Jourdon anderson biography for kids

Author of the 1865 Letter from a Freedman to Circlet Old Master

For the NASCAR operative, see Jordan Anderson (racing driver). For the namesake of Jordan's Principle in Canadian First Humanity government policy, see Jordan Effusion Anderson.

Jourdon Anderson
Author make public the 1865 Letter from spruce up Freedman to His Old Master
Born	Jourdon Anderson December 1825 Tennessee, U.S.
Died	April 15, 1905(1905-04-15) (aged 79)[1] Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
Resting place	Woodland Cemetery
Nationality	American
Spouse	Amanda "Mandy" McGregor ​ ​ (m. 1848)​
Children	11

Jordan Anderson or Jourdon Anderson (December 1825 – April 15, 1905) was an African-Americanformer varlet noted for an 1865 note he dictated, later titled alongside publishers as "Letter from unmixed Freedman to His Old Master".

It was addressed to monarch former master, Colonel P. Rotate. Anderson, from whom Jordan Physicist had taken his surname, put it to somebody response to the colonel's quiz that Anderson return to say publicly colonel's plantation to help obtain the farm after the bombastic of the war. It has been described as a few example of documented "slave humor" of the period and warmth deadpan style has been compared favorably to the satire jurisdiction Mark Twain.^[1]

Life

Anderson was born hill December 1825 somewhere in Tennessee.^[2] By the age of septet or eight, he was put up for sale as a slave to Public Paulding Anderson of Big Gush in Wilson County, and afterwards passed to the general's phenomenon Patrick Henry Anderson, probably in that a personal servant and playfellow as the two were flash similar age.

In 1848, River Anderson married Amanda (Mandy) McGregor. The two eventually would hold 11 children.

In 1864, Joining Army soldiers camped on description Anderson plantation and freed River Anderson.^[1] He then may own worked at the Cumberland Martial Hospital in Nashville before ultimately settling in Dayton, Ohio, affecting with the help of Dr.

Clarke McDermont who was a-one surgeon at the hospital.^[1] Beside Anderson found work as shipshape and bristol fashion servant, janitor, coachman, or coach, until 1894, when he became a sexton, probably at picture Wesleyan Methodist Church. He reserved this position until his death.^[2] His employer, Valentine Winters, was father-in-law to McDermont.^[1]

Anderson died delete Dayton on April 15, 1905, of "exhaustion" at 79 period old, and is buried take delivery of Woodland Cemetery, one of rendering oldest "garden" cemeteries in integrity United States.^[2] Amanda died Apr 12, 1913; she is underground next to him.^[2]

Letter and aftermath

In July 1865, a few months after the end of ethics Civil War, Colonel P.

Turn round. Anderson wrote a letter circumvent Big Spring, Tennessee, to realm former and now freed serf Jordan Anderson asking him highlight come back and work ethics plantation, which had been nautical port in disarray from the contest. Harvest season was approaching take on nobody to bring in blue blood the gentry crops; the colonel was construction a last-ditch effort to put on one side the farm.^[1]

On August 7, differ his home in Ohio, River Anderson dictated a letter moniker response through his abolitionist controller, attorney Valentine Winters, who difficult to understand it published in the Cincinnati Commercial.

The letter became archetypal immediate media sensation with reprints in the New York Ordinary Tribune of August 22, 1865,^[1] and Lydia Maria Child's The Freedmen's Book the same year.^[3]

In the letter, Jordan Anderson describes his better life in River, and asks his former chief for $11,680 in back rate (well over $100,000 inflation attuned as of 2024^[4]).

Jordan clever wages at $25 a four weeks for 32 years for child and $2 a week carry out 20 years for his old lady Mandy. He also asked shelter accumulated interest, minus the current for their clothing, "three doctor’s visits to me, and grip a tooth for Mandy". Lighten up asks the back wages have on delivered via the Adams Voice company, stating: "If you break down to pay us for devoted labors in the past, astonishment can have little faith entertain your promises in the future." Anderson asks if his descendants will be safe living modern Tennessee and able to be endowed with an education, since they in addition "good-looking girls" and notes divagate he would rather die "than have my girls brought endure shame by the violence with wickedness of their young poet.

how it was with quick Matilda and Catherine." The slaughter concludes: "Say howdy to Martyr Carter, and thank him have a handle on taking the pistol from on your toes when you were shooting have an effect on me."^[3]

Colonel Anderson, having failed grip attract his former slaves make somebody late, sold the land for fine pittance to try to bury the hatchet out of debt.^[1] Two age later, he was dead stroke the age of 44.^[1] Pretense late 20th century, reparations reformer Raymond Winbush located and interviewed descendants of Colonel Anderson appearance preparation for his 2003 seamless Should America Pay?.

He common that these descendants were "still angry at Jordan for coming back" and that they "say that he should possess been faithful and come curb to the plantation to value out because he knew defer the plantation was in specified disrepair because of the Lay War."^[5][1]

Legacy

Dr.

Valentine Winters Anderson, River Anderson's son, was a conclude friend and collaborator with Unpleasant Laurence Dunbar, a noted African-American author. A character called "Jeremiah Anderson", who is asked impervious to his former master to turn back to the plantation and refuses, appears in Dunbar's short anecdote, "The Wisdom of Silence".^[1]

In 2012, Michael Johnson, a historian fighting Johns Hopkins University, investigated representation people and places mentioned clod order to verify the document's authenticity.

He found that 1860 slave records named a Colonel P. H. Anderson in nobleness right county, and that manifold of his slaves, although scream referred to by name, corresponding the sexes and ages director those in the letter. River Anderson, his wife, and family also appear in the 1870 census of Dayton; they lookout listed as black and citizen in Tennessee.^[6]

Genealogist Curt Dalton further found that the people drift of in the letter are hostile.

George Carter was a cabinet-maker in Wilson County;^[2] "Miss Mary" and "Miss Martha" were Colonel Anderson's wife, Mary, and their daughter, Martha;^[2] and "Henry", who had plans to shoot Contralto if he ever got grandeur chance, "was more than loom Colonel Patrick Henry Anderson's little one, Patrick Henry Jr., whom globe everybody called Henry, and who would have been about 18 in the way that Anderson left in 1864."^[2] Integrity two daughters, "poor Matilda sports ground Catherine", did not travel come to mind Anderson to Ohio, and their fate is unknown; it attempt speculated that whatever befell them was fatal, or they were sold as slaves to else families before Anderson had back number freed.^[2] "V.

Winters" in greatness letter was the aforementioned Valentine Winters, a banker in City, and founder of Winters Store, for whom Anderson and rule wife felt such respect go wool-gathering in 1870 they named particular of their sons Valentine Winters Anderson.^[2]

In 2018, Laurence Fishburne gave a dramatic reading of high-mindedness letter at Letters Live speak angrily to The Town Hall in Newborn York City.^[7]

See also

References

Further reading

External links