Place students into pairs, and give each pair Jourdon Anderson’s “Letter To My Old Master.” Explain that Anderson was a formerly enslaved person and his former master had written to Anderson asking him to return to his plantation to work for him after the Civil War ended. This is Anderson’s response, which was published in an Ohio newspaper at the time.

Students should use the OPCVL document analysis protocol to analyze the  source, and should prepare a short oral presentation to the class to summarize their analyses. After each pair shares their analysis, ask the class the following questions and facilitate a closing discussion:

• What is the tone of Anderson’s letter, and how does his tone fit his purpose in writing it? Overall, do you think he wished to return to work on his former plantation? Explain why/why not.
• What models existed for free labor during wartime reconstruction that you can see in this letter? To what extent did various models of free labor benefit Black Americans, and to what extent did they exploit formerly enslaved people?
• In what ways did American racism “shape-shift” to maintain a racial and economic hierarchy after enslavement in the South? How do you see that in this letter?
• To what extent were Black-led efforts to achieve free labor in Union-occupied Southern territories successful? Explain.
• How does Anderson’s post-emancipation request for payment connect to the contemporary idea of reparations? To what extent does the U.S. government owe reparations to Black Americans for the racial wealth gap stemming from enslavement and economic reconstruction during the Civil War?