[Таэлле]

Прекрасное как рассвет: в 1865 году южанин, владелец плантации, написал письмо своему бывшему рабу, прося его вернуться, потому что на плантации работать некому. И вот что бывший раб Джордан Андерсон ответил своему хозяину:

(извините, но тут по-английски)

Dayton, Ohio,
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 Jordon, 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,
Jordon Anderson


Здесь подробности про всю эту историю, плюс фотографии.

@темы: история, ссылки, люди

Comments

[Gally]

Какой прекрасный ответ.

[Viorteya-tor]

Таэлле, а пересказать? ну ооочень же интересно, и я не сомневаюсь, что гуглтранслейт не спасет

[r2r]

Прекрасное письмо.

[sige_vic]

Спасибо, что поделилась! Почитала и историю тоже, очень интересно. И какой изумительный ироничный стиль.

[З.Орк]

Мне только любопытно, насколько точно оно написано под диктовку и сколько добавил от себя новый работодатель.

Таэлле, а пересказать? ну ооочень же интересно, и я не сомневаюсь, что гуглтранслейт не спасет

www.aif.ru/society/history/moemu_byvshemu_hozya...

[.Ки]

восхитительно

[Firesong]

Прекрасная история, а подробности где-то можно найти (в статье по ссылке довольно мало по делу)? Помимо того, что мне теперь ужасно интересно, что было дальше, я бы еще и с удовольствием почитал исходное письмо полковника Андерсона - хочется же знать, как именно он все это написал )

[KattyJamison]

Firesong, а никто пока больше не знает, похоже. Ну, кроме того, что Джордан, разумеется, никуда не вернулся, а полковник Андерсон вскоре разорился. Университет Теннесси что-то копает, может, раскопают.

[Таэлле]

По поводу степени участия записывавшего - х его з, но я встречала рассуждения о том, что такая вот ирония по типу "морда кирпичом и все очень вежливо" была вообще характерна для бывших рабов, которые ее вырабатывали для собственной безопасности - мол, за открытую невежливость можно было дорого поплатиться, а самовыразиться-то все равно хочется.

[Firesong]

KattyJamison, ну, если полковник и без того был весь в долгах, то понятно, что никакие 11 тысяч он не выплатил бы, даже если бы искренне перевоспитался и хотел (что маловероятно). А вот что исходное письмо не нашли - жалко, конечно.

[KattyJamison]

Firesong, я думаю, 11 тысяч там по любому никому не светили - огромные же деньги по тем временам! Не исключено, что все поместье столько и стоило. Исходного письма жалко, да. Ну, может найдут еще.

[Viorteya-tor]

З.Орк, спасибо))

[Лопоуша]

Таэлле, это великолепно.

[Таэлле]

Лопоуша, ага)