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."

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.

Roy E. Finkenbine, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, is writing a biography of Anderson.
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."
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.
Roy E. Finkenbine, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy, is writing a biography of Anderson.
Jordan Anderson