A letter "To My Old Master" - Jourdan Anderson August 07 1865

To My Old Master
In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated).

(Source: The Freedmen's Book;

Image: A group of escaped slaves in Virginia in 1862, courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

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 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.
 
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38479/38479-h/38479-h.htm#Page_265
 
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html 
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I Write This as a Warning to the General Assembly

08.10.09

Question? What do Arthur Whitfield and Nat Turner have in common? They are forever to be remembered as 2 VA Negroes made famous by important milestones that flared into American consciousness in the historically heated month of August. And like many men of the colored and enslaved class both Nat and Arthur were ... are part of a system that has always positioned particular people of certain hues and views to be bred, borne and broken from cradle to grave and beyond. Furthermore, because this system of government took its first breaths on the shores of Virginia in the year 1607, 400 years later, doesn't it make sense that it here in Virginia where the leadership must be found to guide the nation in understanding how to move forward in the work of giving all citizens the right to share in the American Dream?

Answer No. 1: The first battle to claim victims in the Civil War was named after Nat Turner who lived from 1800 and died by hanging in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. Nat was called "Prophet." In 1831 the town of Courtland, VA was known as New Jerusalem It was said that Nat taught himself to read with the only book that would be found on a farm in 17th century America and he traveled from farm to farm preaching fire and brimstone. He often spoke of hearing God's voice commanding him to prepare for the time to slay slaveholders. It is very important to understand that back in the year 1800 when Nat Turner was born the United States of America was only 13 years old!

Additional Background: The Constitution was signed and ratified on September 17, 1787 after a raucous month of August that marked the birthing pains of the world's greatest democracy. And even today in 2009 America is still a young country. In the days of Nat Turner she was an infant. In 1831 if a household of any of the 60 men, women and children who died by Nat's command between August 21 - 23, 1831, had one book in it that one book would have been the Old Testament. The only other printed words to be found on those 19th century farms would have been a newspaper copy of their new nation's birth certificate which started with the following 38 word preamble: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings in liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Answer No. 2: Arthur Whitfield is a 52-year-old Black man currently in need of health insurance. Six years ago in 2003 Mr. Whitfield was released from the Commonwealth of Virginia's prison system after being wrongfully incarcerated for 22 years. During the special convening of the Virginia General Assembly on August 17, 2009 the issue of compensation for Arthur Whitfield will be taken up by that august body.

Additional Background: The Virginia General Assembly dates back to the House of Burgess es that first convened in Williamsburg and gave voice to early leaders like Patrick Henry who is most famous for that rallying cry, "Give me Liberty or Death" in those first battles that began to define what we, in the 21st century, have come to know as the American Dream. And during the upcoming special session it is hoped that our leaders understand that their leadership is needed far beyond fixing a dollar amount to Arthur Whitfield's pain and suffering. The State needs to make right the wrong that stole a man youth. The Commonwealth of Virginia needs to lead the nation in healing the wounds left by injustice and oppression.

Solution: The JuneteenthVA Commission's mission will be to guide audiences in the work of looking back without shame or blame as diverse communities come together in the goals of reconciliation and progress. The time to do this is now. JuneteenthVA is doing this work now. Just like Health Reform is being addressed on the federal level in this August 2009, so should be the establishment of a JuneteenthVA State Commission.

Evidence: Please see the following community discussion with members from Sons of the Confederacy, a descendant of one of the victims of the Nat Turner Insurrection and the cast members from this February 21, 2009 presentation at Riddick's Folly Museum located in Suffolk, VA of my play "Abolitionists' Museum." www.youtube.com/juneteenthva

Peace n the Vision of a Nu World,
sb
http://baileygroup.org/sheri_bailey

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21st Century Slaves & Slaveholders in America

08.09.09

21st Century Slaves & Slaveholders in America
written by Sheri Bailey

One of the reasons that so many American public school teachers and students don't do well in history is because our nation is embarrassed by its past. The hypocrisy of creating a nation based on freedom for all while denying it to those pesky African imports isn't something anyone in the 21st century -- especially strict Constitutionalists -- is trying to remember.

George Washington knew slavery was wrong, so he stipulated in his will that once Martha died, all of his slaves were to be freed. (More about how uncomfortable her last months probably were as everyone in the household waited on her to close her eyes for the final time another time.) Thomas Jefferson knew slavery was a cancer, but he was so in debt that he never freed any of his slaves not even in death. (More about his promises to Sally Hemmings another time.) Benjamin Franklin knew slavery was immoral and he became one of the colonial era's leading abolitionists. Of these three leading figures from our nation's beginning years as Americans decided on how to handle slavery, do we talk about all of them, one of them or none of them? Further, it is documented that all three of these founders of a new American democracy fathered Black children. This is very messy history, so let's focus on the present and America's current enslaved masses.

In 2009 there are approximately fifty million Americans who do not have health insurance. According to Republicans like Karl Rove most of us who are uninsured do not want nor deserve health insurance. Mr. Rove believes that having health insurance in America is a privilege, not a right. Two hundred and thirty years ago he would have been on the Constitutional sub-committee that came up with the "three-fifths human" formula that became how African descent people were counted in the census. To allow millions of human beings to be counted as individuals would have demanded that they be given their rights as American citizens and they certainly were not privileged enough to deserve such rights. Those rights were reserved for only those men who owned property.

Those privileged 18th century white males were America's first affirmative action recipients and now 230 years later they aren't trying to lose their constitutionally provided gains. They are fighting to stay in the top one percent of Americans with assets and that means no sharing. They have much practice in putting band aids on a gaping wounds. What they did with slavery was to set a 25-year timeline from 1776 after which it became illegal to import Africans. Slavery would still be legal, but importing human cargo could no longer be tolerated. On behalf of my ancestors let me just say, "Thanks a lot, guys ... ah ... I mean, founding fathers ... insurance companies ... blue dogs ... Republicans."

Last year I had health insurance, but I lost that job and the option for broke, unemployed me with the COBRA offer was about $550 a month. Recently, I tried to get a free mammogram at my local clinic, but discovered that my particular locality didn't offer a safety net for me. So despite the fact that women of a certain age are advised to get a mammogram on an annual basis as a preventative measure I discovered that as a poor person with neither rights nor privileges I was up the proverbial creek without an oar. I had to laugh.

This happens to poor people a lot. We are handed so many lemons that we become first class lemonade makers. In my hometown the hospital for poor people is Maryview, but we call it Murderview. Reason being, by the time folks get there they are beyond saving because without access to annual screenings people die from preventative illnesses in their 30s, 40s and 50s every single day.

But because of my ancestors I come from strong stock. Like they fought for their freedom and their dignity so shall I. As an American citizen I have a right to health insurance and I am not going to let sleazy, greedy capitalists and misinformed citizens me that I do not. I am an American citizen who believes in what Washington, Jefferson and Franklin laid out in the Constitution. The only difference being is that I believe the pursuit of truth, justice and happiness should apply to all Americans and not just the privileged few.

sb


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