The following is a letter written by an ex-slave in response to his former master's
request that he return to the plantation, soon after the end of the
Civil War.
I think the letter stands on its own. Fascinating.
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
Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again,
promising to do better for me than anybody 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 your 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 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 the better world, if not in this. I
would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville
Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended 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-five 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 are 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 overhear
others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The
children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was
no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson.
Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you
master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I
will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to
move back again.
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.
In
answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my
Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You
know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay
here and starve — and die, if it come to that — than have my girls
brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters.
You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the
colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now
is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous 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,
Jourdon Anderson.
Just came across a new site (for me at least). www.facethefactsusa.org. Kind of cool. Take a look.
