Now THIS is a job negotiation!

The Coffee Shop
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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/letter-freed-slave-former-master-draw-attention-151653952.html

Excerpts from a letter from a freed slave to his former master. Incredible stuff.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars 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.
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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 twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. 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’s 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.

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thats awesome… I truly hope it stands up to historical rigor and is genuine

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No way a freed slave without any education could have been so eloquent and elaborate. Not a criticism of intelligence, merely that even if the letter were real, that certainly it has to have been edited many times over to add the business language and sarcasm which would have been hard to conceive without having been extremely well read. Even if his kids went to school, chances are they would have had a sixth grade education at most, meaning that at best someone else would have had to have written the letter.

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No way a freed slave without any education could have been so eloquent and elaborate. Not a criticism of intelligence, merely that even if the letter were real, that certainly it has to have been edited many times over to add the business language and sarcasm which would have been hard to conceive without having been extremely well read. Even if his kids went to school, chances are they would have had a sixth grade education at most, meaning that at best someone else would have had to have written the letter.

I suggest you pick up some frederick douglas and sit down with a nice slice of humble pie.

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You have to recognize that the probability of such letter being written by a slave at least without any help is pretty slim. It is a possibility however since it was against the law to teach slaves (fortunately this was ignored for Frederick Douglas) it is pretty slim. Obviously let’s not confuse being that eloquent/elaborate with being smart (to came up with the idea and some/all of the ideas).
I cannot comment on the kids education though but again that would go against teaching slaves to read and write (based on the date of the letter).
Fred.

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I dont disagree. I was just pointing out an eloquent freed slave is not outside of the realm of possibility. There are legitimate reasons to question the authenticity of this letter. I would love for it to be real but in the meantime, douglass is where its at. He Should be mandatory reading imo.

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The site the excerpts were copied from indicates the letter was dictated by the former slave to his lawyer. That fact takes nothing away from the significance of the letter.

Full letter is here: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

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