To My Old Master

Monday, 30 January 2012
Source: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated).

Rather than quote the numerous highlights in this letter, I'll simply leave you to enjoy it. Do make sure you read to the end.

(Source: The Freedmen's Book; Image: A group of escaped slaves in Virginia in 1862, courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

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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.

Police officer in Sampov Loun Border Gate involved in human trafficking?

26 November 2007
By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

An official of a human rights NGO in Battambang province is currently investigating in a trans-border human trafficking case in which it is suspected that a border police officer at the Sampov Loun border gate is the perpetrator of the trafficking.

The investigation took place in the morning of 26 November after a farmer’s family complained that 7 persons were duped by the Sampov Loun border gate police officer who took them to sell as slave workers.

Uth Yes, a farmer from Ta Khiev village, Ampil Pram Doeum commune, Bavil district, Battambang province, claimed on Monday morning that 7 of his sons were duped by Chhit Nhork, a police officer belonging to Brigade 817 at the Sampov Loun border gate, and sold to a Thai merchant since March of this year. Uth Yes didn’t learn about this issue until one of his sons and another person fled and came back to tell him about the story.

Uth Yes said: “My son … was duped. Two of them fled back (from Thailand), he said that they told them to take the boat, but instead they were sold (as slave workers).”

Yin Meng Ly, a coordinator and investigator for the Adhoc human rights organization in Battambang province, said that his organization is currently doing its research on the spot in Sampov Loun district, in order to meet with the two boys who claimed that they fled from the human sale. If the case is factual as the two boys claimed, this is a true slavery case. Nevertheless, Licadho was not able to meet the two boys yet because they went to work as farm laborers in Thailand harvesting corns.

Yin Meng Ly said: “These two boys are very important witnesses in this case, therefore, we must wait for their answers.”

Adhoc indicated that border police officer Chhit Nhork came to round up 7 people from Bavel district, to work as ice lifters in Poipet area since March. However, after it was learnt that the 7 persons were sold by Chhit Nhork to the boss of a sea fishing boat near the border between Thailand and Malaysia, Chhit Nhork fled since then.

The director of the border police brigade unit 817, based at the Sampov Loun border gate, who declined to give out his name, said that Chhit Nhork was indeed a police officer there, but that he did not know anything about the human trafficking case.

Seng Son, the director of the human trafficking police in Battambang province, said that he did not receive the information about this case yet, however, he said that if research proves that this case is true, the perpetrator will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

According to Battambang police, this is the second case involving trans-border human trafficking. In 2006, a boy was similarly sold in Thailand also.

Cambodian Christians recall slavery

A small Catholic community survived a genocidal onslaught by the communist Khymer Rouge. Christian Cambodians recall priest of the 1880s who bought their freedom from slavery.

Sunday, August 19, 2007
Spero News

People of various ethnic backgrounds, united by their status as former slaves and their desire to follow the one who freed them, provided the foundation of one of the country's oldest existing Catholic communities.

Established about 125 years ago, Kdol Leu, about 150 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh, survived the civil war from the 1960s and the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge. The radical communist group suppressed religion and is generally regarded as having killed or caused the death of almost one in four Cambodians.

Today the faith life of the community has revived.

Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) Father Francois Ponchaud, director of the Catholic Cultural Center in Phnom Penh, recently spoke to UCA News about the history of this community.

It all began in 1881, when MEP Father Lazard came to the region of Krouch Chma, near today's Kdol Leu, to buy wood to build a church. To the priest's surprise, he found many slaves being used by businessmen from Malaya (now Malaysia) to cut down trees. Father Lazard then wrote to the head of the Church in Phnom Penh, informing him about his decision to buy the slaves rather than wood to build a church.

By 1889 the priest had bought all the slaves and freed them, according to Father Ponchaud. His book The Cathedral of the Rice Paddy traces the history of the Church in Cambodia. "Father Lazard was profoundly shaken by this slave trade, which persisted despite the French presence," Father Ponchaud said.

"While some of the former slaves decided to go to different places to look for new jobs, others followed Father Lazard, and he started the Catholic community of Kdol Leu in 1889," explained the missioner, who ministered to the Kdol Leu community 1968-69.

He said Father Lazard wrote in one of his letters that the Kdol Leu community was made up of people from at least seven ethnic groups -- Cham, Inan, Kha, Khmer, Lao, Rhade and Stieng. "They speak their own languages but recite prayers in Khmer."

This Catholic community lived peacefully until the time of the civil war and Khmer Rouge. In February 1972, MEP Father Pierre Rapin, then serving as parish priest of Kdol Leu, was killed. Some days later a bomb attack destroyed the church. During the Khmer Rouge time, the community dispersed.

It wasn't until 1992 that Father Ponchaud went back to Kdol Leu to minister to Catholics who had returned to their village. The priest helped the people rebuild their church and re-establish their faith community.

According to Father Ivan Campana, current parish priest of Kdol Leu, the Catholics during the Khmer Rouge rule kept their faith by praying every day and teaching their children to pray. "Their relationship with God was the only hope they had during that hopeless period," the Ecuadorian missioner of the Colombia-based Yarumal Institute for Foreign Missions told UCA News.

Kdol Leu village today has 20 Catholic families. About 10 other villagers are catechumens. The villagers are mostly farmers.

Pastoral activities include monthly workshops for catechists, Father Campana said. "Every week a group of Catholics, especially young people, come together to hear a weekly radio program called Emmanuel, which features a Sunday Gospel reading and explanation," he continued. The Catholic communications center in Phnom Penh produces the program.

"I have witnessed the strong faith of the Catholics of this village," Father Campana said.

Thy Pich, 28, the village barber, told UCA News he was baptized only in 2005 because of the lack of priests. "But I had learned a lot about Christianity from my mother since I was a child," he said. He now teaches catechism to children and adults.

Former catechist Srey Aem, who makes a living by sewing, recalled, "Although we are very poor and my parents never went to school, they taught me to share love with our neighbors." Aem, 27, is also receiving training to become a kindergarten teacher. "Some people's criticism of my Christian faith," she said, "has made me love Jesus more and not be afraid of sharing my faith with my neighbors."