32 Years of Wages, Plus Interest

Jourdon Anderson was born into slavery in Tennessee around 1825. For 32 years he worked the land, raised children, and built a life that was not his own. After the war, he moved to Dayton, Ohio, and started again.

THE LETTER

A letter arrived from his former enslaver, Colonel P.H. Anderson, asking Jourdon to come back. The plantation had fallen apart without him. The Colonel promised he would be treated well this time. Jourdon asked someone to read the letter to him, then dictated his reply.

THE REPLY

Jourdon said he would consider returning under one condition: back wages for himself and his wife Mandy. Thirty-two years of work at fair market rates for two people. He had calculated the amount carefully and wrote, This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. He also asked for guarantees that his daughters would not be violated as enslaved women had been before.

THE VERDICT

The letter was published in newspapers nationwide and reprinted for generations. It became one of the most famous documents in American history, a precise, devastating, and dignified accounting of slavery's cost. The Colonel never paid. Jourdon Anderson died in Dayton in 1907, surrounded by his family, never having returned.