Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

by Booker T. Washington

Overview

Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). The book describes his personal experience of having to work to rise up from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton Institute, to his work establishing vocational schools—most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and Native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade (something which is reminiscent of the educational theories of John Ruskin). Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to reassure the white community as to the usefulness of educating black people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604449419
Publisher:	Indoeuropeanpublishing.com
Publication date:	07/18/2018
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

American educator, novelist, orator, and advisor to multiple presidents of the United States were Booker Taliaferro Washington. As the son of an African-American slave named Jane, Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia in 1856. His family relocated to West Virginia after emancipation. He completed his studies at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute while he was young (now Hampton University). Washington spent several years earning money in West Virginia by working in coal mines and salt furnaces. He traveled east to Hampton Institute, a Virginia institution founded to provide education for freedmen and their descendants, where he also took a job to help pay for his studies. Later, in 1878, he enrolled in Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. Washington had three marriages. He acknowledged the efforts made by all three of his wives at Tuskegee in his memoirs Up from Slavery. After receiving a diagnosis of Bright's illness, Booker T. Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute, passed away in 1915 at the age of 59. The illness was kidney inflammation, now known as nephritis. On November 14, 1915, soon after midnight, he boarded a train from New York to Tuskegee, where he passed away a few hours later. On November 17, 1915, he was buried, and close to 8,000 people showed up there.

Table of Contents

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