BLACK HISTORY MONTH : " YOU CAN KISS MY A*** OFF "

IN THE U.K BLACK HISTORY MONTH IS DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER
IN THE U.S.A BLACK HISTORY MONTH IS DURING THE MONTH OF FEBUARY



IN MY HEAD IT' S EVRYDAY.

I WAS VISITING THE HUFFINGTON POST YESTERDAY AND I SAW THIS ARTICLE ABOUT A LETTER WRITTEN / DICTATED BY A FORMER SLAVE JOURDON ANDERSON (R.I.P). HE WAS RESPONDING AT HIS FORMER MASTER'S LETTER, COLONEL P.H ANDERSON WHO WAS ASKING HIM TO COME BACK TO WORK AGAIN FOR HIM EVEN IF HE WAS EMANCIPATED (some people have some nerves especially when they have an evil mind).

AS USUAL I WENT TO READ THE COMMENT SECTION AND YOU CAN CLEARLY SAW WHO WAS WHITE OR BLACK. SOME PEOPLE EVEN QUESTIONED THE AUTENTICITY OF THE LETTER SAYING " IT IS A FAKE".
YES, A FAKE CAN YOU BELIEVE IT ? BECAUSE AT THAT TIME A SLAVE COULDN'T READ AND WRITE SO ELOQUENTLY. AND SOME WERE SAYING THAT SLAVERY WAS MORE THAN 150 YEARS AGO AND BLACKS NEED TO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. APARENTLY AFTER SLAVERY EVRYTHING WAS SOOOOO PERFECT!

I WANT YOU TO READ THIS LETTER FOR TWO REASONS. FOR THE HISTORICAL ASPECT OF COURSE BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN ACTUAL ACCOUNT FROM A FORMER SLAVE ON HOW WAS HIS LIFE AND HIS FEELINGS. THE OTHER REASON IS FOR HIM, FOR US BECAUSE SO MANY TIME WE SPEND OUR TIME READING STUPID AND OFFENSIVE STATEMENTS ABOUT BLACKS IN THE MEDIA THEN RUSHED TO PROTEST AND ASKED FOR EXCUSES ETC... HOW MANY OF US WILL SPEND THIS QUALITY TIME TO SIT DOWN WITH OUR CHILDREN AND READ THIS KIND OF LETTER AND ENGAGED A DEEP CONVERSATION WITH THEM ?

BY READING THIS LETTER YOU WILL DISCOVER AN INCREDIBLE MAN AND MORE BUT I LET ONE OF THE POSTER IN HUFFINGTON POST TO SAY IT:

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I agree. Mr. Jourdon Anderson showed intelligen­ce, tolerance and even some humor in his detailed and dignified response. He got his point across clearly, but far more intellectu­ally than the headline suggests. Even among tolerant whites, there is still a tendency to see the ex-slaves as uneducated - or at the very least, under educated. Yet this ex-slave wrote a detailed business letter to his extremely difficult former boss that would be beyond the class and style of many executive MBAs today. Even if it was dictated to a scribe, Jourdon Anderson is certainly responsibl­e for the letter's wit and turn of phrase. Even these generation­s later, one thing is very clear: Mr. Anderson would have been a man worth knowing.

MAY GOD BLESS OUR ANCESTORS ESPECIALLY THE ONE WHO SUFFERED THE MOST AND I KNOW AND BELIEVED THAT THE FORMER SLAVES HAVE A GOOD PLACE IN HEAVEN FOR ETERNITY.

AND TO YOU MR JOURDAN ANDERSON I SALUTED YOU AND YOUR COURAGE WHERE EVER YOU ARE THANK YOU FOR THE SACRIFICE. GOD HAD ALREADY STARTED TO BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE.


August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

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.

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.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

JOURDON ANDERSON