Web page: “To My Old Master,” Letters of Note (with external links)
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Language Inquiry
As you have seen, the problem-solving process applies in science, math, and social studies. These two pages will show how to apply problem solving in language arts.
The Reading Process
Imagine that you need to read and understand a letter written in 1865. Where do you begin? The reading process gives you a problem-solving approach for extracting meaning from a text.
Question the work, its author, and your expectations.
Scan the work, looking at formal structures.
Read the work carefully, marking it as you go.
Review the text and formal structures, reminding yourself of main points.
Discuss the text with another reader to cement its ideas in your mind.
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. . . .
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. . . .
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. . . .
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
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The Writing Process
The writing process also solves a problem—how to go from a blank page to an effective piece of writing. This process is another unique form of inquiry (steps outlined on the left). The example writing is a response to the letter “To My Old Master.”
Question the communication situation.
State your thesis and plan your research.
Gather and organize the information you need to write.
Write a first draft, creating a beginning, middle, and ending.
Revise and edit your drafts.
Publish your work.
Subject: A letter refusing work from his one-time master
Purpose: To point out the evils of slavery in a surprising way
Receiver: The master, who wrote to request the man’s return
Thesis: Jourdon Anderson powerfully demonstrates his humanity through a letter that is matter-of-fact on the surface but angry and earnest beneath.
Understatement: Throughout, Jourdon states horrible situations in mild language, creating a powerful contrast:
- “Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt.”
- “The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson.”
- “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.”
- “Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.”
Beginning: Jourdon Anderson had faithfully served his master for 32 years before he and his family were emancipated. Then Jourdon received a letter from his former master, asking him to return. Jourdon’s reply powerfully demonstrates his humanity in a letter that is matter-of-fact on the surface but deadly earnest beneath.
Revise and edit: I need to provide more quotations. The letter is powerful.
Your Turn Use the reading process to absorb and understand “To My Old Master” and the writing process to create your own response.