A newly discovered letter from a freed former slave to his onetime master created a buzz in 2012 . Letters of Note explains that in August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave Jourdan Anderson, requesting that Jourdan return to work on his farm.
In the time since escaping from slavery, Anderson had become emancipated, moved to Ohio where he found paid work and was now supporting his family. The letter turned up in the August 22 edition of the New York Daily Tribune. An Excerpt:-
“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.
On the “good chance” offered by the former slave owner:
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.
And then Jourdan explains that anything his former master could offer, he’s already earned on his own. Other than some back wages:
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.
And after a few more jabs about how his children are now happy and receiving an education, Jourdan concludes his letter with:
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.”
This podcast & Blog Post takes note of the above letter from a slave to his former Master, and the year when it was written. It is also noted in various reference sources that this letter came to light in January 2012, and very quickly became viral due to its content and its reflection of a life in that point in time. The letter from the Master to the his former Slave has been lost over the passage of time, but several sources confirm the validity of the response from Jourdan Anderson and his life post Plantation years, and his life with his wife and 11 children is documented, and also his death and that of his wife six years later and the location of the burial site.
I read through this letter several times and in doing so reflected how little had changed since 1865 when it comes to certain processes and protocols (many unwritten and very selective in their application) when looking at the UK Royal family. By the third reading of the said letter I could see so many experiences of the treatment of the Sussexes these last 5 years, running parallel to that of Jourdan Anderson and his family. What a reflection of a system that exists in the UK Monarchy, that we appear not to have learned anything from the experiences of and the whole concept of Master and Slave mentality way back in 1865. A system that is supported by the UK Government and supporting societal structures that exist, and who in turn are supported by this unwritten contract between mutual society benefiting from such an ideology. Make no mistake, just because some people live in Palaces behind gilded gates, and have gone out of the way to rewrite history in respect of the current Monarch and her family, there are plenty of receipts stored with dates and names of authors and publications.
The treatment of the only black person who entered the family through marriage is well documented and no amount of deletions of various articles in the last couple of years or so, can erase the evidence from the internet. Deletions going back to articles published since 2016, now there seems to be a need to erase that from memory and certainly over the coming decades, there is a hope that the new generations will only believe what they read. Supporters of the Sussexes come from all walks of life, and from all over the globe, and be assured records exist and future generations will know what truly happened. It is quite interesting to see the original documents filed and those that are on the internet now. One has to ask the question, why are these documents being altered, and why is it, only the two heirs to the British throne and their spouses who come out of this of hate inciting media publications without a blemish in comparison to the elements left to stand?
I decided to replicate the response letter from Jourdan Anderson to his former Master Colonel P H Anderson, and transpose the names to the Master being the UK Monarch and the Slave being Prince Harry using their publicised experiences since 2016. Knowing what we heard in the Oprah interview in March 2021, and guessing it must have been far worse than the snippets put into the public domain, this imaginary letter uses some of those experiences in place of Jourdan Anderson reply. Every offer from Colonel P H Anderson has matched some of the offers from the UK Monarchy establishment to Prince Harry since 2016, and all the abusive actions towards Meghan since 2016, including erasing her name from official documentation such as her son’s Birth Certificate, reinforced the behaviour to someone who is considered ‘less than’ the rest of the group. The only people to have been removed from official documentation in the Royal family, and have Titles taken away by proposing to change the law before the time it would come into force are the Meghan The Duchess of Sussex and her first born son in respect of him becoming a Prince when Charles becomes King. Notice the only two people of colour in the family have had these changes imposed. No other ‘married ins’ have had their names removed from Birth Certificates of their children or Titles removed, which in turn remove security provision for that individual. No other Senior Royal undertakes duties on behalf of the Royal Family without financial provision within the Royal accounts for any expenses incurred. Meghan was told that there was no money left in the accounts to pay her, so suggested that she return to acting to secure her own finances. All the tours that the Sussexes were sent on by the Royal Family had no provision for Meghan in terms of the cost of the cultural bespoke clothing that she wore to respect the country being visited. The final insult was to be told that she was not considered family and she was not an employee and therefore was not entitled to any medical assistance. Basically treating the couple differently to everyone else in the family. Abusive behaviour from day one to a couple who were dehumanised within the monarchy structure.
JA:- 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.
IB: Your majesty, I received your communications via your UK tabloid media, that you would really like Meghan and I and the children to return to the Uk and once again live on Royal grounds, and help with various Senior Royal duties for at least the next ten years, by which time, George will be 18 and my family and I would no longer be needed, and would have to leave our home. I suspect that despite others living rent free, or close to that, in various Royal homes, and do none or very little Royal duties, with no mention of a tenancy expiry date, I somehow doubt that Meghan and I would have the same privilege.
Reports suggest that all would be much better now, but there is no evidence to support that view in the daily articles written using the Sussex names in the headline, and when anything does actually pertain to my wife and I, it is always in the most negative and hate inciting rhetoric. So forgive me if I struggle to see how things would be any better. On the odd occasion I have visited the UK, the reports before and following my visits have been vitriolic, and the period in between pure fantasy, or in plain English, pure lies.
The UK is not a safe place for my family to reside or to visit, and definitely not my children. No other Royal children have been treated and referred to in the way my children have been, and as I wish to see no repeat of what occurred in my formative years, the children walking on Uk soil remains a fantasy. Until there is evidence to suggest that my family is safe to visit, it will not happen. The UK will never be our permanent home, merely a stopping off place during an important Royal family occasion, such as weddings or funerals. Visits done to UK charities will be done under the Archwell banner, and will be reported on by the Sussex Communication Teams after a visit has been completed, and Meghan and I are back home in Montecito.
JA:- 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.
IB:-I have long had man reservations about some of the same people that fraternise with certain members of the Royal family. Some of them not the most upstanding characters, which then calls into question the Royal Family member hosting such visits. I thought that some if not all of those friendships would have come to light by now, now that the world has moved on from slavery etc., but I suppose that only applies to people of colour – everyone else is ignored or accepted whatever their particular persuasion happens to be. UK Media will never question it openly. No doubt all part of the silent and unwritten contract between the BRF and the UK Media.
JA:-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.
IB:-I imagine that whatever aspects are known about by the media, there are legal injunctions or measures of some kind in place, that ensure it is never mentioned on British soil at least. Yet, my family is vilified daily for simply breathing, and Meghan being a black intelligent articulate woman and our projects are making a difference in the world. I am guessing the Royals feel uncomfortable at that.
JA:_ 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.
IB:-Although despite a number of warning shots fired at me, as I took my family away from a toxic environment, I am glad that you are all still living.
JA:-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.
IB:-It would do me good to go back and to the dear old home again. Not Frogmore, as you know we paid for all renovation costs for that property, despite you receiving funds for such a purpose from the Sovereign Grant, not never mind, we paid it anyway, and we paid rent up until March 2022. I consider myself the better person, but at the same time wanted to remind you that no other member of the Royal family has ever been asked to pay for renovation costs. I hear that one couple is on the move again, and ultimately they will have 4 homes. Well, one of the original homes had over a million pounds spent on the driveway, and now they are moving away to a another home on a Royal estate, as well as a new home near the inlaws and new school for one of the children. No mention of reimbursement of those costs at all. Mmmm I wonder???
Who can forget the uproar over one plane journey that I chose to use for the safety of my family, and one which was supplied by a friend, so was at zero cost to the taxpayer, and there was a matching energy cost reimbursed by said friend. I don’t need to go into detail about the 4 planes that were used in a PR stunt that went badly wrong, to try and claim that that particular family travel economy most of the time.
This years Royal accounts, show quite a few anomalies, but I am sure that I do not need to point those out to you, but I will mention one. The amount of taxpayer funds spent on the purchase of a private helicopter, and then funds spent on new shrubbery and hedges put around the perimeter of the area, to shroud or I would say hide, the coming and going from that particular household in said helicopter. According to the accounts over £80 was spent on fuel for this mode of transport, in one year, and a year when the pandemic was in full swing, and most of the year was spent in Lockdown. So, one cannot help wonder where were the journeys heading to and why, because all engagements at the time, were done via Zoom, yet when my mother in law travelled a mile or two in a crown vehicle to meet with the ladies of the Hubb Kitchen, with Meghan and I, again there was uproar. Do you see a pattern emerging here. I might add, when the sister of one member of the Royal family travelled several miles in a Royal vehicle to go to watch a tennis match that was deemed to be not a problem at all.
JA:-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. On the “good chance” offered by the former slave owner:
IB:-When I returned to the UK to attend my grandfather’s funeral, it would have been nice to stop by and see one or two people, but when I was informed by a few media articles and several social media platforms, that I would be a target for who knows what, I decided to attend one of my own charity events, without informing UK media of my travel plans, and news came out, as I was preparing to leave the country and return to my home and family. Five years of questionable media coverage, and breaches in several Articles of Human Rights legislation, it seems that it is not at all safe for my family and I to feel free or safe in my former home.
JA:-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.
IB;- I would like to know particularly what the good chances you propose to give me. I am doing very well over here. Meg and I own home, and we have multi million pounds contracts in place, and more coming. Along with that we have impactful global projects running helping people in crisis. My wife is called by her name, and not the disrespectful names that are always used in UK media, and my children are no longer referred to as animals, and the shade of their skin is not an issue. We are treated very kindly and we feel very much accepted and part of our community.
JA:_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.
IB:- Sometimes we hear others saying “he dressed up in a Nazi uniform once” and was often seen faling out of night clubs. Thankfully the children are too young to understand such reporting by UK Media and its right wing followers, but there is more than enough evidence of receipts that clearly show that I have moved on from such activities, around 20 years ago now. I will tell them when they are older, that it was a learning time for me, after much disruption in my teenage years, and the experience of losing someone I held close to my heart. I will also tell the children that it was no disgrace to be a member of the Royal Family as such, but like in any situation where more knowledge is gained, one learns to see the wood for the trees. As a Spare, I was proud to serve the Queen, and as a grandson who had lost his mother at the age of 12, I was pleased to have my grandmother to call upon when I needed emotional support.
Looking back that emotional support was somewhat stilted, as I now know that was not something that came easily to my grandmother but she made an attempt. It was something I never experienced from anyone else in the family, so I was grateful for the crumbs I received.
People looking in from the outside, think they know what goes on behind the gilded gates and continually say they wish they were in such a privileged position, they would be proud to serve. Words are easy if you have no lived experience of the things you revere. Al that glitters is not gold, and if it is, it most likely was stolen from the commonwealth.
JA:-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.
IB:- Following four years of being abused by UK media and TV associates, on the orders of the Royal family, things were becoming more difficult by the day. My wife (who by the way was called by a variety of names, none of which were positive, and when any name was used, it was always her surname as a single lady. Never was Meghan ever treated with the respect like all the other ‘married ins’ to your family. I hesitate to call it my family, because I have been treated like a traitor and called that and worse, since 2016 when it was announced that Meghan was my girlfriend. Things just went downhill from there.
The BRF sanctioned abuse of my wife and our unborn child. At no point since 2016 was there every push back from the family about the abuse being directed at Meghan in a variety of ways. Four years later it was time to seek freedom.
Due to the loyalty I have for people who I work for, I try to aim to be as fair as possible. Meghan and I offered to spend 50% of our time working for no reward, out of respect for the Queen. The offer was turned down. All of my military titles were stripped away from me, and my security was removed without Notice, along with finances. A risk I was born into and therefore inherited, and the risks increased due to the volatile media reports daily, but it was clear I was being punished.
With that in mind, please outline for me what remuneration would you be prepared to pay for my wife and I to visit the UK from time to time, to carry out Royal duties. The offer of working for free expired in January 2020 following refusal from the Queen, no doubt persuaded by my father and brother, in the hope that the security aspects and the lack of finance would drive us back into the abuse behind gilded gates. Let us not forget the family gave details of my location both in Canada and then again in Tyler Perry’s home in LA. The abuse in the UK drove my wife to suicidal ideation and all medical assistance was refused. We have excellent cover now in Montecito. We also have a top class security team, so my family and my home is very much protected.
And then Jourdan explains that anything his former master could offer, he’s already earned on his own. Other than some back wages:
IB:-I think that anything you could offer me now, would be far less than we already earn, outside of your former plantation.
JA:-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.
IB:-As for the freedom which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score. I received my free papers on 30th March 2020. You were under the impression that it was going to be March 2021, but I never wanted a 12 month review. I knew that I was never returning, no matter what was offered, not least because the family turned down my offer of working 50% of our time for free. Meghan and I would need to feel safe to return and that we would be treated justly and kindly. The evidence to date does not indicate that, however, we do have a proposal for you to consider. In no particular order, we ask for the following:-
- Remuneration for all the time we worked as Senior Royals, bringing in millions to the UK along with the billions received from the ripple effect of the wedding in 2018.
- Remuneration for all the expenses that Meghan paid herself, as no provision in the accounts was made for her upon marriage to me. Attending all those successful tours, whilst paying for her own attire etc. No one else in the Royal family has to do that, but Meghan was singled out.
- Travelling whilst heavily pregnant, to an area that at the time was volatile in places. It was a successful tour, but 100% guaranteed no other couple would have been sent there in such an unsettling period, let alone when Meghan was heavily pregnant. At least her helicopter journeys were done for Royal duties on that tour, and done well considering her stage in pregnancy. Another Royal family member always has approximately 12 months off during pregnancy and maternity leave, and no one questioned it all. Cost of all the culturally aware outlay on clothing for that tour.
- Meghan’s name put back on the UK Birth Certificate for our son. The USA has the correct details, because of course our children have dual citizenship.
These things will enable us to try and move one from the experiences of our time on the Royal Plantation behind gilded gates, and may well help to heal our interactions, if any, and justice and friendship in the future.
JA:-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.
IB:- I served you faithfully all of my life. I was brought into the world as a Spare. No point in describing it like anyone else having children. In the BRF people are told to have more than one child, particularly a 2nd child as back up if anything happens to the first born, who is line for the throne. The life of a Spare is one where you cannot have any ambitions of your own, and you are there purely to be a support system for the older siblings. As soon as that older siblings has children, your role diminishes, and when the eledest child of the heir reaches 18, the Spare is discarded. No matter how it is packaged, history has clearly shown the life of Spare throughout the decades is an abusive one, and often was tragic. I managed to secure freedom, despite all the hurdles put in my way, and the warning shots fired by family members and media alike. It is still horrific to remember the fake tears on tv begging me to return, but to leave my wife and children behind. It is still horrific to me to see people from the Carnival of Clowns go on tv in the UK and give several interviews wishing for a tragedy to occur to my wife, because it would somehow encourage me to return and help others in the Plantation out, and if by chance other wives were to meet a tragic end, it would bring some of the slaves together to comfort each other. So, I would love to hear what you could possibly offer me and my family to return to work for you, when as I stated earlier, that I am financially comfortable now and for the foreseeable future.
JA:_ 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.
IB:-Please contact our Communications team with your suggestions, and we will see if there is recognition of payment for past endeavours, in order to give us faith for promises in the future.
Jourdon Anderson
JA:- 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.
And after a few more jabs about how his children are now happy and receiving an education, Jourdan concludes his letter with:
JA;- Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
JA:-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.
IB:- In answering this letter, please state if my children would be safe. I would rather stay here, than have my children ill treated and shamed by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. If I decide to return, my wife and I can search for good schools. I am already aware of excellent establishments near our current home which will ensure an excellent education. We wish them to have a global education and for them to form virtuous humanitarian habits.
Say Howdy to my brother for me. I have not forgotten the incident at the wedding, where Meghan was on the receiving end of an action. I know that it is not public knowledge, yet, but it is only two names that ever get mentioned, and only legal action taken by the family have prevented it from coming to light. I have time.
From your former Spare & Wife,
Ivy Barrow
12/09/21
Reference Sources:-
https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrLE3VlQTdhICkA_0cM34lQ;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzIEdnRpZANDMjAxNV8xBHNlYwNzcg–/RV=2/RE=1631039974/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.enotes.com%2fhomework-help%2fhow-does-jourdan-anderson-national-convention-262771/RK=2/RS=42E7gscsitry4KaX5xnQDcqzMYw-
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SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
NOVEMBER 16, 2015
African-American History and Culture Museum. https://nmaahc.si.edu/