Page 17 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 22

Community

and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings P.S.— Say howdy to George Carter, and
would amount to $11,680. Add to this thank him for taking the pistol from you
the interest for the time our wages have when you were shooting at me.
Why then do we still pro- been kept back, and deduct what you paid It should be noted that Anderson’s
for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits
fess immeasurable kindness to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, former enslaver was forced to sell
and the balance will show what we are in
his plantation and died a few years
and generosity in begging for justice entitled to. Please send the money by later at age 44. On the other hand,
our freedoms? It does not Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, Anderson lived a long life, had 11
children with his wife and became a
Esq., Dayton, Ohio.
always mean that you pick If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in sacristan in his church.
This letter which is well-done in all
up arms and fight to the the past, we can have little faith in your kindness, paints a factual picture of

tooth for your freedom, but promises in the future. We trust the good how mentally enslaved we as Afri-
cans have been and still are to date.
Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs
the right to live and enjoy which you and your fathers have done to One would have a feeling of how
me and my fathers, in making us toil for
Anderson is torn between returning
your space stands assured you for generations without recompense. to slavery under harsh life threaten-
Here I draw my wages every Saturday
ing conditions or choosing freedom
and protected in law and it night; but in Tennessee there was never any where by all means he had the good
does not have to be consid- pay-day for the Negroes any more than for will to prosper in more ways than
the horses and cows. Surely there will be a
being a mere slave.
ered as a favour. day of reckoning for those who defraud the Why then do we still profess im-
measurable kindness and generosity
laborer of his hire.
in begging for our freedoms? It
In answering this letter, please state if does not always mean that you pick
have, there is nothing to be gained on that there would be any safety for my Milly and up arms and fight to the tooth for
score, as I got my free papers in 1864 Jane, who are now grown up, and both your freedom, but the right to live
from the Provost-Marshal-General of the good-looking girls. You know how it was and enjoy your space stands assured
Department of Nashville. Mandy says she with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would and protected in law and it does not
would be afraid to go back without some rather stay here and starve and die, if it have to be considered as a favor.
proof that you were disposed to treat us come to that, than have my girls brought Was the world too kind and sym-
justly and kindly; and we have concluded to shame by the violence and wickedness of pathetic when Muammar Gaddafi
to test your sincerity by asking you to send their young masters. was being executed before world
us our wages for the time we served media? Or when Patrice Lumumba
you. This will make us You will also please state was assassinated and dismembered
forget and forgive if there has been any beyond recognition? Or when over
old scores, and schools opened 4,000 Haitian migrants who were
rely on your for the colored seeking asylum were inhumanely
justice and children in your deported together with their families
friendship neighborhood. from United States of America.
in the The great Instead of being too kind for noth-
future.
desire of my ing, it is better to show deliberate
life now is efforts towards being treated fairly
I served to give my just like the rest in all spheres that
you children an are not limited to social, economic
faith- education, and political spheres. Let us learn to
fully for and have them speak up.
thirty-two form virtuous
years, habits.
and Mandy
twenty years. At From your old servant,
$25 a month for me,
Jourdon Anderson

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