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. Washington the
public figure often invoked his own past to illustrate his belief
in the dignity of work. "There was no period of my life that was
devoted to play," Washington once wrote. "From the time that I can
remember anything, almost everyday of my life has been occupied in
some kind of labor." This concept of self-reliance born of hard
work was the cornerstone of Washington's social philosophy. As one
of the most influential black men of his time, Washington was not
without his critics. Many charged that his conservative approach
undermined the quest for racial equality. "In all things purely
social we can be as separate as the fingers," he proposed to a
biracial audience in his 1895 Atlanta Compromise address, "yet one
as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." In part,
his methods arose for his need for support from powerful whites,
some of them former slave owners. It is now known, however, that
Washington secretly funded antisegregationist activities. He never
wavered in his belief in freedom: "From some things that I have
said one may get the idea that some of the slaves did not want
freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who did not want
to be free, or one who would return to slavery." 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. (source: Booker T. Washington National Monument)
General
Imprint: |
Indoeuropeanpublishing.Com
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 2010 |
First published: |
May 2010 |
Authors: |
Booker T. Washington
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 12mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
232 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-60444-084-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Education >
General
|
LSN: |
1-60444-084-8 |
Barcode: |
9781604440843 |
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