What a way to kick off Black History month. A letter written by a freed slave to his former master has surfaced again after almost 150 years and is creating a lot of buzz.

The letter was written by former slave Jourdon Anderson to his master Colonel P.H. Anderson in August 1865.

According to Letters of Note, Colonel Anderson had written his former slave, asking him to return to work as a freeman on the farm on which he had spent 30 years as a human tool.

The former slave’s response to his former master’s request surfaces again after the book, The Freedmen’s Book, compiled by Lydia Maria Child almost 150 years ago, was reissued this month. Child was born in 1802. Her husband David Lee Child, was an abolitionist who also campaigned for Indian rights and women’s rights.

Jourdon, in the letter replied to his master that he and his family had moved from Big Spring, Tennessee to Ohio, after being emancipated and now he had a job and was being paid, for the first time, for his labor.

The letter starts out heartbreaking and somber but by the letter’s end, it is revealed as one of the great, all-time, understated sarcastic missives, with the final sentence, “Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me,” being the icing on the cake. Dizzzam! LOVE IT!

According to Letters of Note, the New York Daily Tribune published the letter on Tuesday, August 22, 1865.

Here is the letter — OMG!

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. 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,
Jourdon Anderson.

via BlackMediaScoop

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Black history is American history.
Morgan Freeman

Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.
Morgan Freeman

There’s so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I’ve got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father – and how come that’s not as newsworthy?
Will Smith

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.
Bob Marley

I don’t stand for the black man’s side, I don’ t stand for the white man’s side. I stand for God’s side.
Bob Marley

Source: elev8.com

Most Popular Posts

• Viewed
• Commented
• Rated

Black history is American history.
Morgan Freeman

Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.
Morgan Freeman

There’s so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I’ve got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father – and how come that’s not as newsworthy?
Will Smith

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.
Bob Marley

I don’t stand for the black man’s side, I don’ t stand for the white man’s side. I stand for God’s side.
Bob Marley

Source: elev8.com

Most Popular Posts

• Viewed
• Commented
• Rated

Black history is American history.
Morgan Freeman

Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.
Morgan Freeman

There’s so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I’ve got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father – and how come that’s not as newsworthy?
Will Smith

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.
Bob Marley

I don’t stand for the black man’s side, I don’ t stand for the white man’s side. I stand for God’s side.
Bob Marley

Source: elev8.com

Most Popular Posts

• Viewed
• Commented
• Rated

Black history is American history.
Morgan Freeman

Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero.
Morgan Freeman

There’s so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I’ve got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father – and how come that’s not as newsworthy?
Will Smith

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.
Bob Marley

I don’t stand for the black man’s side, I don’ t stand for the white man’s side. I stand for God’s side.
Bob Marley

Source: elev8.com

Most Popular Posts

• Viewed
• Commented
• Rated

Despite the rough nature of his sport, Muhammad Ali was one of the smoothest persons ever to walk the Earth. His poetic verse and well-considered metaphors came out a time during the 1960s when boxers were
better known for punching than speaking. But Muhammad Ali did speak, and spoke intelligently – in a loud, boisterous and uncompromising voice. In this way, Ali was the public epitome of the Black man who
would not be denied and would not back down. Ali, in a way, made it okay to be that man. Barack Obama, and all Black men of his generation, inherited that legacy and that gift from Muhammad Ali.

Born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942, Muhammad Ali grewup as a Baptist. Clay took to the sport of amateur boxing at the age of 12, where he won two national Golden Gloves titles and eventually won the gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Ali won a staggering 100 matches with only 5 losses in his amateur career before turning pro in 1960. In his first title fight, Clay triumphed over Sonny Liston with a T.K.O., after having brazenly said he would “shock the world” by doing so. Ali would win many more professional fights in his pro career, 56 in all, in which his winning was no longer all that shocking.

Outside of the boxing ring, Clay was just as powerful. His conversion to Islam, which prompted his name change, made him extremely controversial. Muhammad Ali often publicly declared his allegiance to
Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad during a time when Elijah was regarded with a great deal of hostility by Americans. Ali also supported controversial Nation of Islam beliefs, such as separatism,
and he was also avidly against interracial marriage. Despite his contentious beliefs, Ali remained well regarded by the public.

Ali declared himself a conscientious objector during the height of the Vietnam War. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” Ali said. “No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.” In 1967, Ali was convicted of
draft evasion and stripped of his boxing license and titles. After a four-year legal battle, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971.

Ali was involved in two of the most prominent fights in the history of the sport. First in 1971, there was the “Fight of the Century” in which Ali and Joe Frazier faced each other in Madison Square Garden.
The fight was hyped by sportscasters, newspapers, and of course, Ali’s diatribes. Joe Frazier had become known for his backing of the Vietnam War, while Ali was, of course, vociferously against it. It was a match
of undefeated wills and opposing idealisms. Ultimately, Frazier would win, but in two rematches, Ali was the victor both times, accumulating wins that essentially cemented his legacy. Ali was also the winner of
the “Rumble in the Jungle”, where he knocked George Foreman out and was the impetus behind the term “Rope-A-Dope.”

Since his retirement in 1981, Ali has used his boxing as a pedestal. He has traveled the world many times over, lending both his name and his prestige to honorable causes, especially that of hunger.

Ali’s independent and brazen character during a time of great racial tension was a symbol for all those who admired him as a boxer and as a man. His endeavors helped him earn a Presidential Medal of Freedom and
helped blaze the path for a Black man to be himself in front of the entire nation, just as Barack Obama was throughout his run for the Presidency.

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As our battle to name The Greatest Black Sitcom of All-Time rages on, Bobby Brown explains why Sanford & Son should still be in the competition.

Take a Look:

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Good Times was defeated by second seed A Different World.  Even more surprising, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air suffered the same fate, leaving A Different World to pair of against The Cosby Show; and Martin to pair off against Living Single in our final four face-off.

25 Reasons We Love A Different World

Do you think Good Times deserved to go out that way? Well, voting is now open to determine the two finalists. Make sure your favorite sitcom makes it and vote now!

The Final Four:

The Cosby Show

A Different World

Martin

Living Single

Who will pair off in the finals? It’s up to you to decide! Vote Now!

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The common thread of  singing  spiritual songs was shared by all, whether it was one of the five traditional Churches or one of the seven historic Black founded churches.

The churches and choir masters and leaders have always been charismatic, creative voices who set history aflame with new innovative thinking and challenging growth. Music has always been the key that held our communication system together.

During slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice, forced to become Christian. Slaves managed, however, to hang on to some practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the African American church. The African American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. Some of the greatest Christian Spirituals were in fact born of the drive and communication.

Many of them have been performed and interpreted in dance, hip hop, pop and jazz versions. In the  later years the struggle for equality and basic civil rights and strong identity bore a new crop of music that expresses the modern day trials and tribulations.

Here is a list of the Greatest 8 Spirituals of All Time.

# 8 – “Wade in the Water”- was first  in New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1901) by John Wesley Work II and his brother, Fredericka J. Work. The main chorus is:  Wade in the water./ Wade in the water children. Wade in the water./ God’s gonna trouble the water.The song relates to both the Old and New Testaments. The verses reflect the Israelites escape out of Egypt as found in Exodus:14. The chorus refers to healing: see John 5:4, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”

#7- “Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Savior”- is a 19th Century American hymn written by Francis J. Crosby in 1868 (lyrics) and William H. Doane in 1870 (music). It is the plea to be remembered during trials and tribulations and is the cry The main chorus is:  Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry;   while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.

#6- “Soon and Very Soon”- lyrics and music written by Andraé Crouch. The lyrics of the song proclaim the promise of Heaven and the Salvation . Singing “Soon and Very Soon We Are Going to See The King reminds us that we are destined for another place. It was the entrance song used in the Memorial of Michael Jackson

#5- “Going Up Yonder”- lyrics and Music written by Walter Hawkins reminds that we can manage no matter what problem we face

#4- “Amazing Grace Amazing Grace“ is a Christian hymn written by English poet and clergyman John Newton (1725–1807), published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God, “Amazing Grace” is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.

#3- “Bless The Lord”- lyrics and music written by Andraé Crouch. It is simply put a praise a worship song based on the Psalm of David 103:1-5.

#2-“I Want Jesus to Walk With Me”- The song written by Edward Boatner for Marian Anderson   is affirmation that we are not on the journey of life alone. The chorus “Well, I want Jesus / Whilst walk with me / Yes, I want Jesus / Walk with me / Whilst I’m on this tedious journey /

#1- “His Eye Is On The Sparrow“- Although today it is a staple of African-American worship services, the song was originally written in 1905 by two white songwriters, lyricist Civilla D. Martin and composer Charles H. Gabriel. The song is most associated with actress-singer Ethel Waters who used the title for her autobiography.

There are many  songs that could be added to this list such as  “Praise God From Whom All the Blessings Flow”, “Only This I Want”.

What is your favorite?”

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will mark Black History Month at the White House with a celebration of Motown music.

The White House says performers will include Smokey Robinson, Sheryl Crow and John Legend. The Feb. 24 event will be taped and broadcast on PBS March 1.

The Motown event is the latest in the music series “In Performance at the White House.” The Obamas have hosted musical tributes to several genres, including jazz, country and Broadway. Mrs. Obama often hosts daytime programs for students to educate them about the genres and encourage involvement in the arts.

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