To My Old Master

As I was surfing the web, I found a blog called Letters of Note. It is similar to Found Magazine, which we listened to a presentation on earlier this year, except it specializes in letters. There was one letter in particular that stood out to me because it was very topical and it tied together a lot of topics that we have learned about this year. It was written in 1865, and it is a response letter that an emancipated slave, Jourdon Anderson, wrote to his master after he had asked Jourdon to come back and work for him again. Jourdon reminded me a lot of Frederick Douglass, especially when he says,"...there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more for than the horses or cows."Douglass compared slaves to animals many times in his narrative to better demonstrate the conditions the slaves were in.  The wit and character that Jourdan shows through his writing is polite yet extraordinarily affective. He does not outwardly reject the offer, but states that he and his wife will come back if his master "send us our wages for the time we served you". The total comes out to be $11,688. It amazed me that Jourdan and his wife were cheated out of that much money, I had never really thought of slavery from the financial viewpoint of the slaves. Also,  Jourdon uses a few different words to describe African-Americans, including "darkeys", a word I had never heard used before. Jourdon's integrity is shown throughout this letter, and I think it is a near perfect way to respond to a former master, especially in his chilling final words.
What are your thoughts on this letter? Do you see a connection between Jourdon and Frederick Douglass?