The article is a little wrong to link to the Emancipation Proclamation, because Lincoln specifically exempted Tennessee from that. According to the easiest link

The article is a little wrong to link to the Emancipation Proclamation, because Lincoln specifically exempted Tennessee from that. According to the easiest links to dig up on Google [1,2], Tennessee was the only state to free its slaves by popular vote and didn't do so until February 1865, less than six months before Jourdon dictated his letter and certainly well after he had left the farm, since the letter makes clear that was 1864 at the latest. That explains why Anderson (the master) shot at him when he was leaving: he hadn't actually been emancipated yet. What it doesn't explain is how he got his "free papers" in Nashville in 1864. Since Nashville was obviously in Tennessee too, why would he have been any more emancipated there? My bet is it had something to do with joining or supporting the war effort. Tennessee was under Union control. Another thing I didn't know: the Governor of Tennessee at the time was Andrew Johnson, who became president after Lincoln was killed. 1. http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/stories/emancipation http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/stories/emancipation — this web page says it's "for kids"; one wishes all web pages were so informative. 2. http://www.afrigeneas.com/states/tn/ http://www.afrigeneas.com/states/tn/