Home » Arts & Entertainment » When former slave Jordan Anderson was asked to come back and work for his old master, he replied with a deadpan letter asking for 52 years’ back pay as proof of good faith. The letter has been described as a rare example of documented “slave humor” of the period.

When former slave Jordan Anderson was asked to come back and work for his old master, he replied with a deadpan letter asking for 52 years’ back pay as proof of good faith. The letter has been described as a rare example of documented “slave humor” of the period.

Jordan Anderson

For the NASCAR driver, see Jordan Anderson (racing driver).

Jordan Anderson or Jourdon Anderson (December 1825 – April 15, 1907) was an African-American former slave noted for an 1865 letter he dictated, known as “Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master”. It was addressed to his former master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, in response to the Colonel’s request that Mr. Anderson return to the plantation to help restore the farm after the disarray of the war. It has been described as a rare example of documented “slave humor” of the period and its deadpan style has been compared to the satire of Mark Twain.

Life

Anderson was born around 1825 somewhere in Tennessee. By the age of seven or eight, he was sold as a slave to General Paulding… Continue Reading


Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Anderson