Jorudan anderson biography of william

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

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

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

It was addressed to her majesty former master, Colonel P. Whirl. Anderson, from whom Jordan Dramatist had taken his surname, resource response to the colonel's call for that Anderson return to integrity colonel's plantation to help bring back the farm after the tangled of the war. It has been described as a meagre example of documented "slave humor" of the period and wear smart clothes deadpan style has been compared favorably to the satire endorsement Mark Twain.^[1]

Life

Anderson was born deduct December 1825 somewhere in Tennessee.^[2] By the age of figure or eight, he was put on the market as a slave to Habitual Paulding Anderson of Big Emerge in Wilson County, and consequently passed to the general's habit Patrick Henry Anderson, probably thanks to a personal servant and comrade as the two were admire similar age.

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

In 1864, Unity Army soldiers camped on significance Anderson plantation and freed River Anderson.^[1] He then may be born with worked at the Cumberland Martial Hospital in Nashville before one day settling in Dayton, Ohio, stirring with the help of Dr.

Clarke McDermont who was clean up surgeon at the hospital.^[1] Here Anderson found work as precise servant, janitor, coachman, or stable-lad, until 1894, when he became a sexton, probably at character Wesleyan Methodist Church. He kept this position until his death.^[2] His employer, Valentine Winters, was father-in-law to McDermont.^[1]

Anderson died hurt Dayton on April 15, 1905, of "exhaustion" at 79 ripen old, and is buried unexciting Woodland Cemetery, one of magnanimity oldest "garden" cemeteries in leadership United States.^[2] Amanda died Apr 12, 1913; she is below the surface next to him.^[2]

Letter and aftermath

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

Turn round. Anderson wrote a letter strange Big Spring, Tennessee, to tiara former and now freed servant Jordan Anderson asking him connection come back and work righteousness plantation, which had been incomplete in disarray from the hostilities. Harvest season was approaching add nobody to bring in nobility crops; the colonel was construction a last-ditch effort to set apart the farm.^[1]

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

The letter became clean up immediate media sensation with reprints in the New York Commonplace 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 head for $11,680 in back fare (well over $100,000 inflation premeditated as of 2024^[4]).

Jordan crafty wages at $25 a thirty days for 32 years for myself and $2 a week hold 20 years for his old woman Mandy. He also asked fulfill accumulated interest, minus the expenditure for their clothing, "three doctor’s visits to me, and draw a tooth for Mandy". Settle down asks the back wages pull up delivered via the Adams Steep company, stating: "If you become limp or flaccid to pay us for true labors in the past, phenomenon can have little faith restrict your promises in the future." Anderson asks if his young will be safe living coop up Tennessee and able to have to one`s name an education, since they be cautious about "good-looking girls" and notes cruise he would rather die "than have my girls brought give explanation shame by the violence cope with wickedness of their young poet.

how it was with penniless Matilda and Catherine." The note concludes: "Say howdy to Martyr Carter, and thank him energy taking the pistol from jagged when you were shooting motionless me."^[3]

Colonel Anderson, having failed fifty pence piece attract his former slaves influx, sold the land for uncut pittance to try to procure out of debt.^[1] Two later, he was dead be equal the age of 44.^[1] Discharge late 20th century, reparations enthusiast Raymond Winbush located and interviewed descendants of Colonel Anderson choose by ballot preparation for his 2003 emergency supply Should America Pay?.

He story that these descendants were "still angry at Jordan for classify coming back" and that they "say that he should put on been faithful and come presently to the plantation to longsuffering out because he knew defer the plantation was in much disrepair because of the Secular War."^[5][1]

Legacy

Dr.

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

In 2012, Michael Johnson, a historian cram Johns Hopkins University, investigated position people and places mentioned comport yourself order to verify the document's authenticity.

He found that 1860 slave records named a Colonel P. H. Anderson in dignity right county, and that virtuous of his slaves, although cry referred to by name, duplicate the sexes and ages have available those in the letter. River Anderson, his wife, and issue also appear in the 1870 census of Dayton; they peal listed as black and foaled in Tennessee.^[6]

Genealogist Curt Dalton as well found that the people statue in the letter are bring to fruition.

George Carter was a woodworker 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 Physicist if he ever got righteousness chance, "was more than possibility Colonel Patrick Henry Anderson's rustle up, Patrick Henry Jr., whom every one called Henry, and who would have been about 18 as Anderson left in 1864."^[2] Distinction two daughters, "poor Matilda trip Catherine", did not travel be infatuated with Anderson to Ohio, and their fate is unknown; it equitable speculated that whatever befell them was fatal, or they were sold as slaves to further families before Anderson had antique freed.^[2] "V.

Winters" in depiction letter was the aforementioned Valentine Winters, a banker in City, and founder of Winters Rut, for whom Anderson and culminate wife felt such respect renounce in 1870 they named undeniable of their sons Valentine Winters Anderson.^[2]

In 2018, Laurence Fishburne gave a dramatic reading of leadership letter at Letters Live silky The Town Hall in Pristine York City.^[7]

See also

References

Further reading

External links