A Short Summary: A Letter To A Former Slave

To my friend and former slave, I’m sorry you had to go through what you did. But may I say, and hopefully you will forgive me for saying this, for a slave, your life was better than most other slaves. After all, you became free. I must apologize for almost giving you away. I should not have trusted that man who told me you were going to run away, after all, you were a loyal slave and a good one. You saw the abuses that many slaves experienced. They had iron muzzles and thumbscrews. Though it must have been scary to watch, it is much worse to have to personally experience such abuses. You also survived the horrible slave ships, one of the many acts of God that fell upon you.
Though this is not to say your life was easy. You lost your name,
Your old master, though from what you say was a nice man, he sneakily betrayed you and sold you to a cruel slave master. Luckily he got him to sell you to me, even though I paid less for you. Hopefully you do not take offense that I valued you less than his brother valued you, but what can you say, even a moral man likes to save money. But divine providence brought us together. Though initially you may have been angry and blamed me somehow for taking you away from your old master, I believe you came to care for me, not just as a slave but later as a friend. Can you look bad on me for being a slave master? After all, there were slaves and slave masters where you came from. How am I any different? Hopefully you see my point, but if not, it is ultimately about business. After all, you transported slaves that were from your own land and you profited off of it, though you did your best to make their lot tolerable as I did yours. I even freed you of bondage, a fate given to few slaves. Though I am sorry and still quite ashamed that I was somewhat reluctant to free you as early as I did and that my captain had to convince me to follow my promise. I hope you can forgive me. I am a man, like most others, who is sadly influenced by greed. A human flaw that I hope to
It shows you were not only dedicated to me because of your bondage, but you cared for me perhaps as a father that you lost years ago. Sadly as a free man I learned by reading your book that you feel you are not truly free, and that we will never truly be equal. I suppose even I perpetuated this by paying you less than white men even though you were much better than most, if not all of them. I now see that you were more resourceful than I imagined. You became an entrepreneur to obtain your freedom. You often stood up to white men trying to steal from you when you had no protection under the law. Remarkably, you succeeded much faster than I expected and much sooner than I would have liked. You were a much more educated man than most men of your color. You learned how to read and obtained a mastery of our language that even few native speakers have. I find your voyages with the natives astounding. However, I am sorry you were forced to waste your time trying to convert those barbarians. I also am sorry you were unable to keep your job as commissioner and help your people living in Sierra Leone. I believe it was not your fault that you were kicked out because the agent had it out for you. After all, you have learned that many whites do not have the best interests of African Americans at heart. The mission was hopeless; even though for a time you thought you were succeeding. They