870 census, five years after the letter was published, they were listed with four of their children -- 19 year-old Jane, 12 year-old Felix (Grundy?), 5 year-old William, and 1 year-old Andrew. Over the years, Amanda had had eleven children, only six of whom were still living in 1900. Three of the children we were living with them 1900, including their 29 year-old son Valentine, a physician. In the years of the censii, Jordan lists himself as hostler, a coachman, and a butler. He cannot read or write, and Amanda can only read, but all of his children attend school in the records shown.

Patrick Henry Anderson Sr., born 1823 in Tennessee, merchant and farmer of Wilson County, Tennessee, appears in the federal censii of 1850 and 1860, with his wife Mary Ann, and his children Patrick Henry Jr., Martha, Pauldin, Timis, Edgar Poe (Allen?), and Mary. The slave schedules of 1860 show him as the owner of thirty-two slaves, including a 34 year-old male who could be Jordan. There's a three-year old boy who could be Felix and a ten year old girl who could be Jane, but Amanda doesn't seem to be in the list, unless her age has been mis-recorded. As genealogists will know, slave schedules did not include the names of the slaves, just their age, sex, and whether they were black or mulatto (of mixed ancestry). Notably, seven of the slaves, all of them minors, were listed as mulatto, however the distribution of ages of slaves (in particular the lack of female slaves of the correct age to be mothers) suggest that many of the younger slaves came from different owners originally.

According to other published and online records of his family tree, P.H. Anderson died in 1867. His son, P.H. Jr, the Henry mentioned in the letter, appears in censii in Wilson County as late as 1880.

There are multiple George Carters in Wilson County in the period in question, but the likely one is a carpenter who appears in censii in 1850, 1860, and 1870 in the same township as the Andersons. Before the war he owned two slaves, and each was mulatto."

[Hoyt]

2. I like the "screw you, colonel" response. Thanks for posting.

[grasswire]

3. that must have left a mark

Wow.

Also in the letter Jourdan asked if there would be accommodations for his two daughters where they would not be subjected to violence and dishonor at the hands of the master as had happened in the past.

That letter is the breath of freedom gained.

[malaise]

4. It's a thing of beauty

I love it

[Curmudgeoness]

8. That just goes to show

that the slaves were pretty intelligent, no matter what the owners thought. You have to wonder how the owner felt when he read that letter. Good for Mr. Anderson!

Remind us closer to February 13th about that PBS special. I don't pay enough attention to what is on TV, but would like to see that.

[malaise]

14. But some folks

don't believe an ex-slave could have been 'pretty intelligent'.

[Curmudgeoness]

15. I noticed that in reading the other posts.

Too bad. I have no doubt that there were very intelligent slaves. In fact, these were probably the ones who were always trying to escape. And against all odds, some learned to read and write. I don't know if this letter was written by the ex-slave or not, but I have no doubt that it is possible.