One Mans Epic Letter to His Former Slave Owner.....

[Asclepias]

A slave that knew how to read and write



and I love how he used modern English as well

Some slaves did know how to read and write if their masters taught them, Frederick Douglass was a former slave and he was taught to read and write.

Its pretty apparent many enslaved people taught themselves and other enslaved to read and write. There would have been no need for laws prohibiting the education of the enslaved. Anytime whites passed laws it was because of something they could not control.

Harvard Education Publishing Group - Home

"Slaves who attempted to educate themselves, if caught, suffered physical and psychological consequences. Nonetheless, even under the strict limitations of slavery, slaves still developed ingenious strategies to become literate. Williams tells the story of slaves who received their instruction in “pit schools,” so named as such because they were “pit in the ground way out in the woods away from the master’s surveillance.” She also writes about slaves who “hid spelling books under their hats to be ready whenever they could entreat or bribe a literate person to teach them.” During the Civil War — a time when the fate of the institution of slavery was yet undetermined — African Americans’ desire to learn continued to burn. Williams tells of some Black soldiers studying their lessons during their lunch breaks and grasping at every opportunity to advance their education. She found that “during the transition from slavery to freedom, many African Americans simultaneously attempted to satisfy material needs with intellectual longing.” She presents detailed evidence of African Americans simultaneously clamoring for their education and their freedom."

 

[Meathead]

Just stick to jungle bunny civilizations. We all get a kick out of that. The very thought of a few jungle bunnies pondering the schematics of a pyramid is the stuff of comedy itself.

The fact that Black people came up with those concepts must bother you immensely.

Tell us how the cave chimps actually did it instead.

Tell us more! Enlighten us with the stories of jungle bunny civilizations,

Cave chimps first. Show us the progression.

Seriously, let's compare ancient Greece, going back 5000 years ago and a recorded history 2600 to ancient Ghana, whose first recording was 800 AD by others. Sub-Saharan blacks are 2000 years beyond Europeans, and yet 100s ot thousands of years beyond the rest of humanity and evolution.

What cave chimps say about Africa is not valid. They were still in caves when Africans had their civilizations. How would they know? BTW start another thread on this so I can clown you. Get back on topic.

What civilizations? There were no civilizations in sub-Sahara Africa until whites came. Even today, civilization in Africa is tenuous at best. As a matter of fact, it is still tenuous at best in African communities elsewhere even today. Brown and Martin and the state of black America as well as Brazil are obvious.

 

[Asclepias]

The fact that Black people came up with those concepts must bother you immensely.

Tell us how the cave chimps actually did it instead.

Tell us more! Enlighten us with the stories of jungle bunny civilizations,

Cave chimps first. Show us the progression.

Seriously, let's compare ancient Greece, going back 5000 years ago and a recorded history 2600 to ancient Ghana, whose first recording was 800 AD by others. Sub-Saharan blacks are 2000 years beyond Europeans, and yet 100s ot thousands of years beyond the rest of humanity and evolution.

What cave chimps say about Africa is not valid. They were still in caves when Africans had their civilizations. How would they know? BTW start another thread on this so I can clown you. Get back on topic.

What civilizations? There were no civilizations in sub-Sahara Africa until whites came. Even today, civilization in Africa is tenuous at best. As a matter of fact, it is still tenuous at best in African communities elsewhere even today. Brown and Martin and the state of black America as well as Brazil are obvious.

The civilizations whites didnt know about. I told you to start another thread so I can school you.

 

[Nutz]

A slave that knew how to read and write



and I love how he used modern English as well

Some slaves did know how to read and write if their masters taught them, Frederick Douglass was a former slave and he was taught to read and write.

And after they were freed...many ex-slaves were educated...especially in the NOrth. But even if the letter was ghost written, who cares! We know it is a part of history, the OP provided many links and a newspaper clipping. The funny thing, the USMB racists still deny it. Willful ignorance is hate indeed.

 

[007]

 

[squeeze berry]

A slave that knew how to read and write



and I love how he used modern English as well

Some slaves did know how to read and write if their masters taught them, Frederick Douglass was a former slave and he was taught to read and write.

And after they were freed...many ex-slaves were educated...especially in the NOrth. But even if the letter was ghost written, who cares! We know it is a part of history, the OP provided many links and a newspaper clipping. The funny thing, the USMB racists still deny it. Willful ignorance is hate indeed.

you are a USMB racist, do you deny it?

 

[squeeze berry]

I wonder who wrote the letter for him....

First he didnt write it because it was too good....Then...

Maybe his lack of education threw me off.

It was really bad

Racists have no logic...I thought you knew that.

lol you hypocrite

 

[squeeze berry]

Priceless is all I can say. I cant comprehend the level of self entitlement and self delusion the former slave owner has. The slave owner actually has the nerve to write his former slave and ask him to come back to the plantation after he was freed by the Union army. Here is the emancipated mans epic and sarcastic answer.

There Was Never Any Pay-day For the Negroes Jourdon Anderson Demands Wages

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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,

Jourdon Anderson

Are we supposed to believe that blacks could write that articulately today, let alone 1865?

Epic Fail.

More jungle-bunny civilizations, at least those are fairy-tale fails.

racist blacks believe that they and their race are innocent

 

[Asclepias]

Priceless is all I can say. I cant comprehend the level of self entitlement and self delusion the former slave owner has. The slave owner actually has the nerve to write his former slave and ask him to come back to the plantation after he was freed by the Union army. Here is the emancipated mans epic and sarcastic answer.

There Was Never Any Pay-day For the Negroes Jourdon Anderson Demands Wages

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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,

Jourdon Anderson

Are we supposed to believe that blacks could write that articulately today, let alone 1865?

Epic Fail.

More jungle-bunny civilizations, at least those are fairy-tale fails.

racist blacks believe that they and their race are innocent

Cave chimps know their race is feral but try to pretend they are civilized.

 

[Two Thumbs]

A slave that knew how to read and write



and I love how he used modern English as well

Modern english?

Yes

Get a real letter from that time and you will see the difference

Unless you think that's a real letter.

Do you have proof its not a real letter?

slaves were not taught to read or write

how did the former owner know where to sent the letter?

common sense would tell anyone with it, that this is complete bullshit

 

[Asclepias]

A slave that knew how to read and write



and I love how he used modern English as well

Modern english?

Yes

Get a real letter from that time and you will see the difference

Unless you think that's a real letter.

Do you have proof its not a real letter?

slaves were not taught to read or write

how did the former owner know where to sent the letter?

common sense would tell anyone with it, that this is complete bullshit

Because he knew where he was enslaved. You dont have to exactly be a neurosurgeon to know your address by heart. Did you locate that proof I was asking for?

 

[Two Thumbs]

A slave that knew how to read and write



and I love how he used modern English as well

Modern english?

Yes

Get a real letter from that time and you will see the difference

Unless you think that's a real letter.

Do you have proof its not a real letter?

slaves were not taught to read or write

how did the former owner know where to sent the letter?

common sense would tell anyone with it, that this is complete bullshit

Because he knew where he was enslaved. You dont have to exactly be a neurosurgeon to know your address by heart. Did you locate that proof I was asking for?

how's the esl classes going?

 

[Asclepias]

Modern english?

Yes

Get a real letter from that time and you will see the difference

Unless you think that's a real letter.

Do you have proof its not a real letter?

slaves were not taught to read or write

how did the former owner know where to sent the letter?

common sense would tell anyone with it, that this is complete bullshit

Because he knew where he was enslaved. You dont have to exactly be a neurosurgeon to know your address by heart. Did you locate that proof I was asking for?

how's the esl classes going?

Great. Now wheres that proof?

 

[Two Thumbs]

Yes

Get a real letter from that time and you will see the difference

Unless you think that's a real letter.

Do you have proof its not a real letter?

slaves were not taught to read or write

how did the former owner know where to sent the letter?

common sense would tell anyone with it, that this is complete bullshit

Because he knew where he was enslaved. You dont have to exactly be a neurosurgeon to know your address by heart. Did you locate that proof I was asking for?

how's the esl classes going?

Great. Now wheres that proof?

the owner would not know where the slave was, so he could not send a letter

didn't know you were that dumb as to think the former slave would make sure the owner, that shot at him, knew where he lived.

I won't make that mistake again, good day

 

[Asclepias]

Do you have proof its not a real letter?

slaves were not taught to read or write

how did the former owner know where to sent the letter?

common sense would tell anyone with it, that this is complete bullshit

Because he knew where he was enslaved. You dont have to exactly be a neurosurgeon to know your address by heart. Did you locate that proof I was asking for?

how's the esl classes going?

Great. Now wheres that proof?

the owner would not know where the slave was, so he could not send a letter

didn't know you were that dumb as to think the former slave would make sure the owner, that shot at him, knew where he lived.

I won't make that mistake again, good day

Who told you that the former slave owner didnt know where he was? Why would Jourdan worry about getting shot by some hick cave chimp that was not going to leave his home to come north and face a free Black man especially after getting his ass kicked by the Union army?

 

[Nutz]

So I found out the truth about this letter. Would you guys like to know the truth...or do you prefer the flaming?

 

[Asclepias]

So I found out the truth about this letter. Would you guys like to know the truth...or do you prefer the flaming?

The truth please.

 

[Nutz]

While I realize the resident racists won't bother to actually read the article, I will leave it up to you guys to pull out the details. In short, he dictated the letter to a banker named Valentine Winters. There are a few sources out there...but this AP story is the most complete.(It is an AP article reprinted in the Daily Mail).

Pictured The freed slave behind moving letter to old master after he was asked back to work on farm Daily Mail Online

 

[Nutz]

And the article pretty much answers all of the questions raised.

 

[ninja007]

the DNC had slaves as far back as 1865? wow.