To My Old Master
Letters of Note, a website with regular offerings of exactly what it claims, published a great one from 1865. Apparently a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, asked his former slave Jourdan Anderson to come back and work on his farm. Anderson was now emancipated, living in Ohio, earning weekly wages, supporting his family, sending his children to school -- you get the idea.
His response, which he dictated, is unbelievably spectacular:
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.
That is so wonderful, I want to cheer. "Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me." Heh.
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Sep '10
Re: To My Old Master
My late grandmother used this word from time to time and I was puzzled by it because I'd never heard it used anywhere else and couldn't figure out where she would have gotten it from. I was always vaguely embarrassed by it, and its bothered me to this day. No more. Thanks, Mollie.
Aug '11
Re: To My Old Master
Wonderful letter. That is one shrewd man!
Mar '11
Re: To My Old Master
Almost too good to be true.
May '11
Re: To My Old Master
Wow. If this is legit, it's an amazing letter.
Re: To My Old Master
DrewInWisconsin
Wonderful letter. That is one shrewd man! · 4 minutes ago
I was once done wrong by a boss, which I know is a horrible comparison. But I practiced what I'd say to him should I ever meet him again. And when I did meet him again, I wished him well and asked how his wife and kids were doing. Sometimes I'm glad I didn't say what I wanted and sometimes I regret it.
Aug '10
Re: To My Old Master
Amazing letter. Refreshing how it circles back to work . Wasn't this used in the Pigford Settlement ? I would wager that the $11,000 was paid back many times over with the massive amount of funds that have been expended on welfare, housing, schooling, and the vast array of programs in the country that attempted to repay that debt.
Unfortunately, the social engineering used by the progressives to spend that money was mostly misdirected.
Re: To My Old Master
It was published in newspapers at the time it was written, but I guess that's no guarantee of anything.
May '10
Re: To My Old Master
Thank you for this Mollie, but curse you for introducing me to that incredible site where I will now be tempted to wallow endlessly (when not on Ricochet of course!)
Sep '10
Re: To My Old Master
Its because you're still doing penance for last week's utterance of "Speaking truth to power." The neighborhood big dogs are still laughing at me over that one. Its so embarrassing.
Jun '10
Re: To My Old Master
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
It was published in newspapers at the time it was written, but I guess that's no guarantee of anything. · 0 minutes ago
I buy it. I've read before about "wise seasoned" plantation owners, who after their slaves left, all of a sudden became very stupid about how to run a plantation and earn money. Sometimes their business genius left when their slaves left.
Edited on January 31, 2012 at 4:05pmMay '10
Re: To My Old Master
Pseudodionysius
Its because you're still doing penance for last week's utterance of "Speaking truth to power." The neighborhood big dogs are still laughing at me over that one. Its so embarrassing. · 4 minutes ago
I am not worthy... I am not worthy...
Mar '11
Re: To My Old Master
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
It was published in newspapers at the time it was written, but I guess that's no guarantee of anything. · 12 minutes ago
Agreed. Saying it was published in the newspapers at the time is akin to saying I read in on the internet. It just seems to me the author dictates a pretty mean letter for someone who presumably can't write.
May '10
Re: To My Old Master
Great example of what it really means to "turn the other cheek", thanks!
Jun '10
Re: To My Old Master
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! I love the fair accounting of past wages and interest due. Thanks for posting this.
Jun '10
Re: To My Old Master
The quality of the prose, the syntax, grammar, and spelling were obviously spruced up by a literate person. Few slaves were educated enough to speak like this. Nevertheless, the sentiment rings true. You can see similar attitudes expressed from writers like William Faulkner and W.E.B. Du Bois.
Of course, the left will never admit that such sentiments existed. Any such expression would be anathema to their Manichaean worldview where black is noble and white is pure evil. I wish I could link pictures from the current billboard campaign in Minneapolis (calling James Lileks). Whites are apparently guilty of racism in perpetuity! Unlike the Catholic view of original sin, white racism can never be expunged. Never!
Apr '11
Re: To My Old Master
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...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.
This is just so perfect.
Please, let it be legit!
May '10
Re: To My Old Master
Funny letter.
It's not unthinkable, though, that some slaves returned to their masters for work after the war. House slaves tended to be treated better than farm slaves. That's because interaction was more common and because on farms slaves vastly outnumbered owners, so fear was often necessary to keep them under control. In ancient Sparta, part of soldier initiation into adulthood involved terrorizing slaves.
Anyone who has worked as a grunt knows that job descriptions don't mean much (you do whatever the boss demands) and you're not always free to say or do what you want if you aim to keep the job. Slavery isn't as clear-cut as modern people like to pretend. The line between slavery and work can be blurry.
May '10
Re: To My Old Master
This is the one part that really makes me wonder about the letter's authenticity. Wasn't $25 per month a whole lot of money back then?
Oct '10
Re: To My Old Master
Basil Fawlty
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
It was published in newspapers at the time it was written, but I guess that's no guarantee of anything. · 12 minutes ago
Agreed. Saying it was published in the newspapers at the time is akin to saying I read in on the internet. It just seems to me the author dictates a pretty mean letter for someone who presumably can't write. · 16 minutes ago
After an initial rush of enthusiasm, I agree that it'd be unlikely that an unschooled ex-slave could dictate such a literate missive. More likely an abolitionist who wanted to stick it to Col. Anderson. Like so many items floating around the Internet today, the sentiment is great (or not), while the authorship is questionable.
Sep '11
Re: To My Old Master
Aaron Miller
Wasn't $25 per month a whole lot of money back then? · 0 minutes ago
About $1,927 in today's dollars assuming a 3% annual inflation rate... $460 assuming a 2% annual inflation rate.