Slave's 1865 letter to master becomes web hit

An extraordinary letter written by an emancipated slave to his former owner ridiculing his request for him to return to work on a Tennessee plantation after the Civil War has become an internet sensation.

More than two million people have read the missive by Jourdon Anderson to "my old master" Colonel PH Anderson since it was posted four days ago on lettersofnote.com; it has been endlessly repeated on Twitter and Facebook.

The letter was written in 1865 with the help of a lawyer in Dayton, Ohio. In it the illiterate former slave suggests that he might consider returning south from his new home, where he was being paid $25 a month, should the Colonel – who twice tried to shoot him – consider reimbursing him and his wife for the three decades they toiled in the fields unpaid.

He points out: "In Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows" and suggests suitable recompense of $11,680 plus interest.

Shaun Usher, who has been publishing historic correspondence on his website since 2009, said the letter has generated record traffic after being picked up by Yahoo to coincide with Black History Month in the US.

Mr Usher said he was satisfied the letter was genuine despite its sarcastic tone. It was published in newspapers and books, and evidence of both men appears in American census documents. But what really shines through is the wit of the former slave, a descendant of the 12 million Africans shipped to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries.

"He was certainly intelligent. I don't know how much was put in by the lawyer but he seems like a refined and courageous man although he had an awful life. Unless he is the most forgiving man that ever lived it is full of sarcasm and really leads up to the final paragraph," said Mr Usher.

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... Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt... 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...