Booker T. Washington - Up From Slavery | Read by Ossie Davis (1976)

I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. I am not very sure of the exact place or the exact date of my birth, but in any case I suspect that I must have been born somewhere and at some time as close as I have been. able to learn I was born near a post office at a crossroads called Fort Hales and the year was 1858 or 1859 I don't know the month or the day the first impressions I can now remember are of the plantation and the slave quarters the lack of being In part of the plantation where the slaves had their cabins my life had its beginning and in the middle of the most miserable, desolate and discouraging environment this was so high but not because my owners were especially cruel because they were not compared to many others I was born In a typical log cabin about 14 by 16 feet square in this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and sister until after the Civil War when we were all declared free of my ancestry.

I know almost nothing in the slave quarters and even later I heard whispered conversations among the colored people about the torches that the slaves, including no doubt my ancestors on my mother's side, suffered in the middle of the slave ship voyage while they were transported from Africa to America. I have not been able to obtain any information that could shed precise light on my family history beyond my mother; I remember she had a half brother and a half sister in the days of

slavery

, not much attention was paid to family history and family records, meaning black family records, my mother I guess. attracted the attention of a buyer who later became my owner and hers, her addition to the slave family attracted as much attention as my father's purchase of a new horse or cow I know even less than my mother's I don't even know her name He Having heard reports that he was a white man living on one of the nearby plantations, whoever he was, I never heard of him taking the slightest interest in me or taking care of my upbringing when he found nothing special.

It was his fault, he was just another unfortunate victim of the institution the nation had unfortunately instilled in him at the time. The cabin was not only our place of residence but also served as a kitchen for the plantation. My mother was a cook on the plantation. The cabin had nothing. glass windows only had openings on the sides that let in the light and also the cold winter air there was a door to the cabin which is something called a door but the uncertain hinges on which it hung and the large cracks in it, for Not to mention the fact that it was too small, it made the room very uncomfortable.

In addition to these openings, in the lower right corner of the room was a cat hole, a device that almost every mansion or cabin in Virginia possessed. During the antebellum period, the cat's den was a square opening approximately 7 by 8 inches provided for the purpose of allowing the cat to enter and exit the house at will during the night. In the case of our particular cabin, I could never understand the need for this convenience as there were at least half a dozen other places in the cabin that would have accommodated the cats. There was no wooden floor in our cabin.

The bare earth was used as floor in the center of the dirt floor there was a large deep opening covered with boards that served as a place to store sweet potatoes during the winter, an impression of this potato hole is very clearly etched in my memory because I remember that during the process of putting or take out the potatoes I often take possession of one or two that I roasted and thoroughly enjoyed; There was no stove on our plantation and all the food for the whites and slaves my mother had to cook over an open fireplace mainly in pots and pans, while the poorly built cabin made us suffer with the cold in winter, the heat of the fireplace In summer it was equally difficult.

The first years of my life, which I spent in the small cabin, are not much different from those of thousands of other slaves, my mother, of course. She had time to pay attention to the education of her children during the day, she took a few moments to care for us early in the morning before starting her work and in the evening after finishing the day's work. One of my earliest memories is of my mother cooking a chicken late at night and waking up her children for the purpose of feeding them how or where she got it I don't know I guess, however it was purchased from our owners farm , some people might call this robbery if such a thing happened Now I should condemn it as robbery but it happened at the time it happened and for the reason it happened no one could make me believe that my mother was guilty of stealing she was simply a victim of the

slavery

system.

I can not remember it. Having slept in a bed until our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, my three children, Jean, my older brother, Amanda, my sister and I, had a pallet on the dirty floor or, to be more correct, we slept on a pile of dirty rags. on the dirt floor not long ago asked me to tell something about the sports and hobbies I practiced during my youth until I was asked that question. It had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that had been dedicated to gambling since The Time I I can remember almost every day of my life having been occupied in some kind of work, although I think I would be a more useful man now if I had had time to play sports during the period I spent in slavery.

He wasn't big. enough to be of much service yet he was busy most of the time cleaning the odds carrying water to the men in the fields they go to the mill where he used to take the corn once a week to grind it the mill was

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y A three miles from the plantation, during this work I always feared that the heavy bag of corn would be thrown over the back of the horse and that the corn would be divided evenly on each side, but somehow, almost without exception, on these trips the corn moved until he became unbalanced and I would fall off the horse and often fall with him because I was not strong enough to carry the corn back onto the horse.

Sometimes I had to wait for many hours until a passerby appeared to help me out of my problem. That was while I was waiting for someone, normally I would go over and cry, the time consumed in this way would make me arrive late and get to the mill and by the time I got my ground corn and got home it was al

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y very late at night the road was also alone when an A I was often led through dense forests. I was always afraid. It was said that the forest was full of soldiers who had deserted from the army and I had been told that the first thing a deserter did to a black child when he found him alone was cut off contact with him.

Furthermore, when I came home late I knew that I would always receive a severe reprimand or a flogging. I did not have any education while I was a slave, although I remember that on several occasions I arrived at the school door with one of my young men who had their teachers carry their books, the The image of several dozen boys and girls in a classroom studying impressed me deeply and I had the feeling that entering a school and studying in this way would be the same as entering paradise. As far as I can remember, the first knowledge I had of the fact that we were slaves and that the freedom of slaves was being discussed was early one morning before the day when I was awakened by my mother, kneeling beside her children and praying fervently that Lincoln and her armies could succeed so that one day she and her children could be freed.

In this sense, I have never been able to understand how the slaves throughout the South, completely ignorant and the masses when it came to books or newspapers, were able to keep themselves so accurately and completely informed about the great national questions that agitated the country since At the time when Garrison Lovejoy and others began to agitate for freedom, slaves throughout the South kept in close contact with the progress of the movement, although I was a mere child during the preparations for the Civil War and during the war itself. Now I remember the many late-night whispered arguments I overheard between my mother and her other slaves on the plantation.

These discussions showed that they understood the situation and were holding their own. Informed of events on what was called the Telegraph Vine during the campaign when Lincoln was first running for president, the slaves on our distant plantation, miles from any railroad or big city or newspaper, knew what the issues involved were. when the war started. Between the north and the south, every slave on our plantation felt and knew that, although other issues were discussed, the main one was that of slavery, even the most ignorant members of my race on the remote plantations felt in their hearts a certainty that did not admit any There is no doubt that the freedom of the slaves would be the great result of the war if the northern arm is conquered.

Every success of the Federal armies and every defeat of the Confederate forces was observed with the keenest and most intense interest. The results of the great battles before the whites received this news were usually obtained from the colored man who was sent to the post office by the mail. In our case, the post office was about three miles from the plantation and the mail arrived once or twice. One week, the man who was sent to the office lingered long enough to understand the conversation of the group of white people who naturally gathered there after receiving their mail to discuss the latest news from the mailman on his way back. . to our master's house, with the same naturalness he sold the news that he had obtained among the slaves and in this way they often found out about important events before the whites in the big house, as the master's house was called.

I cannot remember a single instance during my childhood or childhood, when our entire family sat at the table and asked for God's blessing and the family ate in a civilized manner on the Virginia plantation and even later the children prepared the meals much like dumb animals do. It was a piece of bread here and a piece of meat there It was a cup of milk at one time and some potatoes at another Sometimes a portion of our family ate from the frying pan or pot while someone ate from a plate held on their knees. and often using nothing more than my hands to hold the food when it had grown large enough, I was asked to go to the big house at mealtime to fan the Flyers on the table by means of a large set of metal fans. paper.

Operated by a pulley, naturally, much of the white conversation revolved around the subject of freedom and war, and I absorbed much of it. I remember at one time seeing two of my young lovers and some visiting ladies eating ginger cakes. In the yard at that moment, those cakes seemed to me absolutely the most tempting and desirable things I had ever seen and then, in their resolution that if I ever freed myself, I would reach the pinnacle of my ambition if I could reach the point where I could secure and it indicates it in the way I saw those ladies, of course, as the war dragged on, white people in many cases often found it difficult to secure food for themselves.

I think the slaves felt the deprivation less than the whites because the slaves' usual diet was cornbread and pork and these could be grown on the plantation, but coffee, tea, sugar and other items that the whites were accustomed to using They could not be grown on the plantation and the conditions caused by the war often made it impossible to secure these things the whites were often in long lines the roasted corn was used for coffee and the type of black molasses was used in place of sugar many Sometimes nothing was used to sweeten the so-called tea and coffee.

The first pair of I remember wearing the wooden ones, they had rough leather on the top, but the bottom, which was about an inch thick, was a reward when I walked, They made a horrible noise and, in addition, were very uncomfortable since it did not give in to the natural pressure of the foot when wearing them when it presented an extremely uncomfortable appearance. However, the most difficult test I was forced to endure as a slave was the wearing of a bulletproof suit and in the part of Virginia where I lived it was common to wear linen as a part. of the slaves' clothing that part of the linen from which our clothing was made was largely rubbish, which of course was the cheapest and coarsest part.

I can hardly imagine any torture except perhaps the extraction of a tooth equal to that caused by Putting on a new linen shirt for the first time is almost equal to the sensation one would experience if one had a dozen or more chestnut burs or a hundred small dots. and the contact with his flesh, even today I can remember the torture with precision. that I suffered when putting on one of these clothes, the fact that my flesh was soft and tender added to the pain but I had no choice, I had to wear the linen or nun's shirt and ifwould have been allowed to choose should I have chosen not to wear any covering in connection with the linen shirt that my brother John, who is several years older than me, performed one of the most generous acts I have ever heard one slave relative do for another in several occasions when they forced me to do it. wear a new linen shirt, he generously agreed to put it in my place and wear it for several days until I was torn until I became a young man, this single garment was all I wore, one can get an idea of ​​what I have said that there was some sentiment towards whites on the part of my race due to the fact that the majority of the white population was away fighting in a war that would result in keeping blacks in slavery if the South was successful.

This was not true for slaves here, and it was not true for any large portion of the slave population in the South, where blacks were treated with anything resembling decency during the Civil War. In the war, one of my young masters died and two were seriously injured. I remember the feeling of sadness that existed among the slaves when they learned of Mars Billy's death. It wasn't fake pain, but real. Some of the slaves had breastfed mass. Billy's father had played with him when he was a child. Marley had begged for mercy in the case of others when the foreman and a master were beating them.

The pain in the slave quarters was second only to that in the big house when the two young masters They were brought home wounded. The sympathy of the slaves was manifested in many ways; They were as eager to help with care as the relatives of the wounded; some of the slaves even begged for the privilege of sitting up at night to care for their wounded masters with this tenderness and the sympathy on the part of the captives was a result of their kind and generous nature in defending and protecting the women and children they Left on the plantations when the white men went to war, the slaves would have given their lives at the same time.

The slave who was selected to sleep in the big house during the men's absence was considered to have a place of honor. Anyone trying to harm the young or old mistress during the night would have had to cross the slave's corpse to do so. I don't know how many have noticed it, but I think it will be found that there are some cases, whether in slavery or freedom, where a member of my race is known to betray a specific trust, as a rule not only the members of my race. race did not harbor feelings of bitterness against whites before and during the war?

But there are many cases of blacks tenderly caring for their former masters and lovers who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the war. I know cases. because former slave masters have for years received money from their former slaves to prevent them from suffering. I have known other cases in which former slaves have helped in the education of the descendants of their former owners. I know of a case on a large plantation in the South where a young white man, the son of a former owner of the estate, has so reduced his money and is so controlled by drink that he is a pitiful creature, and yet Despite the poverty of the The blacks themselves on this plantation have supplied this young white man with the necessities of life for years, one sends him a little coffee or sugar, another a little meat, etc., none of what they possess blacks is too good for old master Tom's son. who perhaps will never be allowed to suffer as long as there is anyone left in the place who directly or indirectly knew ole marse tom.

I have said that there are some cases where a member of my race betrays a specific trust, one of the best examples of this that I know of is the case of a former slave from Virginia whom I met not long ago in a small town. from the state of Ohio. I discovered that this man had made a contract with his master two or three years before the Emancipation Proclamation to the effect that the slave would be permitted to purchase himself by paying a certain amount per year for his body and while paying for himself He would be allowed to work wherever and for whomever he wanted, discovering that he could get better wages in Ohio.

It was there when freedom came he still owed his master about three hundred dollars even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master this black man walked most of the distance to where his former master lived in Virginia and He placed the last dollar with interest in his hands and speaking to me about this the man told me that he knew that he did not have to pay the debt but that he had given his word to his master and he had never broken his word, he felt that he could not enjoy his freedom until he had fulfilled his promise from some things I have said one can 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 who would return to slavery.

I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or group of people who are so unfortunate as to become entangled in the web of slavery. I long ago ceased to harbor any spirit of bitterness against southern whites on this account. of the enslavement of my race, no sector of our country was totally responsible for its introduction and was also recognized as protected for years by the general government. Once Kevin managed to attach his tentacles to the economic and social life of the Republic, it was not an easy matter. If the country is to free itself from the institution, then, when we get rid of racial prejudices or feelings and look the facts in the face, we must recognize that, despite the cruelty and moral evil of slavery, the ten million Negroes who inhabit this country, who themselves or whose ancestors passed through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition from a material, intellectual, moral and religious point of view than what occurs with a number Just as many black people anywhere else in the world.

This is so to such an extent that the blacks in this country who themselves are whose ancestors went through the school of slavery are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the homeland. I am not saying this to justify slavery on the other hand I condemn as an institution since we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons and not for a missionary reason but to draw attention to a fact and show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to achieve a purpose when people these days asked me how in the midst of what sometimes seemed hopelessly discouraging conditions.

I can have so much faith in the future of my race in this country. I remind you of the desert through which and from which a good Providence has already guided us since I was old enough to think for myself. He entertained the idea that, despite the cruel evils inflicted upon us, the black man gained from slavery almost as much as the white man; the harmful influences of the institution were by no means limited to the Negro; This was fully illustrated by the life of On our own plantation, the whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to cause labor, as a rule, to be regarded as a mark of degradation of inferiority, hence labor It was something that both races on the plantation sought to escape the slave system in our place. it largely took away the spirit of self-reliance and self-help from whites.

My former teacher had many boys and girls, but as far as I know, none mastered a single trade or special line of productive industry. Girls were not taught. cooking like this or taking care of the house, all this was left in the hands of the slaves. The slaves, of course, had little personal interest in plantation life, and their ignorance prevented them from learning to do things in the most approved and thorough manner. As a result of the system, the fences were not repaired. The doors hung halfway off the hinges. The doors creaked. The window panes were out. house and the dining room table lacked that delicacy and refinement of touch and finish that can make a home the most comfortable, comfortable and attractive place in the world, yet there was a waste of food and other materials, which was sad when freedom arrived.

The slaves were almost as well equipped to begin a new life as the master, except in matters of book learning and property ownership. The slave owner and his children did not master any special industry; They had unconsciously absorbed the feeling that manual labor was not appropriate for them. On the other hand, the slaves in many cases had mastered some trade and none were ashamed and few did not want to work. Finally the war ended and the day of freedom arrived. It was a momentous and eventful day for everyone on our plantation. We expected it. freedom was in the air and they had been deserting for months, soldiers were seen returning home every day, others who had been discharged whose regiments had been paroled constantly passed by our house, the vine Telegraph was kept busy day and night the news and Murmurs of great events were carried quickly from one plantation to another for fear of Yankee invasions.

Cutlery and other valuables were taken from the large house buried in the forest and guarded by trusted slaves. treasure the slaves gave the Yankee soldiers food drink clothing anything that had been specifically entrusted to their care and honor as the big day approached there was more singing than usual in the slave quarters it was daring it had more sound and lasted later That night, most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom. It is true that they had sung those same verses before, but they had been careful to explain that the freedom in these songs referred to the other world and had no connection with life in this world.

Now little by little they took off the mask and were not afraid to make it known that the freedom in their songs meant freedom of the body in this world. The night before the memorable day they sent wood to the slave barracks with the effect that something unusual It was happening that would take place in the big house the next morning, that night we slept little or nothing, everything was excitement and expectation. The next morning, firewood was sent to all the slaves, old and young, together in the house, in the company of my mother, my brother and my sister. a large number of other slaves went to the master's house, all of our master's family were standing or sitting on the terrace of the house where they could see what was going to happen and hear what was said, there was a deep feeling interest. perhaps sadness on their faces, but not bitterness, since now I remember the impression they made on me;

At that moment they did not seem to be sad about the loss of their property but rather about being separated from those they had raised and who were in many places. very close to them, the most distinctive thing I now remember in connection with the scene was that a man who appeared to be a stranger (an officer of the United States, I suppose), made a short speech and then read a rather long article from the Proclamation of Emancipation. thinking after the reading they told us that we were all free and that we could go whenever and wherever we wanted my mother who was next to me leaned down and kissed her children while tears of joy ran down her cheeks she explained to us what it all meant that this was the day for which he had been praying so long but fearing he would never live to see it, for some minutes there was great rejoicing and thanksgiving and wild scenes of ecstasy, but there was no feeling of bitterness, in fact, there was pity among the slaves of our former owners, the wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated colored people lasted only a short period because I noticed that when they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings, the great responsibility of being free from having to be in charge of having to thinking and planning for themselves and their children seemed to take possession of them, was very much like suddenly leaving a young man of ten or twelve into the world to deal in a few hours with the great question with which the race Anglo-Saxon had been fighting for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be resolved these were the issues of a home, life, raising children, education, citizenship and establishing and supporting churches, it was no wonder that In a few hours outside the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep sadness seemed to invade the slaves' quarters.

It seemed to some that now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected. Some of the slaves were seventy or eighty years old. years their best days had passed they did not have the strength to make a living in a strange place and among strange people even if they had been sure how to find a new place of residence for this class the problem seemed especially difficult and deep down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to all masters and old wivesladies and their children, and it was difficult for them to think about breaking up with them;

In some cases almost half a century had passed and there was nothing light that I thought about separating us gradually, one by one, stealthily. At first the older ones began to walk from the slave quarters back to the big house to have a whispered conversation with their former owners about the future after the arrival of freedom. There were two points on which practically all the people in our place will agree and I find that this was generally true throughout the South, that the names must be changed and that the old plantation must be abandoned for at least a few days or weeks so that it really They could be sure that they were free and among the colored people there was a certain feeling that it was not correct for them to take the surname of their former owners and many of them took other surnames, this was one of the first signs of freedom when they were slaves a colored person was simply called John or Susan there was rarely occasion for the use of more than one name if John or Susan belonged to a white man named Hatcher he was sometimes called John Hatcher or as often called John but there was the feeling that John Hatcher or Hatcher John was not the proper title to designate a Freeman and therefore, in many cases, John Hatcher was changed to John as Lincoln or John s Sherman; the initial S does not represent any name as it is simply a part of what the colored man proudly called his titles, as I have said most of the colored people left the old plantation for a short time at least to be sure that it seemed like they could go and try their freedom to see how it felt after they had done it.

They stayed away for a while, many of the older slaves specially returned to their old homes and made some kind of contract with their former owners whereby they remained in the My mother's husband, who was my brother John's stepfather, and I We did not belong to the same owners as my mother. In fact, he rarely came to our plantation. I remember seeing him there, maybe once a year, it being somehow around Christmas time. After the war, on the run and following federal soldiers, he seemed to find his way to the new state of West Virginia. As soon as freedom was declared, he sent for my mother to come visit relatives in our Valley in West Virginia, at that time, a trip.

From Virginia through the mountains to West Virginia was quite tedious and in some cases painful, carrying the few clothes and the few household items we had were placed in a cart, but the children walked most of the distance, which It was several hundred miles, I don't know. I think some of us had once been very far from the plantation and the ticking of a long trip to another state was quite an event; The separation from our former owners and the members of our own race on the plantation was a serious occasion from the time of From our separation until his death we corresponded with the older members of the family and in later years have kept in touch with the youngest members.

We spent several weeks making the trip and most of the time we slept outdoors. One night we cooked outside over a wood fire. I remember we camped near an abandoned log cabin, so my mother decided to make a fire there to cook and then make a platform on the ground to sleep on, just as The fire had started well, a large black snake about five feet tall. long went down the chimney and ran to the ground, of course we left that cabin immediately and finally reached our destination, a small town called Malden, which is about five miles away.

From Charleston, the current state capital at the time, salt mining was the big industry in that part of West Virginia and the small town of Malden was right in the middle of the salt furnaces. My stepfather had already gotten a job in a furnace and had also gotten us a small cabin to live in in our new house that was no better than the one we had left on the old plantation in Virginia; in fact, in one respect it was worse despite the poor condition of our cabin on the plantation we were on. always sure of having fresh air, our new home was in the middle of a group of cabins very close together and as there were no sanitary regulations, the dirt around the cabins was often intolerable; some of our neighbors were people of color and some of the poorest and most ignorant and degraded white people were a motley mix drinking gambling fighting brawls and shockingly immoral practices were frequent everyone who lived in the small town was in one way or another related with the salt business although I was a simple child my stepfather put me and my brother at work and in one of the ovens.

I often started work at four in the morning. The first thing I learned in terms of book knowledge was that while working in the salt kiln, each salt canner had their barrels marked with a certain number, the number assigned to my stepfather was 18, at the end of the work day The Packers boss would come and put 18 in each of our barrels and I soon learned to recognize that figure wherever I saw it and after a while to the point where I could make that figure although I didn't know anything about other figures or letters since the moment when I can remember having any thoughts about anything.

I remember having an intense desire to learn to read. I determined that when I was a pretty young kid. that if I accomplished nothing else in my life, I would somehow obtain enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers soon after we somehow settled into our new cabin in West Virginia. I induced my mother to get a book for me how and where she got it I don't know but somehow she got hold of an old copy of Webster's blue bag spelling book which contained the alphabet followed by nonsense words like AB ba saw da started, wants to devour this book. and I think it was the first one I had in my hands.

I learned from someone that the way to start reading was to learn the alphabet, so I tried every way I could think of to learn it all, of course, without a teacher because I couldn't find anyone to teach me at that time there wasn't a only member of my race near us who could read and I was too shy to approach any of the whites somehow in a few weeks I mastered most of the alphabet and all my efforts to learn to read, my mother fully shared my ambition, he sympathized with me and helped me in every way he could, although he was totally ignorant when it came to mere book knowledge, he had great ambitions. for her children and a great reserve of good common sense that seemed to enable her to confront and master every situation if she had done anything in life that deserved attention.

I am sure that I inherited my mother's disposition in the midst of my struggles and longing for an education, a young colored man who had learned to read at Ohio State came to Morton as soon as the colored people discovered that they could read, a newspaper was secured and at the end of almost every day of work this young man was surrounded by a group of men and women who were eager to hear him read the news contained in the newspapers, how I envied this man, he seemed to me the only young man in everyone who should be satisfied with their At this time, members of the race began to discuss the question of having some type of school open for colored children in the village, as it was the first school for black children to be established. had opened in that part of Virginia.

Of course, it was a great event and the discussion aroused the widest interest. The most perplexing question was where to find a teacher. The young man from Ohio who had learned to read newspapers was considered, but his age was against him in the middle of the argument. about a teacher, another colored young man from Ohio who had been a soldier and somehow found his way to the city, it was soon learned that he possessed a considerable education and that the colored people hired him to teach in their first school, but he still no free schools had been created.

It started for colored people in that section, therefore each family agreed to pay a certain amount per month with the understanding that the teacher was too bored, so he spent the day with each family. This was not bad for the teacher, as each family tried to provide the best on the day the teacher was going to be their guest. I remember looking forward to Teacher's Day in our small cabin, this experience of an entire race beginning to going to school for the first time presents one of the most interesting studies that have ever occurred in relation to the development of any race.

Few people who were not in the midst of the scenes can form an exact idea of ​​the intense desire that people of my race showed for an education such as I have described. There was a whole race trying to go to school, few being too young and none too old to try to learn as fast as any kind of teacher could be obtained, not only filling the day schools but also the night schools, as well as the great ambition of the elders. People were to try to learn to read the Bible before they died, with this end in mind, men and women aged 50 or 75 often found themselves in night school.

Sunday schools were formed soon after freedom, but the main book was studied in the Sunday school was the spelling book, the day school, the night school, Sunday school was always full and often many had to being turned away for a room. The opening of the school in Kennewick Valley, Iowa, brought me one of the deepest disappointments I have ever experienced. I had been working in a salt kiln for several months and my stepfather had discovered that I had financial value, so when school opened he decided that he couldn't do without my work. This decision seemed to cloud all my ambitions.

The disappointment became total. all the more serious for the fact that my workplace was the place where I could look for the happy children who went to and from school in the mornings and afternoons. Despite this disappointment, I decided I would learn something anyway. I devoted myself more seriously than ever to Reiter's task. After I mastered the spelling of what was in the blue bag, my mother took pity on me and my disappointment and tried to comfort me as much as she could and help me find a way to learn; After a while I managed to make arrangements with the teacher to give me some lessons in the evening after finishing the day's work.

These evening lessons were very welcome and I think I learned more at night than the other children did during the day. My own experiences in night school gave me faith in the idea of ​​night school with which years later I had to do both at Hampton and Tuskegee, but my son's heart was still set on going to day school and I did not let Passing on the opportunity to push my case, I finally won and was allowed to go to school during the day. a few months with the understanding that I was to get up early in the morning and work until 9 o'clock and return immediately after school closed in the afternoon for at least two more hours of work.

The school was some distance from the furnace. and since I had to work until 9 o'clock and the school opened at 9:00 I found myself in a difficulty. The school always started before I arrived and sometimes my class had recited to overcome this difficulty, I gave in to a temptation. Therefore I suppose most people will condemn me, but since it is a fact, I could also say that I have great faith in the power and influence of facts. Rarely is anything permanently gained by retaining a fact. There was a large clock in a small office at the furnace, this clock, of course, upon which the hundred or so workers depended to regulate their starting and ending times of the day's work.

The idea occurred to me that the way to get to school on time was to move the hands of the clock from eight thirty to nine o'clock, which I found myself doing morning after morning until the boiler boss discovered that something was wrong and he closed the watch in a box. I didn't mean to bother anyone. I just wanted to get to that school. However, when I found myself at school for the first time, I also encountered two other difficulties: first, I discovered that all the other children had hats or caps on their heads and I had no cap, in fact, I don't remember that up to the time of going to school I had worn no type of head covering nor do I remember that neither I nor anyone else had even thought about the need to cover my head but, of course, when I saw how all the other children were dressed I began to feeling quite uncomfortable as usual.

I presented the case to my mother and she explained that she did not have the money to buy a hat shop which was a fairly new institution at that time among the members of my sets and was considered something that young and old could own, but that she would find a way to help megetting out of the difficulty, he consequently got two pieces of homemade jeans and sewed them and soon I became the proud possessor. Since my first cap, the lesson my mother taught me in this has always stayed with me and I have tried my best to teach it to others.

I have always felt proud whenever I think of the incident that my mother had enough strength of character. not to be tempted to seem like something she wasn't, to try to impress my schoolmates and other people with the fact that she was able to buy me a store hat when she wasn't one. I've always been proud that she refused to do it. go into debt for what she did not have money to pay since then I have had many types of caps and hats but never one of which I have felt as proud as the hat made with the two pieces of cloth so close together by my mother I have noticed the fact but without satisfaction I need not add that several of the boys who began their careers with straw hats and who were my schoolmates and used to join the sport that was made of me because I only had a homemade cap have ended their careers in the penitentiary while others cannot not buy any type of hat.

My second difficulty was regarding my name or a name from the time I could remember something. They had just called me Booker before I went. When I went to school it had never occurred to me that it was necessary or appropriate to have an additional name. When I heard school roll call I realized that all the children had at least two names and some of them indulged in what seemed to me an extravagance. After having three, I was in deep perplexity because I knew that the teacher would require at least two names and I only had one.

When the opportunity came to write down my name, an idea occurred to me that I thought would make me equal to the situation and the teacher also told me. He asked what my full name was. I calmly told him Booker Washington as if I had been called by that name my entire life and had been known by that name later in life. I found out that my mother had given me the name Booker Taliaferro shortly after I was born, but somehow that part of my name seemed to disappear and for a long time was forgotten, but as soon as I found out, I revived it and made my name. complete.

Booker Taliaferro Washington I believe that there are not many men in our country who have had the privilege of being named in the weight that I have. More than once I have tried to imagine myself in the position of a boy or a man with an honored and distinguished ancestry. that I could trace back over a period of hundreds of years and that I had not only inherited a name but also a fortune and a proud family estate, and yet I have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited them and been a member from a more popular race family I should have been inclined to give in to the temptation of depending on my ancestry and my color to do for me what I had to do for myself years ago.

I resolved that since I had no ancestry, I would leave a record that my children would be proud of and that might encourage them to try even harder. The world should not judge black people and especially young black men too quickly or too harshly. black has obstacles, discouragement and temptations with which to fight against those who know little he is not in the situation that he finds himself in when a white child undertakes a task, it is assumed that he will succeed, on the other hand, people are often surprised if the black child does not fail, in a word, the young black man begins with the presumption against him of However, the influence of ancestry is important in helping any individual or race advance if it is not relied upon too much.

Those who constantly direct attention to the moral weaknesses of black youth and compare their progress with that of whites do not consider the influence of memories. that clinging to the old steps of the family home I have no idea, as I have said elsewhere, who my grandmother was. I have or have had uncles, aunts and cousins, but I am not aware of what most of them are. My case will illustrate that of For hundreds of thousands of Negroes in all parts of this country, the very fact that the white child is aware that if he fails in life he will dishonor the entire family history going back many generations is of enormous value. and will help you resist temptations.

The fact that the individual has a proud family history and connection behind and around him serves as encouragement to help him overcome obstacles as he strives for success. The time I was allowed to attend school during the day was short and my attendance was irregular, it wasn't a lot of time. Before I had to stop attending day school completely and dedicate all my time to work again, I resorted to night school again; In fact, most of the education I gained in my childhood was obtained through night school after finishing my day job. I often had difficulty in obtaining a satisfactory teacher;

Sometimes, after I had gotten someone to teach me at night, I was very disappointed that the teacher knew little more than I did. I often had to walk several kilometers at night to be able to recite my night school lessons. There was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the day might be, when one resolved not to continually remain with me and that was the determination to secure an education at any cost soon after moving to West Virginia. My mother adopted into our family, despite our poverty, an orphan boy whom we later named James B.

Washington. Since then he has remained a member of the family after I worked at the salt kiln for some time. He secured work for me in a coal mine which was operated primarily for the purpose of obtaining fuel for the work of the salt furnace in the coal mine. I always feared that one of the reasons for this was that anyone who worked in a coal mine was always impure, at least while working, and it was a very hard job to cleanse the skin after finishing the day's work, so there was a mile from the opening of the coal mine to the surface of the coal and of course it was all in the blackest darkness that I don't think one has ever experienced. anywhere else as dark as in a coal mine, the mine was divided into a lot of different rooms or apartments and as I never could know the location of all these rooms and many times I found myself lost in the mine to add to the horror If I got lost, sometimes the light would go out and then if I didn't have a match I would wander in the dark until by chance I found someone who would give me light.

The work was not only hard but also dangerous. There was always the danger of being blown to pieces by an explosion. premature gunpowder or being crushed by falling slate. Accidents due to one of the other causes occurred frequently and this kept me in constant fear. Many children of the most tender years were forced to then, as is now true, I fear that in most of the coal mining districts they spend a large part of their lives in these coal mines with little opportunity of obtaining an education and, What is worse, I have often observed that, as a rule, young people who begin life in a coal mine often find themselves overshadowed physically and mentally, soon losing the ambition to do anything more than continue as a coal miner. in those days and I used to try to imagine in my imagination the feelings and ambitions of a young white man without any limits set. about his aspirations and activities usually ended with the white boy who was not hindered in becoming a congressman, governor, bishop, or president for accidental reasons of his birth or race.

I used to imagine the way he would act. Under such circumstances, how he would start from the bottom and work his way up until he reached the highest round of success in later years. I confess I'm not with the white boys like I once was. I have learned that success is not measured like that. Both because of the position one has achieved in life and the obstacles one has overcome in trying to succeed. Seen from this point of view, I almost came to the conclusion that often the birth of a black child in connection with an unpopular race is an advantage in so far as real life is concerned through exceptions: the young black man must He works harder and must perform his task even better than a young white man to secure recognition, but from the tough and unusual struggle he is forced to go through, he gains the strength and confidence that one. lady. whose path is comparatively easy for reasons of birth and race from any point of view.

I would rather be what I am, a member of the black race, than be able to claim membership with the most favored of any other race. It has always saddened me when I have heard members of any race claim rights and privileges or certain badges of distinction simply because they were members of this or that race, regardless of their own individual worth or achievements. On such occasions I have felt sad because I am aware of the fact that mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently advance an individual unless he has individual value and mere connection with what is considered a superior race. inferior will not ultimately maintain the bank if it has intrinsic individual merit.

Every persecuted individual and race should draw much comfort from the great human law, which is universal and eternal, according to which merit, no matter under what skin it may be found, is in the long run recognized and rewarded. I have said this here so as not to draw attention to myself as an individual. but one day, while working in the coal mine, I heard of a great school for colored people somewhere in Virginia, of the race to which I am proud to belong. This was the first time I heard anything about any kind of school or college there was more pretentious in the small colored school of our town in the darkness of the mine and I quietly got as close as I could to the two men who were talking I heard one to tell the other that not only was the school established for members of my race, but that opportunities were afforded by which poor but worthy students could cover a whole part of the cost of board and at the same time learn some trade or industry as they described the school, it seemed to me that it must be the greatest place on earth and not even heaven presented more attractions to me at that time than the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia of which these men were speaking.

I resolved that he wants to go to that school even though I had no idea where it was or how many miles away a height would reach him. I just remembered that I was constantly burning with one ambition and that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with me day and night after hearing about Hampton. Institute I continued working for a few more months at the coal mine while I was working there I learned of a vacancy in the house of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the salt furnace and the coal mine, Mrs. Viola Ruffner, General Ruffner's wife, was a Yankee woman from Vermont.

Rothman had a reputation throughout the neighborhood for being very strict with the servants and especially with the boys who tried to serve her, few of them had stayed with her more than two or three weeks and they all left with the same excuse, she was too strict. , I decided. However, I would prefer to try the lady. work hard in her house than stay in the coal mine, so my mother applied for the vacant position. They hired me with a salary of 5 dollars a month. I had heard a lot about the lady. severity so merciless that I was almost afraid to see her and trembled when I entered her presence.

I had not lived with her many weeks, however, before I began to understand her, I soon began to learn that, above all, she wanted everything to be kept clean about her. She wanted things to be done quickly and systematically and, at the bottom of it all, she wanted absolute honesty and directness, nothing was to be slovo, no slip shot, every gate, every fence was to be kept in repair. Now I can't remember how long I lived with the lady. Ruffner before going to Hampton, but I think it must have been a year and a half anyway.

I hear repeated what I have said more than once before that the lessons I learned in Mrs. Ruffner's house were as valuable to me as any education I have ever received, for to this day I never see scattered pieces of paper around a house or on the street that you don't want to pick up right away. I never see a dirty garden that I don't want to clean a ling from a fence that I don't want to put it on and an unpainted or unwashed house that I do want to paint with lime, it's a button on the clothes or a grease stain on it. a floor that I don't want to draw attention to for fear of the lady. hard night I soon learned to consider her one of my best friends when she discovered she could trust me, she did so implicitly during the one or two winters I was with her, she gave me the opportunity to go to school for an hour and the day for part of the winter months, but most of my studying was done at night, sometimes alone, sometimes with someone who couldhire you to teach me, ma'am.

Ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts to obtain an education. It was while I lived with her that I began to put together my first library. I secured a dry goods box that had fallen over, put some shells in it and started putting all kinds of books I could get my hands on in it and called it my library despite my success at mrs. Roughness I did not abandon the idea of ​​going to Hampton Institute in the fall of 1872. I decided to make an effort to get there although, as I have said, I have no idea in which direction Hampton was located or what it would cost me. go there and then I think someone completely sympathized with me in my ambition to go to Hampton unless it was my mother and she was concerned with the fear that I was beginning a hopeless quest;

In any case, I only got half of... My stepfather and the rest of the family had used up the small amount of money I had earned, except for a few dollars, so I had very little to buy clothes and pay. travel expenses my brother John helped me as much as he could but of course that wasn't much because his job was in the coal mine he didn't earn much and most of what he made went to pay household expenses, maybe What moved and pleased me most in connection with my departure for Hampton was the interest which many of the older colored people showed in the matter: they had passed the best days of their lives and slavery and hardly expected to live to see the moment in which he saw a member of his race leave home to attend boarding school.

Some of these older people would give me a nickel, brothers, a quarter or a handkerchief. Finally the big day arrived and I left for Hampton. I only had a small sheep's purse that contained the few items of clothing I could get. My mother at that time was quite weak and in failing health. I did not expect to see her again and that is why our farewell was even sadder. However, she was very brave. through it all at that time there was no way out. The train that connected that part of West Virginia with Eastern Virginia traveled only part of the way and the rest of the distance was traveled by stagecoach.

The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. I hadn't been out of the house for many hours before. It began to become painfully evident that I did not have enough money to pay the fare to Hampton when, from an experience I will long remember, I had been traveling through the mountains most of the afternoon in an old stagecoach when, late at night, the carriage stopped for a night in a common unpainted house called a hotel all the other passengers except me were white in my ignorance I suppose the small hotel existed for the purpose of accommodating the passengers traveling in the stagecoach the difference the color would make He hadn't thought about anything after all the other passengers had been shown to their rooms and were getting ready for dinner.

I Xiao Li introduced myself to the men at the counter. It's true. I had practically no money in my pocket to pay. bed or food, but I had hoped to somehow beg the owner for my favor because at that season in the mountains of Virginia the weather was cold and I wanted to go in for the night without asking if I had money, the man at the counter flatly refused to even consider the question of providing me with food or lodging. This was my first experience and by discovering what the color of my skin meant, I somehow managed to stay warm by walking and so on.

I spent the night with all my soul bent on reaching Hampton that I did not have time to harbor any resentment towards the hotel owner for walking around asking for rides in both carts and cars and somehow after several days I reached the city. from Richmond, Virginia, about 82 miles from Hampton, when I got there, tired, hungry and dirty, they did it overnight. I had never been to a big city and this was enough. My misery was added when I arrived in Richmond, I was left without money, I did not have a single acquaintance in the place and, as I was not accustomed to the customs of the city, I did not know how to live. where to go, I applied for accommodation in several places, but everyone wanted money and stuff.

It was what I didn't have, I didn't know anything better to do. I walked the streets while doing this. I passed many food stalls where fried chicken and Halfmoon apple pies were piled up to present a very tempting appearance. At that moment it seemed to me that I would have promised everything I hoped to possess in the future to have gotten me one of those chicken legs or one of those prized ones but I couldn't get any of them to know anything else to eat. I must have walked the streets until after midnight. In the end I got so tired that I couldn't walk anymore I was tired I was hungry I was anything but discouraged Just at the moment when I reached extreme physical exhaustion I came to a stretch of a street where the boring sidewalk was considerably raised I waited for a few minutes until I was sure that no passive eye could see me and then I slid under the sidewalk and spent the night on the ground with my bag of clothes for a pillow.

Most of the night I could hear footsteps overhead. The next morning I found myself refreshed but very hungry because it had been a long time since I had eaten enough. As soon as there was enough light for me to see my surroundings, I noticed that I was near a large ship and that this ship seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig iron as it headed towards the ship and I asked the captain to allow me to help it load the boat to get money for food. The captain, a white man who seemed to have a good heart, consented.

I worked hard enough to earn money for my breakfast, and it seems to me, as I remember it now, that it was the best breakfast I ever had. My work pleased the captain so much that he told me that if he wanted he could continue working. a small amount per day, this made me very happy to do it. I continued working on this ship for several days after buying food with the small wages I received, there was not much left to add to the amount I must get to pay my expenses. to Hampton to save as much as possible and make sure I get to Hampton in a reasonable time.

I continued sleeping under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter the first night I was in Richmond. Many persecute the colored citizens of Richmond. I was kindly attended by a reception in which there must have been two thousand people present. This reception was held not far from the place where I slept the first night I spent in that city and I must confess that my mind was more concentrated on the sidewalk that first gave me refuge. which after the reception was as pleasant and cordial as it was when I had saved when I considered enough money to get to Hampton.

I thanked the ship's captain for his kindness and set off again without any unusual incident. I arrived at Hampton with a surplus of exactly fifty cents to begin my education. For me, it had been a long and eventful trip, but the first sight of the large three-story brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for everything I had gone through to reach the place if the people who donated the money for building that building they were able to appreciate the influence that their sight had on me and thousands of other young people. They would feel even more encouraged to give such gifts.

I thought it was the biggest and most beautiful. The building I had once seen seemed to give me new life and I felt that a new kind of existence had now begun, that life would now have a new meaning. I felt that I had arrived at the promised land and resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from making the greatest effort to prepare myself to accomplish the greatest good in the world as soon as possible after arriving on the grounds of Hampton Institute. I went to the principal to be assigned a class after being without proper nutrition for so long. a bath and a change of clothes, of course, I did not make a very favorable impression on him, and I could see at once that there were doubts in his mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student.

I thought I couldn't blame her if I got the idea that I was a useless lazy person or for some time she refused to admit me or decide my favor and I continued to linger on her and impress her in every way I could with my worth in the meantime. I saw her admitting other students and that increased my discomfort a lot because I felt deep in my heart that I could do as well as them if only I had the opportunity to show what was in me after some house had passed, said the principal . For me it is necessary to sweep the entrance recitation room, take the broom and sweep, it immediately occurred to me that this was my opportunity.

I have never received an order with more joy. I knew I could sweep, but Mrs. Russ and I had thoroughly taught me how to do it when I lived with her. I swept the recitation room three times, then took a dusting cloth and wiped it four times, all the woodwork around the walls, every table and desk. I went over it four times. times with my dusting cloth plus every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner and the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that a lot of my future depended on the impression I made on the teacher by cleaning that room when I was done.

I informed the director that she was a Yankee woman who knew exactly where to look for dirt. She entered the room and inspected the floor and closet, then took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the wood around the walls and above. the tables and benches when he could not find a speck of dirt on the floor or a speck of dust on any of the furniture, he commented in a low voice. I suppose you will be good enough to enter this institution. I was one of the happiest souls on earth. Sweeping out of that room was my college exam, and no young man ever passed an entrance exam to Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction.

I have passed several exams since then, but I always felt that this was the best one I have ever passed. I spoke of my own experience entering Hampton Institute, perhaps some, if any, had something close to the same experience that I had, but in that same period there were hundreds who found their way to the same difficulties through which I passed, the young people and The women were determined to ensure an education at any cost. Sweeping the recitation room the way I did seems to have paved the way for me to pass through Hampton. Miss Mary F.

Mackay, the principal, offered me a position as a custodian. Of course, I was happy to accept because it was a place where I could estimate almost the entire cost of my board. The work was hard and exhausting, but I kept at it. I had a lot of rules to follow and I had to work late into the night. while at the same time I look for eyes at four in the morning to light the fire and have a little time to prepare my lessons throughout my career at Hampton and as long as I have been in the world, Miss Mary.

F Mackay, he had been taught, to whom I have referred, turned out to be one of my strongest and most useful friends. His advice and encouragement were always helpful in strengthening me in the darkest moments. I have spoken of the impression made on me by the buildings and general appearance of Hampton Institute, but I have not spoken of what made the greatest and most lasting impression on me, and that was a great man, the noblest and most exceptional human being I have ever had. the privilege of knowing. I am referring to the late General Samuel. C Armstrong, I have had the fortune of personally knowing many of those who are called great people both in Europe and in America, but I do not hesitate to say that I have never met any man who, in my opinion, was equal to General Armstrong recently. emerged from the degrading influences of slave plantations and coal mines, it was a rare privilege for me to be allowed to come into direct contact with a character like General Armstrong.

I will always remember that the first time I was in his presence he made a great impression on me. From being a perfect man, they made me feel that there was something about him that was superhuman. It was my privilege to know the general personally from the time I entered Hampton until his death and the more I saw him, the bigger he grew in me. I think one could have removed from Hampton all the buildings, classrooms, teachers and industries and given the men and women there the opportunity to come into daily contact with General Armstrong, and that alone would have been a liberal education.

The older I get, the more convinced I am that there is no education that can be obtained from expensive books and devices that is equal to that which can be obtained from contact with great men and women instead of studying books so constantly. How I wish our schools and colleges would learn to study men and things. General Armstrong spent two of the last six months of his life at my home in Tusky. At this point he was paralyzed to the point of having largely lost control of his body and his voice. Despite his affliction, he worked almost constantly day and night for the cause for which he had given his life.

I never saw a man who had so completely lost himself. I don't think I ever had a selfish thought wasas happy and trying to help some other institution in the south as when he was working for Hampton, although he fought against the southern white man in the Civil War, I never heard him utter a bitter word against him afterwards, on the other hand, he constantly sought ways he could serve southern whites, it would be difficult Describe the hole he had on the students at Hampton or the faith they had in him. In fact, his students adored him.

It never occurred to me that General Armstrong could fail at anything he undertook. There is almost no request he could have made. The measures taken there would not have been met when he was a guest at my home in Alabama and was so severely paralyzed that he had to be moved at intervals from his chair. I remember one of the general's former students had the opportunity to push his chair up. a long, steep hill that taxed his strength to the maximum when he reached the top, the former student with a happy glow on his face exclaimed: "I am so glad that you have allowed me to do something that was really difficult for the general before." .

He died while I was a student at Hampton the dormitories became so full that it was impossible to find room for all who wanted to be admitted to help remedy the difficulty the general conceived the plan of erecting tents to be used as rooms as As soon as they were learned that General Armstrong would be delighted if some of the older students lived in the tents during the winter, almost all the students at the school volunteered to go. I was one of the volunteers. The winter we spent in those tents was intensely intense. a cold one and we suffered a lot, I'm sure General Armstrong never knew because we didn't make any complaints, it was enough for us to know that we were pleasing General Armstrong and that we were making it possible for an additional number of students to get an education.

More than once during a cold night, when a strong gale was blowing, our tent was bodily pitched and we found ourselves in the open air, the general used to visit the tents early in the morning and his sincere, cheerful and encouraging voice would dispel any feeling of despondency , life at Hampton was a constant revelation to me, constantly taking me into a new world, the question of eating at regular times, eating on a tablecloth, using a napkin, using the bathtub and the real toothbrush, as well as using of sheets on the bed was new to me. Sometimes I feel like almost the most valuable lesson I learned at Hampton Institute was not the use and value of the bathroom.

I learned there for the first time something of its value not only to keep the body healthy but to inspire self-respect and promote virtue in all my travels in the South and elsewhere since I left Hampton, I have always in some way sought my daily bath to get it, sometimes when I have been guests of my own people. From a single room to a cabin hasn't always been easy, except sneaking off to some stream in the woods. I have always tried to teach my people that some provision for bathing should be a part of every house for some time while studying.

Hampton I had about a pair of socks, but when I had one of these until it got dirty, I would wash them at night and hang them by the fire to dry so I could wear them again the next morning. The charge of my board in Hampton. It was $10 a month. I was expected to pay a portion of this in cash and figure the rest to meet this cash payment, as I said, I only had 50 cents when I arrived at the institution, apart from a few dollars that my brother John could send me from time to time. when I didn't have money to pay my support.

I was determined from the beginning to make my job as a janitor so valuable that my services were indispensable. This I achieved to the point that I was soon informed that I would be allowed to pay the full cost of my pension in exchange for my work. Tuition was $70 a year. This, of course, was totally out of my ability to pay if I had been forced to pay the $70 tuition on top of it. To maintain my pension I would have been forced to leave Hampton General Armstrong Institute, however, it was very kind to Mr. F Griffiths Morgan of New Bedford Massachusetts to defray the cost of my tuition for the entire time I was at Hampton after finish the course at Hampton and start my working life at Tuskegee.

I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Morgan several times after I had been for a time in Hampton, I found myself in difficulties because I generally had no books or clothes, however, I solved the problem of books by borrowing from those who were more fortunate than me in terms of clothing when I came to Hampton. I had practically nothing, everything I owned was in a small purse, my anxiety. The question of clothing increased due to the fact that General Armstrong made a personal inspection of the juniors and ranks to see that their clothes were clean. . The shoes had to be polished.

There were to be no buttons off the clothing and no grease stains so wearing a suit of clothing continuously while at work and school and at the same time keeping it clean was a pretty difficult problem for me to solve somehow. I managed to communicate with the teachers, learned that he was serious and intended to succeed and then some. Some of them were kind enough to arrange for me to be supplied with some second-hand clothing that had been shipped in barrels from the north. These barrels turned out to be a blessing for the hundreds of poor but deserving students.

Without them, I wondered if I should have ever stopped by Hampton when I first went to Hampton. I don't remember ever sleeping in a bed that had two sheets on it and in those days there weren't many buildings there and room was very valuable; there were seven other kids in the same room with me most of the time. them, however, students who had been there for some time, the sheets were a big puzzle for me the first night I slept under them and the second night I slept on top of both, but by watching the other children I learned my lesson in this. and I've been trying to follow it ever since and teach it to others.

I was among the youngest students who were at Hampton at the time, most of the students were men and women, some were up to 40 years old as I remember. scene from my first year I don't think one often has the opportunity to come into contact with three or four hundred men and women who were as tremendously serious as these men and women were, every hour was busy and study or work almost every they had They had enough real contact with the world to teach them the need for education. Many of the older ones, of course, were too old to master the textbooks thoroughly, and it was often sad to watch their struggles, but they earnestly recovered most of what they could.

Many of them were as poor as me and in addition to having to struggle with their books, they had to fight against a poverty that prevented them from meeting the needs of life. Many of them had elderly parents who depended on them and some of them were men who had wives who supported them in some way they had to provide for the great and prevailing idea that seemed to take over everyone was to prepare to raise up the people in their house no one He seemed to think of himself and the officers and teachers, what a rare group of human beings they were, they worked for the students day and night, on time and out of time, they seemed happy only when they helped the students in some way, as long as it is written and I hope it is the part that the Yankee teachers played in the education of the Negroes immediately after the war will constitute one of the most exciting parts of the history of this country;

The time is not far off when the entire South will appreciate this service in a way it has not yet done. I have been able to do the years from 1867 to 1878. I think maybe it is called the reconstruction period. This includes my time as a student at Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia throughout the Reconstruction period. Two ideas constantly agitated the minds of the colored people or at least the minds of a large section of the race, one of them was the craze for learning Greek and Latin and the other was the desire to hold office.

The temptations to enter political life were so attractive that I felt very attracted. I was on the verge of giving in to them at one point, but was prevented from doing so by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by helping to lay the foundation of the career through a generous education of the hand, the head and the heart that I saw Colored men who were members of state legislatures and county officials who in some cases could not read or write and whose morals were as weak as their education. Not long ago, while passing through the streets of a certain southern city, I heard some bricklayers. shouting from the top of a two-story building where they were working for the governor to hurry up and bring more bricks several times I heard the order hurry up governor hurry up governor my curiosity was aroused to such an extent that I investigated who the governor was and He soon discovered that he was a black man who had at one time held the office of lieutenant governor of his state, but not all black people holding office during Reconstruction were unaware of their positions by any means.

It means that some of them, like the late Senator BK Bruce, Governor Pinchbeck and many others, were strong, upright and useful men, nor the entire class designated as adventurers, dishonorable men, some of them, like former Governor Bullock of Georgia , were men of great character and usefulness when not in the chapel after finishing the usual chapel exercises, General Armstrong referred to the fact that he had received a letter from a gentleman in Alabama asking him to recommend someone to take charge of what was to be a normal school for the colored people in a small town of Tusky in that state, these gentlemen seem to take it for granted that no colored man suitable for the position could be hired and expected the general to recommend a white man for the place the next day.

General Armstrong sent me to go to his office and to my surprise, he asked me if he thought he could take the position in Alabama. I told him he would be willing to try it. He wrote to people who had requested information that he did not know any white man he could suggest. but if they were willing to take a colored man, he had one whom he could recommend in this letter, he gave them my name. The summer day had already passed before anything more was known about the matter, some time later, one Sunday afternoon, during the chapel exercises, a messenger.

He came in and gave the general a telegram at the end of the exercises, he read the telegram to the school and, in essence, these were his words. Booker T. Washington will suit us. Submit it immediately before you go to Tuskegee. I expected to find a building there and All the necessary apparatus was ready for teaching, to my disappointment I found nothing like what I found, although no expensive building or apparatus can supply hundreds of hungry and sincere souls who wanted to gain knowledge. Tuskegee seemed like an ideal place for teaching. school that was in the midst of the vast majority of the black population and was quite isolated five miles from the main railroad line with which it was connected by a short line during the days of slavery and since the city had been the center For the education of the whites, this was an additional advantage because I found that the whites possessed a degree of culture and education not surpassed by many localities, while the coloreds were ignorant and, as a rule, had not degraded or weakened their rights. bodies for vices as something common to the lower class of people in large cities in general.

I found the relations between the two races nice, for example the largest and I think at the time the only hardware store in town was jointly owned and operated. by a colored man and a white man, the Co partnership continued until the death of the white partner. I discovered that about a year before my trip to Tuskegee, some of the colored people who had heard something about the educational work being done at Hampton had petitioned the state legislature through their representatives for a small appropriation to use in the beginning of a normal school in Tusky. This request the legislature had complied with to the extent of granting an annual appropriation of $2,000.

However, I soon learned that this money could only be used. for the payment of the salaries of the instructors and that there were no provisions to secure the land, the buildings, our apparatus, the task before me did not seem very encouraging, it seemed very much like making bricks without straw, the colored people were very happy and constantly offered their services in any way they could be of help and to start the school, my first task was to find a place to open the school, after observing the city with some care, the most suitable place thatcould get seemed to be a rather dilapidated Santa Claus near the colored Methodist Church, together with the church itself as a kind of assembly hall, both the church and the shanty were in the worst possible condition.

I remember during the first months of school that I taught in this building and it was in such bad shape that every time it rained one of the older students very kindly came out of his classes to hold an umbrella for me while I listened to the others' recitations. I also remember that on more than one occasion my landlady put an umbrella over me. As I ate breakfast, the work that needed to be done to encourage these people seemed almost impossible to accomplish. I was just one person and it seemed to me that the little effort I could put in could go such a short way to achieving results.

I was wondering if I could accomplish something and if it was worth it for me to try something that I felt most strongly about after spending this month and seeing the real lives of people of color and that was that to uplift them something had to be done. More could be done than just imitate New England education as it existed then. I saw more clearly than ever the wisdom of the system which General Armstrong had inaugurated at Hampton for taking in the children of people with whom I had been for a month and every day. give them a few hours of mere literary education.

I felt it would almost be a waste of time after consulting with the citizens of Tuskegee. I say the 4th of July, 1881, as the day for the opening of the school and of that little hut and church which they have secured for their accommodation, both the whites and the coloreds were very interested in the beginning of the new school and the opening day was eagerly awaited with many discussions; There were not a few whites in the vicinity of Tuskegee who looked on with some disapproval. They questioned the value of the project to black people and feared that it could cause problems between the races.

Some had the feeling that to the extent that the black received education, in the same proportion his value as an economic factor in the state diminished. These people feared the result of education would be that blacks would abandon farms that would be difficult to obtain for themselves. domestic service, the whites who questioned the wisdom of starting this new school had in their minds images of what they called an educated black man with a top hat, imitation gold glasses, a colorful cane, kid gloves, elegant boots and all. that, in a word, a man determined to live by his wits, it was difficult for these people to see how every occasion could produce any other type of a colored man in the midst of all the difficulties that I encountered when starting the little school and since then , over a period of 19 years, there are two men among all the many school friends at Tuskegee on whom I have constantly depended for advice. and the orientation and success of the company are largely due to these men from whom I have never sought anything in vain.

I mentioned them simply as types: one is a white man and former Holden slave, Mr Joyce W Campbell, the other is a black man. and the next slave mr. Lewis Adams, these were the men who wrote to General Armstrong for a teacher. We found that most of our students came from rural districts where agriculture in one form or another was the main dependence of the people. We learned that about 85% of people of color. In the Gulf states that depend on agriculture for their livelihood, since this was true, we wanted to be careful not to educate our students out of sympathy with agricultural life, so that they would be drawn from the countryside to the cities and give in to the temptation to try.

To live according to their wits, we wanted to give them an education that would enable a large proportion of them to be teachers and at the same time get them back into the plantation districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into it. in agriculture, as well as in the intellectual, moral, and religious life of the people, all these ideas and needs were heaped upon us with a seriousness that seemed almost overwhelming. What will we do? We had only the small old abandoned church shack which the good colored people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly lent us for the accommodation of classes.

The number of students increased every day the more we saw that our efforts covered only a degree. partially the real needs of the people whom we wanted to elevate the students whom we should educate and send leaders, the more we talked with the students who then came to us from various parts of the state, the more we discovered that the main ambition among a large proportion of them was to get an education so he wouldn't have to work with his hands anymore now this is an Australian told by the story of a colored man in Alabama who one hot day in July, while he was working in a cotton field, suddenly He stopped and looking towards this guy is a tall man the cotton M so covered with grass that they work I am so hard and the sun is so hot that I believe this doctor and I call the Lord to preach.

President and gentlemen of the board of directors and citizens, a third of the population of the South is black. No company that seeks the material, civil or moral well-being of this section can ignore this element of our population and achieve the greatest success, except transmitting sr. President and the directors the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that by no means have the courage and manhood of the American Negro been more adequately and generously recognized than by the directors of this magnificent exhibition at every stage of its progress. a recognition that will contribute more to cementing the friendship between the two races than any event: simply a dawn of our freedom, not only this but the opportunity offered here will awaken among us a new era of ignorant and inexperienced industrial progress, it is not strange that in the early years of our new life that we were starting from the top rather than the bottom, that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was sought more than real estate or industrial skills, that the political convention of stopping talking had more attractions than start a dairy farm or a bush garden a ship lost at sea for many days suddenly a friendly ship was sighted from the mast of the unfortunate ship a signal was seen water water we died of thirst the response of the friendly ship immediately returned throw your buckets where you are for the second time the signal water water send us water ran from the ship in distress and was answered throw your buckets where you are and a third and fourth signal of water was answered throw your bucket swear you are The captain of the ship in distress finally warmed up the order judicial, threw his bucket and came out full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River for those of my race who depend on improving their condition in a foreign land that underestimate the importance. of cultivating friendly relations with a southern white man who is your next-door neighbor, I would say throw your buckets where you throw them to make friends and all manly ways are the people of all races around us, knock them down. in agriculture, mechanics, commerce, domestic service and the professions, and in this connection it is well to bear in mind that, whatever other sins the South may have to endure in regard to pure business and Simply put, it is in the South that blacks are given the opportunity to man in the commercial world and in nothing is this exposition more eloquent than by emphasizing this opportunity, our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we pass We overlook the fact that the masses of us must live according to the production of our hands and we do not take into account that we will prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common work and to put brains and skills into the common occupations of life, We will prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between superficial and superficial. and the substantial, the ornamental trappings of life and the useful, no race can prosper until it learns that there is as much dignity and tilling a field as in writing a poem;

It is at the bottom of life where we must begin and not at the top or at the top. Should we allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunities for those of the white race who await the arrival of those of foreign origin and strange Chunkin habits for the prosperity of the South? Well, I allowed it, I would repeat it when I say to my own despondent race. Your buckets where you are thrown among the eight million blacks whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in the days when, having proven treacherous, they met the ruin of your campfires, throw your bucket among these people who They have no strikes and the labor wars plowed your fields they cleared the forests of Joff they built your royal in the cities and they brought treasures from the bowels of the earth and they helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the south throwing your bucket among the whites helping them and encouraging them as you are By doing so on these grounds and with the education of head and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus lands, make the vacant places in your fields flourish and manage your factories.

As you do this, you can be assured in the future as in the past that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people the world has ever seen, as we have proven our loyalty to them in the past and we have nursed their children, observing the sick beds of their mothers and fathers and often following them. with tear-clouded eyes to their graves so that in the future, in our humble way, we may stand by their side with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to give our lives if necessary in defense of theirs, intertwining our industrial, commercial, civil and religious life. with yours and a path that makes the interests of both races one and all things that are purely social we may be as separate as the fingers but one as the hand and all things essential to mutual progress there is no defense or security for none of them. us, except in the highest intelligence and development of all, if anywhere there are efforts which tend to restrain the foolish growth of the Negro, let these efforts become to stimulate, encourage and make him the most useful and intelligent citizen or the means Thus invested they will pay one thousand percent. interest these efforts will be doubly blessed blessing the giver and the taker there is no escape through the law of man or God from the inevitable the laws of immutable Justice bind the oppressor to the oppressed and close like sin and suffering united we march towards fading in front, almost 16 million hands will age you and pull the load up or pull against you or pull against you or pull against you or pull against you or pull against you or pull against you you or they they will throw the burden down on you we will constitute a third and more of the ignorance and crime of the south we are a third it is intelligence and progress we will contribute a third to the commercial and industrial prosperity of the south or we will prove it a veritable stagnant, depressing body of death , delaying all efforts to advance the body politic, gentlemen of the exhibition, while we present to you our humble effort in an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect much that began 30 years ago with property here and there and a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens gather for various sources remember the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements buggies steam engine newspapers books sculptures statuary paintings the management of drugstores and banks has not been trotting without contact with thorns and thistles Although We take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we do not forget for a moment that our part and this exhibition would be far below your expectations if it were not for the constant help that has come to our educational life not only from the southern states, but especially the northern philanthropists who have made their donations a constant flow of blessings and encouragement, the wisest among the Marys understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the folly of extremists and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of a severe and constant struggle instead of artificially forcing any race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world while in any degree isolated, it is important and right May all the privileges of the law be ours, but so it is.

It is far more important that we be prepared to exercise these privileges: the opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory at this moment is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house. In conclusion, let me repeat that nothing in 30 years has given us more hope and encouragement and brought us closer to you white people than this opportunity offered by the exhibition and here, leaning, so to speak, over the altar which represents the results of the struggles of your race and mine, both starving practically empty-handed. three decades agoI promised that in your effort to solve the great and intricate problem that God has placed at the gates of the South you will have at all times the patient and understanding help of my race, only keep constantly in mind that while representations in these buildings of the product of the field, from the forest, from the mind, from the factory, letters and art, much good will come, but far beyond the material benefits will be that higher good, so let us pray, God will come and our elimination of sectional and racial differences. animosities and suspicions in a determination to administer absolute justice in a winning obedience among all classes to the commands of the law, this, together with our material prosperity, will bring to our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth.