Letter from Ex-Slave

My interest was drawn to the History of Slavery in H-Net. As I was browsing around I came across someone asking about a letter of an ex-slave written to their old master. The question that was asked was whether the note was legitimate or not. He had questions regarding the letter because of its tone and sentence structure that did not makes sense for the times. Many people posted back about the letter saying that the letter was legitimate and it has been used and published many times in books, newspapers and other places. 

I clicked on the link to the letter and read it for myself. The letter was great and I really enjoyed it. The ex-slave wrote his master talking about how he has now found a new job and able to support his family. He tells his master that he has thought about coming back at times but was afraid what may happen to him if he did. The tone of the letter seems very upbeat and the ex-slave sounds like someone that is enjoying the life of a free man and being able to make a wage rather than working as a slave. He did not hold hate towards his old master. He considered taking the masters offer of coming back and working for him if the wages were higher and if the safety of his family would be granted from the slave owners. 

The letter is a success story of a former slave who was able to have his freedom while being able to support his family in a time that was not very friendly to blacks. Some of the response to the original posts suggested that teacher should read this letter out loud to the class because it has a "special poignacy" when it is taught that way. I believe that this letter should be shown in classes while talking about slavery because when talking about slavery, you do not usually talk about the successes that some ex-slaves had or how they faired after becoming free. It gives a different perspective to all that happened during the slave era. Slavery was not good but it is good to see a positive for one man that came after becoming free. 

Here is the link to the letter: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

Ryan Smith