From Your Old Servant

"From Your Old Servant"

In 1865, Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, asked his
former slave, Jourdan Anderson, to come back to work on the farm.

From Jourdan's response: 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. 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.

The whole letter is worth a read for the kicker at the end. Arturo R. García has more information
about the letter which was reprinted last month in The Freedmen’s Book. David Galbraith and
Jason Kottke tracked down Jourdan's census records. He died in 1905 at the ripe old age of 79.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/02/from-your-old-servant.html

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38479/38479-h/38479-h.htm

Gaat het hierom?
265

Mariakat schreef :

Gaat het hierom?
265

nr 265 : Een prachtig document !!

Uit deze brief komt een man naar voren, sind één jaar een vrij man nota bene, die zijn voormalige baas/slavenhouder van repliek dient op de
vraag of hij genegen is om weer voor hem te komen werken. Hij kent zijn voormalige baas wel zo goed dat hij niet op de beloften van
een betere behandeling ingaat : hij heeft ervaren dat, als hij niet aan de wensen van zijn baas voldoet, hij zijn leven niet zeker is. Verder
laat hij fijntjes weten dat er sprake van achterstallig loon dat hij en zijn vrouw nog tegoed hebben. Hij stipt ook nog aan dat hij
omwille van de veiligheid van zijn dochters niet terug zal keren.

De brief geeft het beeld van een volwassen, evenwichtige en zelfbewuste man zonder wraakgevoelens en met een realistische kijk op zijn leven.
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LETTER FROM A FREEDMAN TO HIS OLD MASTER.
[Written just as he dictated it.]
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[266]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.,[267]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.