Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

by Booker T. Washington

Overview

Born into slavery. First leader of the Tuskegee Institute. Political advisor to Presidents. This is his voice. This is his story. Read of his inspirational life in this unabridged, affordable printed volume.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945644108
Publisher:	Ross Bolton
Publication date:	10/18/2016
Pages:	102
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Booker T. Washington recalled his childhood in his autobiography, Up From Slavery. He was born in 1856 on the Burroughs tobacco farm which, despite its small size, he always referred to as a "plantation." His mother was a cook, his father a white man from a nearby farm. "The early years of my life, which were spent in the little cabin," he wrote, "were not very different from those of other slaves."
He went to school in Franklin County - not as a student, but to carry books for one of James Burroughs's daughters. It was illegal to educate slaves. "I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study would be about the same as getting into paradise," he wrote. In April 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation was read to joyful slaves in front of the Burroughs home. Booker's family soon left to join his stepfather in Malden, West Virginia. The young boy took a job in a salt mine that began at 4 a.m. so he could attend school later in the day. Within a few years, Booker was taken in as a houseboy by a wealthy towns-woman who further encouraged his longing to learn. At age 16, he walked much of the 500 miles back to Virginia to enroll in a new school for black students. He knew that even poor students could get an education at Hampton Institute, paying their way by working. The head teacher was suspicious of his country ways and ragged clothes. She admitted him only after he had cleaned a room to her satisfaction.
In one respect he had come full circle, back to earning his living by menial tasks. Yet his entrance to Hampton led him away from a life of forced labor for good. He became an instructor there. Later, as principal and guiding force behind Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which he founded in 1881, he became recognized as the nation's foremost black educator.
By the last years of his life, Washington had moved away from many of his accommodationist policies. Speaking out with a new frankness, Washington attacked racism. In 1915 he joined ranks with former critics to protest the stereotypical portrayal of blacks in a new movie, "Birth of a Nation." Some months later he died at age 59. A man who overcame near-impossible odds himself, Booker T. Washington is best remembered for helping black Americans rise up from the economic slavery that held them down long after they were legally free citizens.

Table of Contents

Preface 3
Introduction by Walter H. Page 3
Chapter I. A Slave Among Slaves 7
Chapter II. Boyhood Days 13
Chapter III. The Struggle For An Education 18
Chapter IV. Helping Others 24
Chapter V. The Reconstruction Period 29
Chapter VI. Black Race And Red Race 32
Chapter VII. Early Days At Tuskegee 36
Chapter VIII. Teaching School In A Stable And A Hen-House 40
Chapter IX. Anxious Days And Sleepless Nights 44
Chapter X. A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw 48
Chapter XI. Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them 53
Chapter XII. Raising Money 57
Chapter XIII. Two Thousand Miles For A Five-Minute Speech 62
Chapter XIV. The Atlanta Exposition Address 68
Chapter XV. The Secret Of Success In Public Speaking 75
Chapter XVI. Europe 84
Chapter XVII. Last Words 91