Jordan Anderson – en före detta slavs berömda replik till sin forne herre

Detta är Jordan Anderson (stavningen varierar), en man som föddes någonstans i Tennessee år 1825. Han var länge förslavad men som 39-åring fritogs han av nordstatssoldater under det amerikanska inbördeskriget. Han tillbringade resten av sitt liv som fri man i Ohio.

Jordan Anderson är mest känd för en kort brevväxling. Sommaren 1865, strax efter inbördeskrigets slut, tog han ett mot ett brev av sin före detta ägare som bad honom att återvända till plantaget och hjälpa till att bygga upp det igen.

Anderson, som inte själv kunde skriva, dikterade svaret till abolitionisten och advokaten Valentine Winters, som såg till att brevet skickades iväg och dessutom publicerades i lokaltidningen.

Brevet, idag känt som ”Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master”, är formulerat med en uppenbart satirisk ton och blev en mediesensation. I texten skiftar Anderson mellan till synes uppriktighet och ironi. Han ber exempelvis den före detta ägaren att demonstrera sin välvilja genom att betala den lön han var skyldig Anderson för alla år av gratisarbete. Anderson påminner också ägaren om den brutala behandling han utsattes för och avslutar allt med:

”Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me. ”

Brevet återpublicerades i tidningar och böcker det året och kom att fungera som ett inlägg i den pågående debatten om slaveriet och dess konsekvenser. Det har beskrivits som ett exempel på så kallad slavhumor, ett av sätten de drabbade av slaveriet hanterade sin situation på.

Anderson dog i april 1907, 81 år gammal. Nedan följer brevet i sin helhet:

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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 $25 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 $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. 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 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.

From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson

P.S.— Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

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Läs mer: "Wit and Humor in the Slave Narratives" av Daryl Cumber Dance (1977), ”How did ex-slave's letter to master come to be?" av Allen G. Breed och Hillel Italie för The Salt Lake Tribune (14 juli 2012) och "Letter from Jourdon Anderson: A Freedman Writes His Former Master" av Facing History & Ourselves (12 maj 2020).