It has been described as a rare example of documented "slave humor" of the period and its deadpan style has been compared favorably to the satire of Mark Twain.

[1] On August 7, from his home in Ohio, Jordan Anderson dictated a letter in response through his abolitionist employer, attorney Valentine Winters, who had it published in the Cincinnati Commercial.

The letter became an immediate media sensation with reprints in the New York Daily Tribune of August 22, 1865,[1] and Lydia Maria Child's The Freedmen's Book the same year.

[3] In the letter, Jordan Anderson describes his better life in Ohio, and asks his former master for $11,680 in back wages (well over $100,000 inflation adjusted as of 2024[4]).

[1] In late 20th century, reparations activist Raymond Winbush located and interviewed descendants of Colonel Anderson in preparation for his 2003 book Should America Pay?.

A character called "Jeremiah Anderson", who is asked by his former master to return to the plantation and refuses, appears in Dunbar's short story, "The Wisdom of Silence".

[1] In 2012, Michael Johnson, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, investigated the people and places mentioned in order to verify the document's authenticity.