365blanc

west elm

2012-02-09T19:06:00.000+01:00

letter from jourdon anderson to his former master (1865)

2012-02-04T19:02:00.003+01:00

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.

2012-02-02T16:59:00.002+01:00

2012-01-29T14:41:00.002+01:00

francisca pageo

2012-01-26T07:58:00.001+01:00

2012-01-20T06:56:00.000+01:00

lewis baltz

2012-01-18T15:30:00.000+01:00

2012-01-15T23:26:00.000+01:00

anonymous

2012-01-15T16:41:00.000+01:00

aidan gray

2012-01-15T05:53:00.000+01:00

manoteca

2012-01-14T04:29:00.002+01:00

fuuvi bee 8mm toy digital camera

2012-01-14T00:44:00.000+01:00

beata bäck

2012-01-13T19:10:00.000+01:00

lucius art

2012-01-13T18:53:00.000+01:00

studio bertjan pot

2012-01-13T17:56:00.000+01:00

© eva truffaut

2012-01-12T17:09:00.002+01:00

norman mc laren's new year greetings

2012-01-12T17:07:00.000+01:00

thanks to gildas le dem

2012-01-12T00:32:00.002+01:00

art journal

2012-01-11T04:02:00.003+01:00

redhead peckerwood by christian patterson

2012-01-11T04:00:00.001+01:00

2012-01-11T01:06:00.003+01:00

marie michielssen

2012-01-10T04:35:00.000+01:00

patti smith

2012-01-10T03:41:00.000+01:00

henleys

2012-01-10T03:23:00.003+01:00

2012-01-09T18:21:00.002+01:00

martin margiela by sybille walter

2012-01-09T17:54:00.003+01:00

2012-01-09T17:25:00.002+01:00

via we have a problem

2012-01-09T17:22:00.002+01:00

somethinkfunk

2012-01-09T17:15:00.002+01:00

2012-01-08T18:00:00.002+01:00

vintage vogue patterns

2012-01-08T17:57:00.003+01:00

eva zeisel's ceramics

2012-01-08T01:22:00.000+01:00

thomas paul stuffed dolls

2012-01-07T15:58:00.000+01:00

2012-01-07T01:44:00.002+01:00

thanks to laurent anzai momy

2012-01-07T01:18:00.003+01:00

steve lambert

2012-01-06T23:23:00.000+01:00

mikko kuorinki

2012-01-06T01:02:00.001+01:00

estiluz balloon lamp by crouscalogero

2012-01-02T11:01:00.000+01:00

2012-01-02T10:55:00.000+01:00

kouichi okamoto's balloon lamp for kyouei design

2012-01-02T10:53:00.001+01:00

2012-01-01T14:24:00.002+01:00

and a very happy 2012 to you

2011-12-30T15:56:00.000+01:00

2011-12-30T15:54:00.000+01:00

oscarina by carolita johnson

2011-12-25T17:29:00.004+01:00

walker evans

2011-12-23T02:00:00.001+01:00

to santa

2011-12-21T20:18:00.001+01:00

les queues de sardines

2011-12-21T02:40:00.004+01:00

cultural label

2011-12-21T02:24:00.002+01:00

jean cocteau

2011-12-16T01:23:00.000+01:00

via etsy thanks to laurent

2011-12-16T00:57:00.000+01:00

luna truffaut-picoli's icons

2011-12-11T22:30:00.001+01:00

hu2

2011-12-09T01:40:00.002+01:00

hu2

2011-12-09T01:39:00.000+01:00

office supplies

2011-12-08T13:31:00.000+01:00

dundler mifflin thanks to laurent

2011-12-08T13:25:00.001+01:00

exquisite , as usual is a stroll @ ancient industries

2011-12-07T22:20:00.000+01:00

isamu noguchi

2011-12-05T19:18:00.000+01:00

2011-12-04T00:55:00.000+01:00

30.11.11 by ©

2011-12-01T01:57:00.001+01:00

thaumatropes, zoetropes and other optical vintage toys

2011-12-01T00:16:00.000+01:00

levi's vintage

2011-11-30T15:39:00.000+01:00

2011-11-30T01:22:00.002+01:00

2011-11-30T01:20:00.002+01:00

henry peach robinson

2011-11-24T14:37:00.002+01:00

via tumblr

2011-11-24T14:35:00.003+01:00

via lark

2011-11-21T21:18:00.002+01:00

stop the water while using me

2011-11-21T13:16:00.000+01:00

2011-11-17T03:07:00.000+01:00

2011-11-15T22:11:00.002+01:00

the new yorker

2011-11-14T20:31:00.000+01:00

thanks to nelson bourrec-carter

2011-11-14T16:05:00.001+01:00

fender original patents

2011-11-11T13:17:00.000+01:00

jason lytle's flying thru canyons

2011-11-10T19:25:00.000+01:00

walter de maria's high energy bar

2011-11-09T20:06:00.002+01:00

olaf brzeski

2011-11-09T12:22:00.000+01:00

anatomy

2011-11-06T01:51:00.000+01:00

via etsy

2011-11-06T00:21:00.000+01:00

darren lago's electric chair

2011-11-06T00:07:00.001+01:00

french national police archives

2011-11-02T01:18:00.001+01:00

1961 andy warhol's royal typewriter

2011-11-02T00:52:00.003+01:00

2011-11-01T01:10:00.003+01:00

thanks maschinengeschrieben

2011-11-01T01:01:00.002+01:00

original typewriters patent

2011-11-01T00:41:00.001+01:00

2011-11-01T00:22:00.003+01:00

patent drawing for fleischer's original rotoscope

2011-11-01T00:17:00.001+01:00

pablo rasgado 's unfolded architecture

2011-10-31T15:24:00.000+01:00

white noise # 36 fluxus music box

2011-10-30T21:04:00.000+01:00

click on the title to listen to the music

via alaleh alamir

2011-10-30T20:58:00.002+01:00

and a very happy halloween to you

erica baum

2011-10-29T15:32:00.001+02:00

ex libris

2011-10-27T00:30:00.000+02:00

dietlind wolf

2011-10-26T03:32:00.000+02:00

insurance maps

2011-10-25T14:44:00.001+02:00

©eva truffaut

2011-10-22T23:53:00.000+02:00

2011-10-22T23:13:00.002+02:00

games and toys original patents

2011-10-21T16:05:00.001+02:00

christoph hinterhuber

2011-10-18T20:37:00.000+02:00

paul himmel

2011-10-18T13:57:00.000+02:00

lillian bassman

2011-10-18T11:27:00.000+02:00

chic cham

2011-10-16T22:10:00.002+02:00

andy glass

2011-10-16T21:24:00.001+02:00