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Ex Slave Replies to Master in a Letter

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Ex Slave Replies to Master in a Letter 

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  #1  
Old 10-05-2013, 05:15 AM
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What you about to read, is an freed slave who has now made a life for himself, married with 11 kids. He finds a letter printed in his local newspaper. The letter is from his old master, whom is is need of his good working old slave, Jordan Anderson.

....So Mr.Anderson replies to his old master......


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 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 Col. 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 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 $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks here 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 Col. Anderson. Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to was, 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 are sincerely 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 $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has 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 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 n 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 ******* 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 comes 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.

P.S.—
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

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_LibriVox.ogg
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  #2  
Old 10-05-2013, 05:34 AM
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P.S.—
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.


I don't reckon he ever went back to Tennessee.
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Old 10-06-2013, 12:47 PM
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Originally Posted by deanmine View Post
What you about to read, is an freed slave who has now made a life for himself, married with 11 kids. He finds a letter printed in his local newspaper. The letter is from his old master, whom is is need of his good working old slave, Jordan Anderson.

....So Mr.Anderson replies to his old master......


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 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 Col. 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 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 $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks here 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 Col. Anderson. Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to was, 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 are sincerely 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 $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has 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 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 n 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 ******* 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 comes 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.

P.S.—
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

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_LibriVox.ogg

Nice story, but probably bullshit.

Dates are incorrect for story timeline, those 11 kids would have been sold off long ago as Slaves were considered a cash crop as well as being farm tools, most slaves couldn't read or write, etc, etc and from what I know about the immediate postwar reconstruction period if find it improbable.
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  #4  
Old 10-06-2013, 12:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Zambini View Post
Nice story, but bullshit.

Dates are incorrect for story timeline, those 11 kids would have been sold off long ago as Slaves were considered a cash crop as well as being farm tools.
sorry bro. go ahead and research it dude... and dont worry about it
  #5  
Old 10-06-2013, 01:10 PM
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sorry bro. go ahead and research it dude... and dont worry about it
I'm probably jaded due to all the "True story" stuff posted on here, at first glance the things I pointed out jumped out at me

It's such an emotional issue, that subject, that it's worth having an honest, factual discussion about it.

So i would enjoy seeing evidence of that particular incident.

I'm the kinda guy that will admit when I'm wrong, I'll amend my post to "probably"
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Old 10-06-2013, 01:25 PM
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http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...3707768.php#/0

and I hope its not a hoax, cuz this is a great fuckin letter
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  #7  
Old 10-06-2013, 01:43 PM
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  #8  
Old 10-06-2013, 04:29 PM
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The emancipation proclamation of 1863 did not apply to Tennessee, it was specifically excluded, along with a few other border states.

It was a presidential proclamation, it only applied to the confederate states because it took a constitutional amendment to end slavery.

The battle of Tennessee was fought during December 1864, during which this person supposedly got his "freedom papers".

The 13th admendment that actually freed the slaves in the Union, was not passed until December 6th, 1865, fully a year after mr Anderson said he got his "papers" and 7 months after the war.

Sorry, I know it's a feel good story and all that, but the facts just don't add up.


http://nashvillepublicradio.org/blog...1/emancipation


Tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order is commonly thought of as being responsible for freeing America’s slaves, but the truth is more complex, especially in Tennessee.

The order only applied in places that were considered to be in active rebellion. Lincoln wasn’t yet ready to challenge the status quo in slave states that had stayed loyal to the Union, like Kentucky and Missouri.

And while Tennessee had joined the Confederacy, it was mostly in Union hands by the end of 1862. So when Lincoln specifically listed the areas where all black people should be considered free, Tennessee was not on the list.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirtee...s_Constitution


The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed it to have been adopted. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.
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  #9  
Old 10-06-2013, 04:40 PM
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im going to dig in to this.. this is fun... thanks..... oh.. look up Juneteenth celebration in Austin, Texas, on June 19, 1900.. ... i think ull enjoy it....
  #10  
Old 10-06-2013, 04:52 PM
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o.k. bare with me here, im on hold with the President of Yahoo and ABC News to ask why they Printed this.... Im shure this will devastate the news media industry as we know it..
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