washing dishes: a father’s glimpses

without recompense

By

,


Yesterday, I read and heard the public reading a letter written on August 7, 1865 by Jourdan Anderson of Dayton, Ohio sent to P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee. I’ve read that Jourdan Anderson lived for another 40 years after he wrote this letter to his slave master.

In this letter, I find recurring, historical themes that resonate with me, worker issues, the injustices of slavery, the omnipresent threat of rape for girls and women, the math and calculations of unpaid wages and the accrual of more money owed due to decades of unpaid wages, the longing for learning and education, how a family and a community seeks ways to live more and live better. There is such beauty and brutality, horridness and simplicity of a father’s life that I cut up phrases and words from the letter, sorting them into seven categories:

you >> phrases >> adverbs >> feelings >> work >> names >> will

I’ve re-arranged the passages of the letter as follows:


I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this /

you are sincerely disposed to / 

rely on you justice and friendship in the future /
please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood / 


there is nothing to be gained on that score / 

we trust the good Maker has open your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers / 

what the good chance is you propose to give me / 

without recompense / 

than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters / 

the great desire of my life now is to give my children an education / 
and have them form virtuous habits


I served you faithfully for thirty-two years and Mandy twenty years /
we are kindly treated /

treat us justly and kindly


I am glad you are still living / 

I did not want to hear of your being hurt / 

the children feel hurt /

many darkies would have been proud / 

we have concluded to test your sincerity / 

this will make us forget and forgive old scores /

little faith in your promises in the future / 

I would rather stay here and starve, and die if it comes to that

when I was working in the Nashville Hospital /

“Them colored people were slaves” /

it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Col. Anderson / 

as I used to was, to call you master / 

As I got my free papers in 1864 / 

asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you / 

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

you are sincerely disposed to / 

if you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past /

making us toil for you for generations / 

without recompense

Mandy says she would be afraid to go back /

please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, esq / 
please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane /

you know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine / 

say howdy to George Carter

we will meet in the better world /

if you will write / 

say what wages you will give me /

this will make us forget and forgive old scores

For more primary source and archival digging: