<P> Anderson died in Dayton on April 15, 1907 of "exhaustion" at 81 years old, and is buried in Woodland Cemetery, one of the oldest "garden" cemeteries in the United States . Amanda died April 12, 1913; she is buried next to him . </P> <P> Dr. Valentine Winters Anderson, Jordan Anderson's son, was a close friend and collaborator with Paul Laurence Dunbar, a noted African - American author . A character called "Jeremiah Anderson," who is asked by his former master to return to the plantation and who refuses, appears in Dunbar's short story, "The Wisdom of Silence ." </P> <P> Michael Johnson, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, investigated the people and places mentioned in order to verify the document's authenticity . He found that 1860 slave records named a Colonel P.H. Anderson in the right county, and that some of his slaves, although not referred to by name, matched the sexes and ages of those in the letter . Jordan Anderson, his wife, and children also appear in the 1870 census of Dayton; they are listed as black and born in Tennessee . </P> <P> Roy E. Finkenbine, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, is writing a biography of Anderson . </P>

Letter from a freedman to his old master analysis