Adapted from To My Old Master This letter was written by Jourdon Anderson, a person who escaped slavery during the Civil War. The letter is addressed to the man who once held him in slavery, Colonel P. H. Anderson. After the Civil War, Colonel Anderson’s plantation was failing, and he wrote Jourdon to ask him to return to work the fields and help him save his business.

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 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. 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. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told