Jordan Anderson

Biography

Jordan Anderson or Jourdon Anderson (December 1825 – April 15, 1905) was an African-American former slave noted for an 1865 letter he dictated, later titled by publishers as "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master". It was addressed to his former master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, from whom Jordan Anderson had taken his surname, in response to the colonel's request that Anderson return to the colonel's plantation to help restore the farm after the disarray of the American Civil War. It has been described as a rare example of documented "slave humor" of the period and its deadpan style has been compared favorably to the satire of Mark Twain.

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