This is pretty good. Prior slave tells old master to shove it!

[DalesCarpentry]

In Rediscovered Letter From 1865, Former Slave Tells Old Master To Shove It                                                                                 First Posted: 02/ 1/2012  2:12 pm Updated: 02/ 1/2012  2:17 pm                                                                                                               In the summer of 1865 a former slave by the name of Jourdan Anderson wrote a letter to his former master. And 147 years later, the letter reads as rich and wry as it must have read back then. In the letter, which has resurfaced via various blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook, Anderson is responding to a letter written by Colonel P.H. Anderson, his former master back in Big Spring, Tennessee. Apparently, Col. Andreson had written Jourdan asking him to come on back to the big house to work.
In about 800 words of genius, chutzpah and what could best be described as either an earnest requital or the deadest of dead-pan comedy and sarcasm, the former slave, in the most gentile manner, basically tells the old slave master to kiss his rear end. He laments his being shot at by Col. Anderson when he fled slavery, the mistreatment of his children and that there "was never pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows."
Below, is Jourdan’s letter in whole, as it appears on lettersofnote.com. To take a look at what appears to be a scan of the original letter, which appeared in an August 22, 1865 edition of the New York Daily Tribune, click here.

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.

[OldSchoolRanger]

I just love it.  Ole' Jourdon does have a sense of humor.

[AtlLaw]

I seriously doubt the origin of the letter as stated by the "New York Daily Tribune" even though they start off asserting the letter is a "genuine document."   

[Casull]

I'm with you AtlLaw.  That does not sound like the writings of a former slave who was freed just 4 years prior.

[briarpatch]

It has been my understanding that slaves were not allowed an education. I see he has applied the three R's, reading, riteing and rithmatic to this letter.
It is possible he was educated but my guess is a forgery.

[Sourdough]

I agree this is a forgery.  Having grown up in Tennessee, Not all that far from Big Spring, I know how those folks speak.  The Scotch/Irish words are missing that someone growing up, or living long in that part of the state would be using.  And there is some words that even the educated of that area would not have used, let alone a slave.  Remember it was against the law for a slave to be educated.   I am a descendant of Slave owners, My Great- Grand parents were slave owners.  My Great- Grandfather was a doctor, a well educated man, he did not speak like that.  He used the local vernacular.  I remember how they spoke, and what they said about life when they were young.  I have read their diaries and journals.  And this letter is not indicative of someone that lived in that area.

And just for everyone's information, I am not proud that my ancestors were slave owners/breeders, it's something I have accepted as fact, and am not embarrassed about it.  I can live with that, especially since we can not chose our ancestors.  And yes they kept records called stud books on their breeding of their Tennessee Walking Horses, and their slaves.  I ran across those books one day after my Grandfather had passed away.  I was up in the attic going through some old trunks.  My Grandmother came up and saw me with those books.  She jerked them out of my hands, which was something unusual for her.  She threw those books across the room and told me I was never to look at them again, or ask any questions about them.  It was one of the few times I saw my grandmother upset, enough to swear.  She was swearing about those XXXXXX books and how those XXXXXX records ought to be burned.  Unfortunately the genealogical records contained in those books of lots of Black Folks were burned.  When My Grandmother was on her death bed, her house was struck by lighting and burned to the ground.  Nothing left.

 

[OldSchoolRanger]

I agree this is a forgery.  Having grown up in Tennessee, Not all that far from Big Spring, I know how those folks speak.  The Scotch/Irish words are missing that someone growing up, or living long in that part of the state would be using.  And there is some words that even the educated of that area would not have used, let alone a slave.  Remember it was against the law for a slave to be educated.   I am a descendant of Slave owners, My Great- Grand parents were slave owners.  My Great- Grandfather was a doctor, a well educated man, he did not speak like that.  He used the local vernacular.  I remember how they spoke, and what they said about life when they were young.  I have read their diaries and journals.  And this letter is not indicative of someone that lived in that area.

And just for everyone's information, I am not proud that my ancestors were slave owners/breeders, it's something I have accepted as fact, and am not embarrassed about it.  I can live with that, especially since we can not chose our ancestors.  And yes they kept records called stud books on their breeding of their Tennessee Walking Horses, and their slaves.  I ran across those books one day after my Grandfather had passed away.  I was up in the attic going through some old trunks.  My Grandmother came up and saw me with those books.  She jerked them out of my hands, which was something unusual for her.  She threw those books across the room and told me I was never to look at them again, or ask any questions about them.  It was one of the few times I saw my grandmother upset, enough to swear.  She was swearing about those XXXXXX books and how those XXXXXX records ought to be burned.  Unfortunately the genealogical records contained in those books of lots of Black Folks were burned.  When My Grandmother was on her death bed, her house was struck by lighting and burned to the ground.  Nothing left.

SD & others who state that the letter was a forgery - Now that I've reread it, you are probably correct, but I still think it was entertaining.SD - Glad that your not ashamed or embarrassed, no should anyone blame the "son for the sins of their fathers".   You had no control over what happened in the past.It is a shame the books were lost, that was part of the history of this country, and it's people, which can never be replaced.

[DalesCarpentry]

I have to admit that it never crossed my mind about it not being a real letter from a real slave. You are probably right because it is to well worded for a man with no education. He also figured out just how much his old master owed him. Dale

[OldSchoolRanger]

There is the possibility, that the letter is from the correct time period, but it was written for him by a "Damm Yankee" .

[guzzijohn]

Were not some of the "house slaves" educated?
GuzziJohn

[Sourdough]

guzzijohn:  Yes some of the house slaves were educated, to a point.  Some (very few) were even taught to read and write.  They would have written in the colloquial language they had grown up speaking, or the master spoke.  Like I said earlier, the white folks in the area in question spoke Scotch/Irish, and I see none of the words, phrases, or manners of speaking, that would have been used by the locals from there.

Just some words I grew up with.  You have two YEERS (ears) on the side of your head.  You go to the Branch (creek) to get a DRANK(drink).  Go pick some ROASTNEARS (Roasting Ears of Corn) for supper.  When you graduate you get a SUSTISICATE(Certificate).  There is no such thing as a zero, it's a NAUGHT.  Oh there is many other words, but it's been so long I can't remember them, unless I hear or see them.

When I was ready for the first grade, we moved from up in the sticks, (Jackson County) into Nashville.  You should have seen my first grade teacher's eyes, when I informed her there was no such thing as a zero.  That was a naught, did not go over good.  Later that day my Mother informed her of the same thing, and for her not to be teaching me such non-sense.  I sort of had it rough those first few years of school.  Some kids laughed at me and my way of speaking, but there were other country boys that spoke almost like me.  Enough for me to get along with them, and ignore the others.  It really hit home when I went into the Air Force.  The TIs give me a hard time.  I was the butt of many jokes, and ridiculed quite a bit.  But I changed the way I speak, and no longer use the words that got me laughed at.  but most important I quite talking so slow. 

[mcbammer]

BOGUS!    slaves   were   not   that   articulate &  educated.