Nothing Like Some Biting Satire To Heal Old Wounds

Freed slave who penned sarcastic letter to old master after he was asked back to farm pictured for first time

I love history for stories like this - a former slave writes a letter to his old master which is simply filled with satire, wit, and some very dark humor. Read the whole article - the research behind the letter is a story in and of itself, and the personalities involved are great. Only thing I will add is the text of the letter itself; the article puts it at the end, but I would have liked to have read it at the top:

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

The last line is what makes the letter. Damn. 

Article written by the Associated Press (AP), and printed by the Daily Mail Online.

You're Doing it Wrong

Iowa teacher's aide fired for calling 'Huckleberry Finn' racist

I feel sorry for the woman in question, actually - she sounds a lot like Kevin Vaughn, someone ill-prepared for the pressure of being a visible minority in a place that is generally unaccustomed to them. I could also be making huge assumptions, that's absolutely possible.

Article courtesy of Fark.com; written by Clark Kaufmann of the Des Moines Daily Register.

On Being Offended

Jim Norton On Offending People, Apologizing To Steve Martin & Why He Likes Westboro Baptist Church 

I hate the culture of being offended that is developing in the States, and exists full-blown in Canada. It's stifling our discussions and our creativity. Which is why I love quotes like this:

"Here’s what being offended is, it’s a phony sense of empowerment. People have lost this ability to go, “Wow, I didn’t like that, that bothered me. I won’t watch that again.” People have lost the ability to just not like something and walk away. People now feel that if they object to something, nobody else should enjoy it either. It’s because we’ve seen enough people say they’re sorry, we’ve seen enough people fired where people now feel that, “if I’m offended, I voice my offense, people have to listen to me.”

It’s a really weird self-centered attention-seeking device people use. So I never buy the offense. … I think 90% of it is a lie. People say, “I don’t like stereotypes.” Bullshit. You don’t like negative stereotypes. People don’t mind positive stereotypes. People don’t mind positive assumptions. It’s only negative assumptions about them. So their outrage is so arbitrary. And I’m embarrassed for us as a free society that we actually want people punished for saying things we don’t like. The liberals are bad and the conservatives are bad. The liberals say things like “Well, that’s homophobic, that’s racist.” And the conservatives say things like, “You’re attacking our religion. You’re attacking family values.” Both sides are equally fraudulent when it comes to supporting unpopular speech. It’s easy to support popular speech. We’re supposed to stick up for things that do bother people. The rest of us are supposed to rally around and defend people’s rights to say what they want to say. That’s why I like the Westboro Baptist Church. I think they’re repulsive people. I think their message is repulsive. But I think they are good for society because it shows exactly what we will tolerate in a free-thinking society. Even pigs like that, and they are pigs."

Walking Away is a concept which is rapidly disappearing,  as is supporting free speech in all its forms, even when you don't like it; especially when you don't like it. Hence why Canada and the UK don't have free speech, and the US is losing it, if it hasn't lost it already.

Article courtesy of Fark.com; Interview was between Jim Norton and Carol Hartsell, and published by the Huffington Post.

Thoughts About Moment, and Accusations of Racism

Everyone is still talking about what happened at Moment Sunday night, and likely will be talking about the incident for a while. At this point I support Moment, and am willing to cut the place a bit of slack. Talking about the issue in recent days, though, has brought up some considerations about incidents like this, and how I'm affected by the mere accusation of racism.

Personally, I was annoyed at myself at how quickly I initially rushed to judgment about Moment. I read von Steltmann's statement on the matter Monday morning, and I was ready to accept not only his word on the incident, but also ready to accept that an establishment I have patronized for a year was anti-Semitic. I was ready to never go to Moment again, and it wasn't for a few hours until I started really thinking about why I had made that judgment.

Let's think about that for a second - I was ready to jump ship and abandon Moment after only reading the word of some guy I never met, which was seconded by someone who I don't know particularly well. The mere accusation of anti-Semitism was enough to set me off - I didn't care about details, nor the other side of the story. For me, this is a problem - and I know I wasn't alone in jumping to this conclusion. In the end, I only opened my mind to other possibilities because I was prompted by friends, and thinking about the prospect of never going to Moment again.

This really got me thinking about how damaging a mere accusation can be - if the charge of anti-Semitism sticks to Moment, it could end as a business. At the very least, this would be greatly unfair. It also happens all the time. How many times has a business or a location been accused of anti-Semitism, and how often did I simply accept the charge? Many, many times - especially if it was seconded by the New York Times. Doing so was easy for me, because I didn't know the business in question. Now that it's hit so close to home, however, I thinking more about the ramifications of doing so, and I hope that, in the future, I engage in a bit more critical thinking before rushing to judgment.

It also got me to thinking about what constitutes anti-Semitism. Specifically, what makes an establishment anti-Semitic? I think we need to be far more careful with how we use that word, especially as Jews. One of the amazing things that has happened to Jews since WWII is that the societies in which we live fight along with us against discrimination and anti-Semitism, especially in the U.S. and Canada. This has not happened often in history, and I fear we might be taking this for granted. We also have to recognize the power this label has, and not to use it lightly - especially since in many places, when it comes to this issue our word is accepted so readily, by non-Jews and Jews.

So no, one incident does not make an establishment anti-Semitic. In the case of Moment, it's continuous support of minorities needs to be taken into account. For others without such a reputation, I think we need to think twice before throwing around such a label. We have power in this field, and I think we're in danger of abusing it - if we haven't done so already. Lord knows way too many Jews play the "Jew Card". But that's a whole other post entirely.