January 31, YC113
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Amarr
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Toterra, 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 Republic would have hung you long before this, for harboring Amarrians they found at your estate near Amamake. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Republic Fleet Captain whose escape pod had landed on your estate. 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 Tama 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 100 million isk a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Toterra,—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 don't go to your faith's Sunday school, but Mandy and me have found faith elsewhere. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them Matari people were slaves" down in Amarr. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Amarr to belong to your house. Many Matari 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.
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 YC111 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Metropolis. 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 25 million isk a month for me, and two million isk a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven billion six hundred and eighty million isk. 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, Tama. 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 your god 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 Amarr there was never any pay-day for the matari 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.
In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the matari children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
From your old servant,
Toterra.
P.S. I hear that you often fly from Amarr to New Caldari on business. I will keep an eye out to wave to the transport ship. I am sure I can stand the hit to my sec status to properly say goodbye... Pity Amarr citizens of your stature are not allowed clones.
Mr. Anderson would be proud.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this almost three years ago on Snopes, funny that googling it now leads me to a slew of articles about this "recently discovered" letter.