A FORMER SLAVE WROTE FROM OHIO TO HIS FORMER MASTER IN TENNESSEE---who had written his servant asking him to come back South and work for him--- replying with (understandably) mixed emotions and mixed hostility.. The black man named Jourdan Anderson started by asking his former master of 52 years for combined back pay for him and his wife before they would consider going back to Tennessee to work as a free man and woman. His letter began:
“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.
“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."
The former slave said his wife, Mandy, wanted a show of good faith before they would leave Ohio for Tennessee: Back pay for their 52 years of combined service.
“If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future,” he wrote. “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.
“Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me."
This stunning letter, which should be read in full, was featured this week at Letters of Note.
H/T New York Daily News
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