A Mirror to Your Mirage: Letter to Holt from Roberts

Dear John Holt,

Ah bet yew wuz espect’n meh ta towlk like dis, I rekun? I’d hate to infuriate, but your old servant is a literate, genteel citizen (or so some believe). I write to you because there is some serious personal consensus that must be made, because I fear you will lose yourself trying to find me. Here is the truth.

I am free and not to be fooled: I was the backbone of your printing enterprise and I have never stole a single item in that lottery foolishness because I earned my own meager wages. I will say that any monies I may have from you are really my own, as I most basically was a partner for your now failing and indebted print business. ‘Tis a good thing I had the chance to work so intimately with you because I know how you operate.

You must know that I regularly see your caricatures of me as the “villainous” smooth-talking, thief of your “amazing confidense” in the papers. You project onto me exactly what is in yourself. You are very good at narrating a trickster about me because you understand how to trick. I must admit, the stories about me are far more fantastic than I would have imagined of myself. At my core, I am just a Black man with a free soul. But I thank you for allowing me to realize something far more implicating: I am a valuable commodity.

We both know that because you molded me to your best interests, showed me how to operate machinery, read and write the papers, and even allowed me to keep another “lesser” language, that I have much more traction in “passing” these days. I have a useful trade and tongue. These experiences all have allowed me to fashion a life for that you will never hold down and an identity you can never rein in. This print shop is much like the labor you allowed me to do, while I am getting paid and living as a freedman.

The primary thrust for my letter is a sentimental and philosophical one. I write this to you to flash a mirror to this mirage of me you have conjured for the Mid-Atlantic public. Most importantly, I pray that the Lord have mercy on your soul for the slander you have erupted.

Sincerely,
Charles Roberts

Questions:
1. How did print culture reinforce and undercut the slave system? Explain some of the ways that it served and disserved the system of oppression for the owning and owned class.
2. What kind of agency what most effective for the runaway slave? Describe some traits that an ideal runaway possesses to be permanently free.