You absolutely must read this letter from a former slave to a former master. The link is here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9057501/Letter-from-a-Civil-War-slave-to-his-master-150-years-on.html
This is another link with additional information about the Jourdan family.
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html
The original source of the letter.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38479/38479-h/38479-h.htm#Page_265
This is from a book, "The Freedman's Book," edited by L. Marcia Child and published by Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1865.
The former master Colonel Anderson is asking for his former slave to come back and work for him saying that he would treat him better than anyone.
Though the reply by the former slave, Jourdan, is written in the most respectful way in a 19th century which had more formalities than we do today, it is a rather stinging criticism of how the former master treated the former slave. The letter is both a very informative description of the issues of slavery and emancipation, yet the writer has a subtle wit and it is riotous fun to read and yet also sad upon reflection.
Some excerpts:
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.
Jourdan describes how they are well treated and have a good situation and are respected. The current situation is contrasted to the former situation. He also asks for wages for the many years him and his wife worked for the former slave master. He certainly must have known that he wasn't going to be paid any money for his former exploitation.
Then the letter turns to the rape of former slaves at the Anderson's.
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.
Finally it ends with this last sentence.
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts Last 30 days
-
The article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081004586.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 Incidentally...
-
Ironically, it is a Republican, not a Democratic candidate who has gotten the most attacks regarding the Confederacy from Neo-Confederate or...
-
I have contacted both of my U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn . The following is the automated reply from Cornyn and the...
-
I have added extra metarials to the page. I decided to add the information about the states which have either Confederate or Confederate ide...
-
I give it about 5 minutes after it is announced that Hilary Clinton is the next president of the United States for the secession movements t...
-
It might be asserted that since the Southern Partisan is no longer being published it is not of importance that Jeff Sessions came to the d...
-
STUPID CALIFORNIA SECESSIONISTS. Here is one of your supporters. Of course the California secessionists can't support...
-
On the lighter side there is a shop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that sells Elvis memorabilia and it connects itself to the Civil War memory ...
-
The Stone Mountain Association wants to put up a Martin Luther King statue at Stone Mountain. Here is an article on the proposal: http:/...
-
Washington Post columnist Colbert King has an opinion piece "Rise of the New Confederacy," about the Republican Party and the Tea...
Popular Posts All Time
-
The article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081004586.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 Incidentally...
-
At this link is an article on the response to the likely election of Obama as president of the United States in the Canadian National Post ....
-
The ramp which was used by the cranes and other lifting equipment to go up and in the enclosed area and remove the statues and the base has ...
-
Washington Post columnist Colbert King has an opinion piece "Rise of the New Confederacy," about the Republican Party and the Tea...
-
There hasn't been an issue of the Southern Partisan (SP) for some time, about a year. I was doing some Internet researching and I stumb...
-
The other major neo-Confederate groups have gone under or just live on as remnants. The League of the South is just perhaps a dozen or may...
-
There is a new movie coming out, "12 Years a Slave." The link to the review and a trailer is at this link: http://www.slate.com/...
-
The League of the South (LS) put up a bill board in Alabama like their billboard in Florida. This is a link about the Florida billboard at...
-
The title of the essay is, "Time to Lose the Confederate Flag: Some Heresies for the Civil War Sesquicentennial," by Craig Silver....
-
I have contacted both of my U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn . The following is the automated reply from Cornyn and the...
No comments:
Post a Comment