The Reconstruction Era National Historical Park recently shared this:
In August 1865, Jourdon Anderson, a freedman living in Dayton, Ohio, addressed a letter to his former enslaver, Col. Patrick H. Anderson, in Tennessee. He wrote in response to a request from Patrick to return to work on the farm where he was enslaved just a year prior.
This correspondence was dictated by Jourdon to a local abolitionist, Valentine Winters, who submitted a copy of the letter to the Cincinnati Commercial. Over the next several months, Jourdon’s letter saw publication in newspapers across the United States.
“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… 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…
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… I served you faithfully for 32 years, and Mandy 20 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 have been kept back…
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…
In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up…I would rather stay here and starve and die…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.
From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson
P.S. – Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.”
Jourdon Anderson never returned to Tennessee.
Image: Jourdon (Jordan) Anderson, date unknown
good for him….