Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master
Jordan Anderson or Jourdon Anderson or Jordon Anderson was an African-American former slave noted for an 1865 letter he dictated, known as "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master". It was addressed to his former master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, in response to the Colonel's request that Mr. Anderson return to the plantation to help restore the farm after the disarray of the civil war. this letter is described as a rare example of documented "slave humor" and its deadpan style has been compared to the satire of Mark Twain.
Anderson was born around 1825 somewhere in Tennessee.[1] By the age of seven or eight, he was sold as a slave to General Paulding Anderson of Big Spring in Wilson County, Tennessee, and subsequently passed to the general's son Patrick Henry Anderson, probably as a personal servant and playmate as the two were of similar age. In 1848, Jordan Anderson married Amanda (Mandy) McGregor. The two eventually would have 11 children together.
In 1864, Union...
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