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

I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County Virginia I'm not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time as nearly as I have been able to learn I was born near a crossroads post office called Hales fort and the year was 1858 or 1859 I do not know the month or the day the earliest impressions I can now recall are of the plantation and the slave quarters the lack of being the part of the plantation where the slaves had their cabins my life had its beginning and the midst of the most miserable desolate and discouraging surroundings this was so higher but not because my owners were especially cruel for they were not as compared with 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 till 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 of the torches which the slaves including no doubt my ancestors on my mother's side suffered in the middle passage of the slave ship while being conveyed from Africa to America I have been unsuccessful in securing any information that would throw any accurate light upon the history of my family beyond my mother-she I remember had a half-brother and half-sister in the days of slavery not very much attention was given to family history and family records that is black family records my mother I suppose attracted the attention of a purchaser who was afterward my owner and hers her addition to the slave family attracted about as much attention as the purchase of a new horse or cow of my father I know even less than of my mother I do not even know his name I have heard reports to the effect that he was a white man who lived on one of the nearby plantations whoever he was I never heard of his taking the least interest in me or providing in any way for my rearing when I do not find especial fault with him he was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time the cabin was not only our living place but was also used as the kitchen for the plantation my mother was plantation cook the cabin was without glass windows it had only openings in the side which led in the light and also the cold chilly air of winter there was a door to the cabin that is something that was called a door but the uncertain hinges by which it was hung and the large cracks in it to say nothing of the fact that it was too small made the room a very uncomfortable one in addition to these openings there was in the lower right hand corner of the room the cat hole a contrivance which almost every mansion or cabin in Virginia possessed during the antebellum period the cat hole was a square opening about 7 by 8 inches provided for the purpose of letting the cat pass in and out of the house at will during the night in the case of our particular cabin I could never understand the necessity for this convenience since there were at least a half-dozen other places in the cabin that would have accommodated the cats there was no wooden floor in our cabin the naked earth being used as a floor in the center of the earthen floor there was a large deep opening covered with boards which was used as a place in which to store sweet potatoes during the winter an impression of this potato hole is very distinctly engraved upon my memory because I recall that during the process of putting the potatoes in or taking them out I would often come into possession of one or two which I roasted and thoroughly enjoyed there was no cooking stove on our plantation and all the cooking for the whites and slaves my mother had to do over an open fireplace mostly in pots and skillets while the poorly built cabin caused us to suffer with cold in the winter the heat from the open fireplace in summer was equally trying the early years of my life which was spent in the little cabin we're not very different from those of thousands of other slaves my mother of course had time in which to give attention to the training of her children during the day she snatched a few moments for our care in the early morning before her work began and at night after the day's work was done one of my earliest recollections is that of my mother cooking a chicken late at night and awakening her children for the purpose of feeding them how or where she got it I do not know I presume however it was procured from our owners farm some people may call this theft if such a thing were to happen now I should condemn it is theft myself but taking place at the time it did and for the reason that it did no one could ever make me believe that my mother was guilty of thieving she was simply a victim of the system of slavery I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation three children Jean my older brother Amanda my sister and myself had a palette on the dirty floor or to be more correct we slept in and on a bundle of filthy rags laid upon the dirt floor I was asking not long ago to tell something about the sports and pastimes that I engaged in during my youth until that question was asked it had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that was devoted to play from the time that I can remember anything almost every day of my life has been occupied in some kind of labor though I think I would now be a more useful man if I had had time for sports during the period I spent in slavery I was not large enough to be of much service still I was occupied most of the time in cleaning the odds carrying the water to the men in the fields are going to the mill to which I used to take the corn once a week to be ground the mill was about three miles from the plantation this work I always dreaded the heavy bag of corn would be thrown across the back of the horse and the corn divided about evenly on each side but in some way almost without exception on these trips the corn would shift as to become unbalanced and would fall off the horse and often I would fall with it as I was not strong enough to reload the corn upon the horse I would have to wait sometimes for many hours till a chance passerby came along who would help me out of my trouble that was while waiting for someone were usually spent and crying the time consumed in this way made me late and reaching the mill and by the time I got my corn ground and reached home it would be far into the night the road was alone too when an often led through dense forest I was always frightened the woods was said to be full of soldiers who had deserted from the army and I had been told that the first thing a deserter did to a negro boy when he found him alone was to cut off his ears besides when I was late in getting home I knew I would always get a severe scolding or a flogging I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave though I remember on several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my young mistresses to carry her books the picture of several dozen boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise so far as I can now recall the first knowledge that I got of the fact that we were slaves and that freedom of the slaves was being discussed was early one morning before day when I was awakened by my mother kneeling over her children and fervently praying that Lincoln and his armies might be successful in that one day she and her children might be freed in this connection I have never been able to understand how the slaves throughout the South completely ignorant as well the masses so far as books or newspapers were concerned were able to keep themselves so accurately and completely informed about the great national questions that were agitating the country from the time that garrison Lovejoy and others began to agitate for freedom the slaves throughout the South kept in close touch with the progress of the movement though I was a mere child during the preparation for the Civil War and during the war itself I now recall the many late night whispered discussions that I heard my mother and their other slaves on the plantation indulge in these discussions showed that they understood the situation and that they kept themselves informed of events about what was termed the grapevine Telegraph during the campaign when Lincoln was first a candidate for the presidency the slaves on our far-off plantation miles from any railroad or large city or daily newspaper knew what the issues involved were when war was begun between the north and the south every slave on our plantation felt and knew that though other issues were discussed the primal one was that of slavery even the most ignorant members of my race on the remote plantations felt in their hearts with a certainty that admitted of no doubt that the freedom of the slaves would be the one 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 watched with the keenest and most intense interest often the slaves got knowledge of the results of the great battles before the white people received this news was usually gotten from the colored man who was sent to the post office for the mail in our case the post office was about three miles from the plantation and the mail came once or twice a week the man who was sent to the office would linger about the place long enough to get the drift of the conversation from the group of white people who naturally congregated there after receiving their mail to discuss the latest news the mail carrier on his way back to our masters house would as naturally retail the news that he had secured among the slaves and in this way they often heard of the important events before the white people at the big house as the Masters house was called I cannot remember a single instance during my childhood or early boyhood when our entire family sat down to the table together and God's blessing was asked and the family ate a meal in a civilized manner on the plantation in Virginia and even later meals were cotton by the children very much as dumb animals get theirs it was a piece of bread here and a scrap of meat there it was a cup of milk at one time and some potatoes at another sometimes a portion of our family would eat out of the skillet or pot while someone would eat from a 10 plate held on the knees and often using nothing but the hands with which to hold the food when I had grown to sufficient size I was required to go to the big house at mealtimes to fan the Flyers from the table by means of a large set of paper fans operated by a pulley naturally much of the conversation of the white people turned upon the subject of freedom and the war and I absorbed a good deal of it I remember that at one time I saw two of my young mistresses and some lady visitors eating ginger cakes in the yard at that time those cakes seemed to me to be absolutely the most tempting and desirable things that I had ever seen and I then in their resolve that if I ever got free the height of my ambition would be reached if I could get to the point where I could secure and he indicates in the way that I saw those ladies doing of course as the war was prolonged the 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 usual diet for the slaves was corn bread and pork and these could be raised on the plantation but coffee tea sugar and other articles which the whites had been accustomed to use could not be raised on the plantation and the conditions brought about by the war frequently made it impossible to secure these things the whites were often in great straights parched corn was used for coffee and the kind of black molasses was used instead of sugar many times nothing was used to sweeten the so called tea and coffee the first pair of shoes I recall wearing the wooden ones they had rough leather on the top but the bottoms which were about an inch thick were reward when I walked they made a fearful noise and besides this they were very inconvenient since there was no yielding to the natural pressure of the foot in wearing them when presented an exceedingly awkward appearance the most trying ordeal that I was forced to endure as a slave boy however was the wearing of a flak suit and the portion of Virginia where I lived it was common to use flax as a part of the clothing for the slaves that part of the flax from which our clothing was made was largely the refuse which of course was the cheapest and roughest part I can scarcely imagine any torture except perhaps the pulling of a tooth that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time it is almost equal to the feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or more chestnut burs or a hundred small pinpoints and contact with his flesh even to this day I can recall accurately the tortures that I underwent when putting on one of these garments the fact that my flesh was soft and tender added to the pain but I had no choice I had to wear the flax shirt or nun and had it been left to me to choose I should have chosen to wear no covering in connection with the flax shirt my brother John who is several years older than I am performed one of the most generous acts that I've ever heard of one slave relative doing for another on several occasions when I was being forced to wear a new flax shirt he generously agreed to put it on in my stead and wear it for several days till it was broken in until I had grown to be quite a youth this single garment was all that I wore one may get the idea from what I have said that there was a bit of feeling toward the white people on the part of my race because of the fact that most of the white population was away fighting in a war which would result in keeping the Negro in slavery if the South was successful in the case of the slaves on our place this was not true and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the south where the Negro was treated with anything like decency during the Civil War one of my young masters was killed and two were severely wounded I recall the feeling of sorrow which existed among the slaves when they heard of the death of Mars Billy it was no sham sorrow but real some of the slaves had nursed mass Billy father's had played with him when he was a child Marley had begged for mercy in the case of others when the overseer a master was thrashing them the sorrow in the slave quarters was only second to that in the big house when the two young masters were brought home wounded the sympathy of the slaves was shown in many ways they were just as anxious to assist in the nursing as the family relatives of the wounded some of the slaves would even beg for the privilege of sitting up at night to nurse their wounded masters this tenderness and sympathy on the part of those held in bondage was a result of their kindly and generous nature in order to defend and protect the women and children who were left on the plantations when the white males went to war the slaves would have laid down their lives the slave who was selected to sleep in the big house during the absence of the males was considered to have a place of honor anyone attempting to harm young mistress or old mistress during the night would have had to cross the dead body of the slave to do so I do not know how many have noticed it but I think it will be found to be true that there are a few instances either in slavery or freedom in which a member of my race has been known to betray a specific trust as a rule not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the war I know of instances for the former masters of slaves have for years been supplied with money by their former slaves to keep them from suffering I have known of still other cases in which the former slaves have assisted in the education of the descendants of their former owners I know of a case on a large plantation in the South in which a young white man the son of a former owner of the estate has become so reduced in purse and self-controlled by reason of drink that he is a pitiable creature and yet notwithstanding the poverty of the colored people themselves on this plantation they have for years supplied this young white man with the necessities of life one sends him a little coffee or sugar another little meat and so on nothing that the colored people possess is too good for the son of old Massa Tom who will perhaps never be permitted to suffer while any remain on the place who knew directly or indirectly ole marse tom i have said that there are a few instances of a member of my race betraying a specific trust one of the best illustrations of this which i know of is the case of an ex-slave from virginia whom i met not so long ago in a little town in the state of ohio I found that this man had made a contract with his master two or three years previous to the Emancipation Proclamation to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself by paying so much per year for his body and while he was paying for himself he was to be permitted to labor where and for whom he pleased finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio he went there when freedom came he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars notwithstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master this black man walked the greater portion of the distance to where his old master lived in Virginia and placed the last dollar with interest in his hands and talking to me about this the man told me that he knew he did not have to pay the debt but that he had given his word to his master and his word he had never broken he felt that he could not enjoy his freedom until he had fulfilled his promise from some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the slaves did not want freedom this is not true I have never seen one who did not want to be free or who would return to slavery I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race no one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction and besides it was recognized protected for years by the general government Kevin once got its tentacles fastened onto the economic and social life of the Republic it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution then when we rid ourselves of prejudice or racial feeling and look the facts in the face we must acknowledge that notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery are in a stronger and more hopeful condition materially intellectually morally and religiously then it's true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe this is so to such an extent that Negroes in this country who themselves are whose forefathers went through the school of slavery are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland this I say not to justify slavery on the other hand I condemn it as an institution as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons and not from a missionary motive but to call attention to a fact and to show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose when persons asked me in these days how in the midst of what sometimes seemed hopelessly discouraging conditions I can have such faith in the future of my race in this country I remind them of the wilderness through which and out of which a good Providence has already led us ever since I've been old enough to think for myself I have entertained the idea that notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted upon us the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did the hurtful influences of the institution were not by any means confined to the Negro this was fully illustrated by the life of put our own plantation the whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to cause labor as a rule to be looked upon as a badge of degradation of inferiority hence labor was something that both races on the they plantation sought to escape the slave system on our place in a large measure took the spirit of self-reliance and self help out of the white people my old master had many boys and girls but not one so far as I know ever mastered a single trade or special line of productive industry the girls were not taught to cook so or to take care of the house all this was left to the slaves the slaves of course had little personal interest in the life of the plantation and they're ignorant prevented them from learning how to do things in the most approved and thorough manner as a result of the system fences were out of repair gates were hanging half off the hinges doors creak window panes were out plastering it fallen but was not replaced weeds grew in the yard as a rule there was food for whites and blacks but inside the house and on the dining table there was wanting that delicacy and refinement of touch and finish which can make a home the most convenient comfortable and attractive place in the world with all there was a waste of food and other materials which was sad when freedom came the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew as the master except in the matter of book learning and ownership of property the slave owner and his sons had mastered no special industry they unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labor was not the proper thing for them on the other hand the slaves in many cases had mastered some handicraft and none were ashamed and few unwilling to labor finally the war closed and the day of freedom came it was a momentous and eventful day to all upon our plantation we had been expecting it freedom was in the air and had been for months deserting soldiers returning to their homes were to be seen every day others who had been discharged whose regiments had been paroled were constantly passing near our place the grapevine Telegraph was kept busy night and day the news and mutterings of great events was swiftly carried from one plantation to another in the fear of Yankee invasions the silverware and other valuables were taken from the big house buried in the woods and guarded by trusted slaves will be to anyone who would have attempted to disturbed the buried treasure the slaves would give the Yankee soldiers food drink clothing anything with that which had been specifically entrusted to their care and honor as the great day drew nearer there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual it was bold had more ring and lasted later into the night most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom true they had sung those same verses before but they had been careful to explain that the freedom in these songs referred to the next world and had no connection with life in this world now they gradually threw off the mask and were not afraid to let it be known that the freedom in their songs meant freedom of body in this world the night before the eventful day wood was sent to the slave quarters to the effect that something unusual was going to take place at the big house the next morning there was little if any sleep that night all was excitement and expectancy earlier the next morning wood was sent to all the slaves old and young together at the house in company with my mother brother and sister and a large number of other slaves I went to the Masters house all of our masters family were either standing or seated on the veranda of the house where they could see what was to take place and hear what was said there was a feeling of deep interest a perhaps sadness on their face but not bitterness as I now recall the impression they made upon me they did not at the moment seem to be sad because of the loss of property but rather because of parting with those whom they had reared and who were in many ways very close to them the most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene was that some man who seemed to be a stranger a United States officer I presume made a little speech and then read a rather long paper of the Emancipation Proclamation I think after the reading we were told that we were all free and could go when and where we pleased my mother who was standing by my side leaned over 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 she had been so long praying but fearing that she would never live to see 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 for our former owners the wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated Colored People lasted but a brief period for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings the great responsibility of being free of having charge of themselves of having to think and plan for themselves and their children seemed to take possession of them it was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself in a few hours the great question with which the anglo-saxon race had been grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved these were the questions of a home living the rearing of children education citizenship and the establishment and support of churches was it any wonder that was in a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters to some it seemed that now that they were in actual possession of it freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected to find it some of the slaves were seventy or eighty years old their best days were gone they had no strength with which to earn a living in a strange place and among strange people even if they had been sure what to find a new place of abode to this class the problem seemed especially hard besides deep down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to all master and ole Miss's and to their children which they found it hard to think of breaking off with these they had spent in some cases nearly a half-century and there was no light thing to think of parting gradually one by one stealthily at first the oldest lays began to wonder from the slave quarters back to the big house to have a whispered conversation with their former owners as to the future after the coming of freedom there were two points upon which practically all the people on our place will agreed and I find that this was generally true throughout the south that they must change the names and that they must leave the old plantation for at least a few days or weeks in order that they might really feel sure that they were free and some way of feeling got among the colored people that it was far from proper for them to bear the surname of their former owners and a great 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 seldom occasion for more than the use of one name if John or Susan belonged to a white man by the name of Hatcher sometimes he was called John Hatcher or as often hatches John but there was a feeling that John Hatcher or hatches John was not the proper title by which to denote a Freeman and so in many cases John Hatcher was changed to John as Lincoln or John s Sherman the initial S standing for no name it being simply a part of what the colored man proudly called his entitles as I have stated most of the colored people left the old plantation for a short while at least so as to be sure it seemed that they could leave and try their freedom on to see how it felt after they had remained away for a time many of the older slaves specially returned to their old homes and made some kind of contract with their former owners by which they remained on the estate my mother's husband who was the stepfather of my brother John and myself did not belong to the same owners as did my mother in fact he seldom came to our plantation I remember seeing him there perhaps once a year that being about Christmastime in some way during the war by running away and following the federal soldiers it seemed he found his way into the new state of West Virginia as soon as freedom was declared he sent for my mother to come to the kin of our Valley in West Virginia at that time a journey from Virginia over the mountains to West Virginia was rather tedious and in some cases are painful undertaking what little clothing and fewer household goods we had were placed in a cart but the children walked the greater portion of the distance which was several hundred miles I do not think any of us had ever been very far from the plantation and the ticking of a long journey into another state was quite an event the parting from our former owners and the members of our own race on the plantation was a serious occasion from the time of our parting till their death we kept up a correspondence with the older members of the family and in later years we have kept in touch with those who were the younger members we were several weeks making the trip and most of the time we slept in the open air and did our cooking over a log fire out of doors one night I recall that we camped near an abandoned log cabin then my mother decided to build a fire in that for cooking and afterward to make a pallet on the floor for our sleeping just as the fire had gotten well started a large black snake fully a yard and a half long chop down the chimney and ran out on the floor of course we at once abandoned that cabin finally we reached our destination a little town called Malden which is about five miles from Charleston the present capital of the state at that time salt mining was the great industry in that part of West Virginia and the little town of Malden was right in the midst of the salt furnaces my stepfather had already secured a job at us a furnace and he'd also secured a little cabin for us to live in our new house was no better than the one we had left on the old plantation in Virginia in fact in one respect it was worse notwithstanding the poor condition of our plantation cabin we were at all times sure of pure air our new home was in the midst of a cluster of cabins crowded closely together and as there was no sanitary regulations the filth about the cabins was often intolerable some of our neighbors were colored people and some of the poorest and most ignorant and degraded white people it was a motley mixture drinking gambling quarrels fight and shockingly immoral practices were frequent all who lived in the little town were in one way or another connected with the salt business though I was a mere child my stepfather put me and my brother at work and one of the furnaces often I began working as early as four o'clock in the morning the first thing I ever learned in the way of book knowledge was while working in the salt furnace each salt Packer had his barrels marked with a certain number the number allotted to my stepfather was 18 at the close of the day's work the boss of the Packers would come around and put 18 on each of our barrels and I soon learned to recognize that figure wherever I saw it and after a while got to the point where I could make that figure though I knew nothing about any other figures or letters from the time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything I recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read I determined when quite a small child that if I accomplished nothing else in my life I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers soon after we got settled in some manner in our new cabin in West Virginia I induced my mother to get hold of a book for me how and where she got it I do not know but in some way she procured an old copy of Webster's blue bag spelling book which contained the alphabet followed by such meaningless words as AB ba saw da I began it wants to devour this book and I think that it was the first one I ever had in my hands I had learned from somebody that the way to begin to read was to learn the alphabet so I tried in all the ways I could think of to learn it all of course without a teacher for I could find no one to teach me at that time there was not a single member of my race anywhere near us who could read and I was too timid to approach any of the white people in some way within a few weeks I mastered the greater portion of the alphabet and all my efforts to learn to read my mother fully shared my ambition and sympathized with me and aided me in every way that she could though she was totally ignorant so far as mere book knowledge was concerned she had high ambitions for her children and a large fund of good hard common sense which seemed to enable her to meet and master every situation if I have done anything in life worth attention I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother in the midst of my struggles and longing for an education a young colored boy who had learned to read in the state of Ohio came to Morton as soon as the colored people found out that he could read a newspaper was secured and at the close of nearly every day's work this young man would be surrounded by a group of men and women who were anxious to hear him read the news contained in the papers how I used to envy this man he seemed to me to be the one young man in all the world who ought to be satisfied with his attainments about this time the question of having some kind of school open for the colored children in the village began to be discussed by members of the race as it was the first school for Negro children that had ever been opened in that part of Virginia it was of course to be a great event and the discussion excited the widest interest the most perplexing question was where to find a teacher the young man from Ohio who had learned to read the papers was considered but his age was against him in the midst of the discussion about a teacher another young colored man from Ohio who had been a soldier and someway found his way into town it was soon learned that he possessed considerable education and he was engaged by the colored people to teach their first school as yet no free schools had been started for colored people in that section hence each family agreed to pay a certain amount per month with the understanding that the teacher was too bored round that is spend the day with each family this was not bad for the teacher for each family tried to provide the very best on the day the teacher was to be its guest I recall that I looked forward with an anxious appetite to the teachers day at our little cabin this experience of a whole race beginning to go to school for the first time presents one of the most interesting studies that has ever occurred in connection with the development of any race few people who were not right in the midst of the scenes can form any exact idea of the intense desire which the people of my race showed for an education as I have stated it was a whole race trying to go to school few were too young and none too old to make the attempt to learn as fast as any kind of teachers could be secured not only what day schools filled but night schools as well the great ambition of the older people was to try to learn to read the Bible before they died with this end in view men and women who were 50 or 75 years old would often be found in the night school Sunday schools were formed soon after freedom but the principal book studied in the Sunday School was the spelling-book day school night school Sunday school were always crowded and often many had to be turned away for one of a room the opening of the school in Kennewick Valley Iowa brought to me one of the keenest disappointments I ever experienced I had been working in a salt furnace for several months and my stepfather had discovered that I had a financial value and so when the school opened he decided he could not spare me from my work this decision seemed to cloud my every ambition the disappointment was made all the more severe by reason of the fact that my place of work was where I could seek the happy children passing to and from school mornings and afternoons despite this disappointment I determined that I would learn something anyway I applied myself with Reiter earnestness than ever to the mastering of what was in the blue bag spelling my mother sympathized with me and my disappointment and sought to comfort me and all the way she could and to help me find a way to learn after a while I succeeded in making arrangements with the teacher to give me some lessons at night after the day's work was done these night lessons were so welcome and I think I learned more at night than the other children did during the day my own experiences in the night school gave me faith in the night school idea with which in after years I had to do both at Hampton and Tuskegee but my boys heart was still set upon going to the day school and I let no opportunity slip to push my case finally I won and was permitted to go to the school in the day for a few months with the understanding that I was to rise early in the morning and work in the finish till 9 o'clock and return immediately after school closed in the afternoon for at least two more hours of work the schoolhouse was some distance from the furnace and as I had to work to 9 o'clock and the school opened at 9:00 I found myself in a difficulty school would always be begun before I reached it and sometimes my class had recited to get around this difficulty I yielded to a temptation for which most people I suppose will condemn me but since it is a fact I might as well stated I have great faith in the power and influence of facts it is seldom that anything is permanently gained by holding back a fact there was a large clock in a little office in the furnace this clock of course all the hundred or more workmen depended upon to regulate their hours of beginning and ending the day's work I got the idea that the way for me to reach school on time was to move the clock hands from half-past eight up to the nine o'clock mark this I found myself doing morning after morning till the furnace boss discovered that something was wrong and locked the clock in a case I did not mean to inconvenience anybody I simply meant to reach that schoolhouse in time when however I found myself at the school for the first time I also found myself confronted with two other difficulties the first place I found that all the other children were hats or caps on their heads and I had neither had no cap in fact I do not remember that up to the time of going to school I had ever worn any kind of covering upon my head nor do I recall that either I or anybody else had even thought anything about the need of covering for my head but of course when I saw how all the other boys were dressed I began to feel quite uncomfortable as usual I put the case before my mother and she explained to me that she had no money with which to buy a store hat which was a rather new institution at that time among the members of my arrays and was considered quite the thing for young and old to own but that she would find a way to help me out of the difficulty she accordingly got two pieces of homespun jeans and sewed them together and I was soon the proud possessor of my first cap the lesson that my mother taught me in this has always remained with me and I have tried as best I could to teach it to others I have always felt proud whenever I think of the incident that my mother had strength of character enough not to be led into the temptation of seeming to be that which she was not of trying to impress my schoolmates and others with the fact that she was able to buy me a store hat when she was not I have always felt proud that she refused to go into debt for that which she did not have the money to pay for since that time I have owned many kinds of caps and hats but never one of which I have felt so proud as of the cap made of the two pieces of cloth so together by my mother I've noted 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 in the sport that was made of me because I had only a homespun cap have ended their careers in the penitentiary while others are not able not to buy any kind of hat my 2nd difficult it was with regard to my name or a name from the time when I could remember anything I had been called simply Booker before going to school it had never occurred to me that it was needful or appropriate to have an additional name when I heard the school roll called I noticed that all of the children had at least two names and some of them indulge in what seemed to me the extravagance of having three I was in deep perplexity because I knew that the teacher would demand of me at least two names and I had only one by the time the occasion came for the enrolling of my name an idea occurred to me which I thought would make me equal to the situation and so would the teacher asked me what my full name was I calmly told him Booker Washington as if I had been called by that name all my life and by that name I have since been known later in life I found that my mother had given me the name of Booker Taliaferro soon after I was born but in some way that part of my name seemed to disappear and for a long while was forgotten but as soon as I found out about it I revived it and made my full name Booker Taliaferro Washington I think there not many men in our country who have had the privilege of naming themselves in the weight that I have more than once I have tried to picture myself in the position of a boy or a man with an honored and distinguished ancestry which I could trace back through a period of hundreds of years and who had not only inherited a name but a fortune and a proud family homestead and yet I have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited these and had been a member of a more popular race I should have been inclined to yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestor and my color to do that for me which I should do for myself years ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my children would be proud and which might encourage them to still higher effort the world should not pass judgment upon the Negro and especially the Negro youth too quickly or too harshly the Negro boy has obstacles discouragements and temptations to battle with little known to those not situated as he is when a white boy undertakes a task it is taken for granted that he will succeed on the other hand people are usually surprised if the negro boy does not fail in a word the Negro youth starts out with the presumption against him the influence of ancestry however is important in helping forward any individual or race if too much reliance is not placed upon it those who constantly direct attention to the Negro youths moral weaknesses and compare his advancement with that of white use do not consider the influence of the memories which clinging about the old family home steps I have no idea as I have said it elsewhere who my grandmother was I have or have had uncles and aunts and cousins but I have no knowledge as to what most of them are my case will illustrate that of hundreds of thousands of black people in every part of this country the very fact that the white boy is conscious that if he fails in life he will disgrace the whole family record extending back through many generations is of tremendous value and helping him to resist temptations the fact that the individual has behind and surrounding him proud family history and connection serves as a stimulus to help him overcome obstacles when striving for success the time that I was permitted to attend school during the day was short and my attendance was irregular it was not long before I had to stop attending day school all together and devote all my time again to work I resorted to the night school again in fact the greater part of the education I secured in my boyhood was gathered through the night school after my day's work was done I had difficulty often in securing a satisfactory teacher sometimes after I had secured someone to teach me at night I would find much to my disappointment that the teacher knew but little more than I did often I would have to walk several miles at night in order to recite my night school lessons there was never a time in my youth no matter how dark and discouraging the day's might be when one resolved not continually remain with me and that was a determination to secure an education at any cost soon after we moved to West Virginia my mother adopted into our family notwithstanding our poverty an orphan boy to whom afterward we gave the name of James B Washington he has ever since remained a member of the family after I had worked in the salt furnace for some time work was secured for me in a coal mine which was operated mainly for the purpose of securing fuel for the salt furnace work in the coal mine I always dreaded one reason for this was that anyone who worked in a coal mine was always unclean at least while at work and it was a very hard job to get ones skin clean after the day's work was over then it was fully a mile from the opening of the coal mine to the face of the coal and all of course was in the blackest darkness I do not believe that one ever experiences anywhere else such darkness as he does in a coal mine the mine was divided into a large number of different rooms or departments and as I never was able to learn the location of all these rooms and many times found myself lost in the mine to add to the horror of being lost sometimes my light would go out and then if I did not happen to have a match I would wander about in the darkness until by chance I found someone to give me a light the work was not only hard but it was dangerous there was always the danger of being blown to pieces by a premature explosion of powder or of being crushed by falling slate accidents from one of the other of these causes were frequently occurring and this kept me in constant fear many children of the tenderest years were compelled then as is now true I fear in most coal mining districts to spend a large part of their lives in these coal mines with little opportunity to get an education and what is worse I've often noted that as a rule young boys who begin life in a coal mine are often physically and mentally dwarfed they soon lose ambition to do anything else than to continue as a coal miner in those days and I used to try to picture in my imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white youth with absolutely no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities I used to end with the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way of his becoming a congressman governor bishop or president by reason of the accident of his birth or race I used to picture the way that I would act under such circumstances how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I reached the highest round of success in later years I confess that I do not in with the white boys as once I did I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by their obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed looked at from this standpoint I almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boys birth in connection with an unpopular race is an advantage so far as real life is concerned with through exceptions the Negro youth must work harder and must perform his task even better than a white youth in order to secure recognition but out of the hard and unusual struggle which is compelled to pass he gets a strength a confidence that one mrs. whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race from any point of view I had rather be what I am a member of the Negro race then be able to claim membership with the most favored of any other race I have always been made sad when I have heard the members of any race claiming rights and privileges or certain badges of distinction on the ground simply that they were members of this or that race regardless of their own individual worth or attainments I have been made to feel sad on such occasions because I am conscious of the fact that mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently carry an individual forward unless he has individual Worth and mere connection with what is regarded as an inferior race will not finally hold Bank if he possesses intrinsic individual merit every persecuted individual and race should get much consolation out of the great human law which is universal and eternal that merit no matter under what skin found is in the long run recognized and rewarded this I have said here not to call attention to myself as an individual but to the race to which I am proud to belong one day while at work in the coal mine I happen to overhear - - talking about a great school for colored people somewhere in Virginia this was the first time I'd ever heard of anything about any kind of school or college there was more pretentious in the little colored school in our town in the darkness of the mine and noiselessly crept as close as I could to the two men who were talking I heard one tell the other that not only was the school established for the members of my race but that opportunities were provided by which poor but worthy students could work out all a part of the cost of board and at the same time be taught some trade or industry as they went on describing the school it seemed to me that it must be the greatest place on earth and not even heaven presented more attractions for me at that time than did the Hampton Normal and agricultural Institute in Virginia about which these men were talking I resolved that wants to go to that school although I had no idea where it was or how many miles away a high was going to reach it I remembered only that I was on fire constantly with one ambition and that was to go to Hampton this thought was with me day and night after hearing of the Hampton Institute I continued to work for a few months longer in the coal mine while at work there I heard of a vacant position in the household of general Lewis Ruffner the owner of the salt furnace and coal mine mrs. viola Ruffner the wife of general Ruffner was a Yankee woman from Vermont mrs. rothman had a reputation all through the vicinity being very strict with the servants and especially with the boys who tried to serve her few of them had remained with her more than two or three weeks they all left with the same excuse she was too strict I decided however that I would rather try mrs. rough in his house than remain in the coal mine and so my mother applied to her for the vacant position I was hired at a salary of $5 per month I'd heard so much about mrs. ruthless severity that I was almost afraid to see her and tremble when I went into her presence I had not lived with her many weeks however before I began to understand her I soon began to learn that first of all she wanted everything kept clean about her that she wanted things done promptly and systematically and that at the bottom of everything she wanted absolute honesty and frankness nothing must be Slovo non-slip shot every door every fence must be kept in repair I cannot now recall how long I lived with mrs. Ruffner before going to Hampton but I think it must have been a year and a half at any rate I hear repeat what I have said more than once before that the lessons that I learned in the home of mrs. Ruffner was valuable to me as any education I have ever gotten anywhere since even to this day I never see bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not want to pick them up at once I never see a filthy yard that I do not want to clean it up a ling off a fence that i do not want to put it on and unpainted or unwashed house that I do want to paint a whitewash it are a button off one's clothes or a grease spot on them are on a floor that I do not want to call attention to it from fearing mrs. rough night soon learned to look upon her as one of my best friends when she found that she could trust me she did so implicitly during the one or two winters that I was with her she gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour and the day during a portion of the winter months but most of my study was done at night sometimes alone sometimes under someone I could hire to teach me mrs. Ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts to get an education it was while living with her that I began to get together my first library I secured a dry-goods box knocked out side of it put some shells in it and began putting into it every kind of book that I could get my hands upon and called it my library notwithstanding my success at mrs. roughness I did not give up the idea of going to the Hampton Institute in the fall of 1872 I determined to make an effort to get there although as I have stated I have no idea of the direction in which Hampton was or what it would cost to go there and then I think that anyone thoroughly sympathized with me in my ambition to go to Hampton unless it was my mother and she was troubled with the fear that I was starting out on a wild goose chase at any rate I got only a half-hearted consent from her that I might start the small amount of money that I had earned had been consumed by my stepfather and the remainder of the family with the exception of a very few dollars and so I had very little with which to buy clothes and pay traveling expenses my brother John helped me all that he could but of course that was not a great deal for his work was in the coalmine way did not earn much and most of what he did and went in the direction of paying the household expenses perhaps the thing that touched and pleased me most in connection with my starting for Hampton but the interest that many of the older colored people took in the matter they had spent the best days of their lives and slavery and hardly expected to live to see the time when they would see a member of their race leave home to attend a boarding school some of these older people would give me a nickel brothers a quarter or a handkerchief finally the great day came and I started for Hampton I had only a small sheep satchel that contained what few articles of clothing I could get my mother at that time was rather weak and broken in health I hardly expected to see her again and thus our parting was all the more sad she however was very brave through it all at that time there was no through train connecting that part of West Virginia with Eastern Virginia trains ran only a portion of the way and the remainder of the distance was traveled by stagecoaches the distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles I had not been away from home many hours before it began to grow painfully evident that I did not have enough money to pay my fare to Hampton when experience I shall long remember I had been traveling over the mountains most of the afternoon in an old-fashioned stagecoach when late in the evening the coach stopped for a night at a common unpainted house called a hotel all the other passengers except myself were white in my ignorance I suppose that the little hotel existed for the purpose of accommodating the passengers who traveled on the stagecoach the difference that the color of one's skin would make I hadn't I thought anything about after all the other passengers had been shown rooms and were getting ready for supper I Xiao Li presented myself before the men at the desk it is true I had practically no money in my pocket with which to pay for bed or food but I had hoped in some way to beg my way into the good graces of the landlord for at that season in the mountains of Virginia the weather was cold and I wanted to get indoors for the night without asking me as to whether I had any money the man at the desk firmly refused to even consider the matter of providing me with food or lodging this was my first experience and finding out what the color of my skin meant in some way I managed to keep warm by walking about and so got through the night my whole soul was so bent upon reaching Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness toward the hotel keeper about walking begging rides both in wagons and in the cars and some way after a number of days I reached the city of Richmond Virginia about 82 miles from Hampton when I reached there tired and hungry and dirty it was made in the night I'd never been in a large city and this rather added to my misery when I reached Richmond I was completely out of money I had not a single acquaintance in the place and being unused to city ways I did not know where to go I applied it several places for lodging but they all wanted money and that was what I did not have knowing nothing else better to do I walk the streets in doing this I passed many food stands where fried chicken and Halfmoon apple pies were piled high and made to present a most tempting appearance at that time it seemed to me that I would have promised all that I expected to possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of those chicken legs or one of those prized but I could not get either of these know anything else to eat I must have walked the streets till after midnight at last I became so exhausted that I could walk no longer I was tired I was hungry I was everything but discouraged just about the time when I reached extreme physical exhaustion I came upon a portion of a street where the bored sidewalk was considerably elevated I waited for a few minutes till I was sure that no passive eye could see me and then crept under the sidewalk and lay for the night upon the ground with my sachet of clothing for a pillow nearly all night I could hear the [ __ ] of feet over my head the next morning I found myself refreshed but I was extremely hungry because it had been a long time since I've had sufficient food as soon as it became light enough 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 when it was to the vessel and asked the captain to permit me to help him load the vessel in order to get money for food the captain a white man who seemed to be kind-hearted consented I worked long enough to earn money for my breakfast and it seems to me as I remember it now to have been about the best breakfast that I have ever tasted my work please the captain so well that he told me if I desired I could continue working for a small amount per day this I was very glad to do I continued working on this vessel for a number of days after buying food with the small wages I received there was not much left to add to the amount that I must get to pay my way to Hampton in order to economize in every way possible so as to be sure to reach Hampton in a reasonable time I continued to sleep under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter the first night I was in Richmond many is after the colored citizens of Richmond very kindly tended me a reception at which there must have been two thousand people present this reception was held not far from the spot where I slept the first night I spent in that city and must confess that my mind was more up on the sidewalk that first gave me shelter that upon the reception agreeable and cordial as it was when I had saved when I considered enough money with which to reach Hampton I thank the captain of the vessel for his kindness and started again without any unusual occurrence I reached Hampton with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education to me it had been a long eventful journey but the first sight of the large three-story brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for all that I had undergone in order to reach the place if the people who gave the money to provide that building could appreciate the influence the sight of it had upon me as well as upon thousands of other youth they would feel all the more encouraged to make such gifts it seemed to me to be the largest and most beautiful building I had ever seen the sight of it 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 reached the promised land and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the most good in the world as soon as possible after reaching the grounds of Hampton Institute I presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class having been so long without proper food a bath and change of clothing I did not of course make a very favorable impression upon her and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student I thought that I could hardly blame her if she got the idea that I was a worthless loafer or [ __ ] for some time she did not refuse to admit me neither did she decided my favour and I continued to linger about her and to impress her in all the ways I could with my worthiness in the meantime I saw her admitting other students and that added greatly to my discomfort for I felt deep down in my heart that I could do as well as they if I could only get a chance to show what was in me after some house had passed the head teacher said to me the joining recitation room needs sweeping take the broom and sweep it it occurred to me at once that here was my chance never did I receive an order with more delight I knew that I could sweep but mrs. Russ and I had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her I swept the recitation room three times then I got a dusting cloth and I dusted it four times all the woodwork around the walls every bench table and desk I went over four times with my dusting cloth besides every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner and the room had been thoroughly cleaned I had the feeling that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher in cleaning that room when I was through I reported to the head teacher she was a Yankee woman who know just where to look for dirt she went into the room and inspected the floor and the closet then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls and over the tables and benches when she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor or a particle of dust on any of the furniture she quietly remarked I guess you will do to enter this institution I was one of the happiest souls on earth the sweeping of that room was my college examination and never that any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction I have passed several examinations since then but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever passed I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton Institute perhaps a few if any had anything like the same experience that I had but about that same period there were hundreds who found their way to something of the same difficulties that I went through the young men and women were determined to secure an education at any cost the sweeping of the recitation room in the manner that I did it seems to have paved the way for me to get through Hampton Miss Mary F Mackay the head teacher offered me a position as janitor this of course I gladly accepted because it was a place where I could work out nearly all the cost of my board the work was hard and taxing but I stuck to it I had a large number of rules to care for and had to work late into the night while at the same time after eyes by four o'clock in the morning in order to build the fires and have a little time in which to prepare my lessons in all my career at Hampton and ever since I have been out in the world miss Mary F Mackay they had teach it to whom I have referred proved one of my strongest and most helpful friends her advice and encouragement was always helpful in strengthening to me in the darkest hour I have spoken of the impression that was made upon me by the buildings and general appearance of the Hampton Institute but I have not spoken of that which made the greatest and most lasting impression upon me and that was a great man the noblest rarest human being that it has ever been my privilege to meet I refer to the late General Samuel C Armstrong it has been my fortune to meet personally many of what are called great characters both in Europe and America but I do not hesitate to say that I have never met any man who in my estimation was the equal of General Armstrong fresh from the degrading influences of the slave plantation and the coal mines it was a rare privilege for me to be permitted to come into direct contact with such a character as General Armstrong I shall always remember that the first time I went into his presence he made the impression upon me of being a perfect man I was made to 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 till he died and the more I saw of him the greater he grew in my estimation one might have removed from Hampton all the buildings classrooms teachers and industries and given the men and women there the opportunity of coming into daily contact with General Armstrong and that alone would have been a liberal education the older I grow the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women instead of studying books so constantly how I wish that our schools and colleges might learn to study men and things General Armstrong spent two the last six months of his life in my home at tusky at that time he was paralyzed to the extent he had lost control of his body and voice in a very large degree notwithstanding his affliction he worked almost constantly night and day for the cause to which he had given his life I never saw a man who's so completely lost sight of himself I do not believe he ever had a selfish thought he was just as happy and trying to assist some other institution in the south as when he was working for Hampton although he fought the southern white man in the Civil War I never heard him utter a bitter word against him afterward on the other hand he was constantly seeking ways by which he could be of service to the southern whites it would be difficult to describe the hole that he had upon the students at Hampton or the faith they had in him in fact he was worshipped by his students it never occurred to me that General Armstrong could fail in anything that he undertook there is almost no request that he could have made there would not have been complied with when he was a guest in my home in Alabama and so badly paralyzed that he had to be wheeled about in an interval its chair I recall that one of the generals former students had occasion to push his chair up a long steep hill that taxed his strength to the utmost when the top of it was reached the former pupil with a glow of happiness on his face exclaimed I am so glad that I have been permitted to do something that was real hard for the general before he dies while I was a student at Hampton the dormitories became so crowded that it was impossible to find room for all who wanted to be admitted in order to help remedied the difficulty the general conceived the plan of putting up tents to be used as rooms as soon as it became known that General Armstrong would be pleased if some of the oldest students would live in the tents during the winter nearly every student in school volunteered to go I was one of the volunteers the winter that we spent in those tents was an intensely cold one and we suffered severely how much I am sure general Armstrong never knew because we made no 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 secure an education more than once during a cold night when a stiff gale would be blowing our tent was lifted bodily and we would find ourselves in the open air the general would usually pay a visit to the tents early in the morning and his earnest cheerful encouraging voice would dispel any feeling of despondency life at Hampton was a constant revelation to me was constantly taking me into a new world the matter of having meals at regular hours of eating on a tablecloth using a napkin the use of the bathtub and of the truth brush as well as the use of sheets upon the bed were all new to me I sometimes feel that almost the most valuable lesson I got at the Hampton Institute wasn't the use and value of the bath I learned there for the first time some of its value not only in keeping the body healthy but in inspiring self-respect and promoting virtue in all my travels in the South and elsewhere since leaving Hampton I have always in some way sought my daily bath to get it sometimes when I have been the guest of my own people in a single room to cabin has not always been easy to do except by slipping away 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 a student in Hampton I possessed about a single pair of socks but when I had one these till they became soiled I would wash them at night and hang them by the fire to dry so that I might wear them again the next morning the charge from my board at Hampton was $10 per month I was expected to pay a part of this in cash and to work out the remainder to meet this cash payment as I have stated I had just 50 cents when I reached the institution aside from a very few dollars that my brother John was able to send me once in a while I had no money with which to pay my board I was determined from the first to make my work as janitors so valuable that my services would be indispensable this I succeeded in doing to such an extent that I was soon informed that I would be allowed the full cost of my board in return for my work the cost of tuition was $70 a year this of course was wholly beyond my ability to pay if I had been compelled to pay the $70 for tuition in addition to providing for my board I would have been compelled to leave the Hampton Institute General Armstrong however very kindly got mr. F Griffiths Morgan of New Bedford Massachusetts to defray the cost of my tuition during the whole time I was in Hampton after I finished the course at Hampton and had entered upon my life work at Tuskegee I had the pleasure visiting mr. Morgan several times after having been for a while at Hampton I found myself in difficulty because I did not have books and clothing usually however I got around the trouble about books by borrowing from those who were more fortunate than myself as to clothes when I reached Hampton I had practically nothing everything that I possessed was in a small hand satchel my anxiety about clothing was increased because of the fact that General Armstrong made a personal inspection of the young men and ranks to see that their clothes were clean shoes had to be polished there must be no buttons off the clothing and no grease spots to wear one suit of clothes continually while at work and in the schoolroom and at the same time keep it clean was rather a hard problem for me to solve in some way I managed to get on to the teachers learned that I was in earnest and meant to succeed and then some of them were kind enough to see that I was partly supplied with secondhand clothing that had been sent in barrels from the north these barrels proved a blessing to the hundreds of poor but deserving students without them I questioned whether I should ever have gotten through Hampton when I first went to Hampton I do not recall that I had ever slept in a bed that had two sheets on it and those days there were not many buildings there and room was very precious there was seven other boys in the same room with me most of them however students who had been there for some time the sheets were quite a puzzle me the first night I slept under both of them and the second night I slept on top of both of them but by watching the other boys I learned my lesson in this and have been trying to follow it ever since and to teach it to others I was among the youngest of the students who were at Hampton at that time most of the students were men and women some as old as 40 years of age as I recall the scene of my first year I do not believe that one often has the opportunity of coming into contact with three or four hundred men and women who were so tremendously in earnest as these men and women were every hour was occupied and study or work nearly all had had enough actual contact with the world to teach them the need for education many of the older ones were of course too old to master the textbooks very thoroughly and it was often sad to watch their struggles but they made up in earnest as much of what they liked in books many of them were as poor as I was and besides having to wrestle with their books they had to struggle with a poverty which prevented their having the necessities of life many of them had aged parents who were dependent upon them and some of them were men who had wives who support in some way they had to provide for the great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of everyone was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home no one seemed to think of himself and the officers and teachers what a rare set of human beings they were they worked for the students night and day in season and out of season they seemed happy only when they were helping the students in some manner whenever it is written and I hope it will be the part that the Yankee teachers played in the education of the Negroes immediately after the war will make one of the most thrilling parts of the history of this country the time is not far distant when the whole south will appreciate this service in a way that it has not yet been able to do the years from 1867 to 1878 I think maybe called the period of reconstruction this include the time that I spent as a student at Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia during the whole of the Reconstruction period two ideas were constantly agitating the minds of the colored people or at least the mind of a large part of the race one of these was the craze for Greek and Latin learning and the other was a desire to hold office the temptations to enter political life was so alluring that I came very near yielding to them at one time but I was kept from doing so by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race through a generous education of the hand head and heart I saw colored men who were members of the state legislatures and County officers who in some cases could not read or write and whose morals were as weak as their education not long ago when passing through the streets of a certain city in the south I heard some brick Masons calling out from the top of a two-story building on which they were working for the governor to hurry up and bring some more bricks several times I heard the command hurry up governor hurry up governor my curiosity was aroused to such an extent that I made inquiry as to who the governor was and soon found that he was a colored man who at one time had held the position of lieutenant governor of his state but not all the colored people who were in office during the Reconstruction were unaware of their positions by any means some of them like the late Senator BK Bruce governor Pinchbeck and many others was strong upright useful men neither were all the class designated as carpetbaggers dishonorable men some of them like ex governor Bullock of Georgia were men of high character and usefulness when not in the chapel after the usual chapel exercises were over General Armstrong referred to the fact that he had received a letter from some gentleman and Alabama asking him to recommend someone to take charge of what was to be a normal school for the colored people in a little town of tusky in that state these gentlemen seem to take it for granted that no colored man suitable for the position could be secured and they were expecting the general recommend a white man for the place the next day General Armstrong sent for me to come to his office and much to my surprise asked me if I thought I could fill the position in Alabama I told him I would be willing to try accordingly he wrote to the people who had applied to him for the information that he did not know of any white man to suggest but if they would be willing to take a colored man he had one whom he could recommend in this letter he gave them my name summer day is past before anything more was heard about the matter some time afterward one Sunday evening during the chapel exercises a messenger came in and handed the general a telegram at the end of the exercises he read the telegram to the school and substance these were its words Booker T Washington will suit us send him at once before going to Tuskegee I had expected to find there a building and all the necessary apparatus ready for me to be in teaching to my disappointment I found nothing of the kind I did find though that which no costly building and apparatus can supply hundreds of hungry earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge Tuskegee seemed an ideal place for the school that was in the midst of the great bulk of the Negro population and was rather secluded being five miles from the main line of railroad with which it was connected by a short line during the days of slavery and since the town had been the center of the education of the white people this was an added advantage for the reason that I found the white people possessing a degree of culture and education that is not surpassed by many localities while the colored people were ignorant they had not as a rule degraded and weakened their bodies by vices such as a common to the lower class of people in the large cities in general I found the relations between the two races Pleasant for example the largest and I think at that time the only hardware store in the town was owned and operated jointly by a colored man and a white man the Co partnership continued until the death of the white partner I found that about a year previous to my going to Tuskegee some of the colored people who had heard something of the work of education being done at Hampton had applied to the state legislature through their representatives for a small appropriation to be used in starting a normal school in tusky this request the legislature had complied with to the extent of granting an annual appropriation of $2,000 I soon learned however that this money could be used only for the payment of the salaries of the instructors and that there was no provision for securing land buildings our apparatus the task before me did not seem a very encouraging one it seemed much like making bricks without straw the colored people were overjoyed and were constantly offering their services in any way in which they could be of assistance and getting the school started my first task was to find a place in which to open the school after looking the town over with some care the most suitable place that could be secured seemed to be a rather dilapidated Santa near the colored Methodist Church together with the church itself as a sort of assembly room both the church and the shanty were in about as bad condition as possible I recall that during the first months of school that I taught in this building and it was in such poor repair that whenever it rained one of the oldest students would very kindly leave his lessons to hold an umbrella over me while I heard the recitations of the others I remember also that on more than one occasion my landlady held an umbrella over me while I ate breakfast the work to be done in order to lift these people up seemed almost beyond accomplishing I was only one person and it seemed to me that the little effort that I could put forth could go such a short distance toward bringing about results I wondered if I could accomplish anything and if it were worthwhile for me to try a one thing I felt most strongly convinced in ever after spending this month and seeing the actual life of the colored people and that was that in order to lift them up something must be done more than merely to imitate New England education as it then existed I saw more clearly than ever the wisdom of the system which General Armstrong had inaugurated at Hampton to take the children of such people as I had been among for a month and each day give them a few hours of mere book education I felt will be almost a waste of time after consultation with the citizens of Tuskegee I say July 4th 1881 as the day for the opening of the school and that little shanty and church which have been secured for its accommodation the white people as well as the color were greatly interested in the starting of the new school and the opening day was looked forward to with much other's discussion there were not a few white people in the vicinity of Tuskegee who looked with some disfavor upon the project they questioned its value to the colored people and had a fear that it might result in bringing about trouble between the races some had the feeling that in proportion as the Negro received education in the same proportion with his value decrease as an economic factor in the state these people feared the result of education would be that the Negroes would leave the farms that it would be difficult to secure them for domestic service the white people who question the wisdom of starting this new school had in their minds pictures of what they called an educated Negro with a high hat imitation gold eyeglasses a showy walking stick kid gloves fancy boots and whatnot in a word a man who was determined to live by his wits it was difficult for these people to see how each occasion could produce any other kind of a colored man in the midst of all the difficulties which I encountered in getting the little school started and since then through a period of 19 years there are two men among all the many friends of the school in Tuskegee upon whom I have depended constantly for advice and guidance and the success of the undertaking is 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 an ex-slave Holden mr Joyce W Campbell the other is a black man and the next slave mr. Lewis Adams these were the men who wrote the General Armstrong for a teacher we find that most of our students came from the country districts where agriculture in some form or other was the main dependence of the people we learned that about 85% of the colored people in the Gulf states dependent upon agriculture for their living 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 attracted from the country to the cities and to yield to the temptation of trying to live by their wits we wanted to give them such an education as would fit a large proportion of them to be teachers and at the same time caused them to return to the plantation districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people all these ideas and needs crowded themselves upon us with a seriousness that seemed well nigh overwhelming what will we to do we had only the little old shanty in the abandoned church which the good colored people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly loaned us for the accommodation of the classes the number of students was increasing daily the more we saw that our efforts were reaching to only a partial degree the actual needs of the people whom we wanted to lift up to the medium of the students whom we should educate and send out leaders the more we talked with the students who were then coming to us from several parts of the state the more we found that the chief ambition among a large proportion of them was to get an education so that they would not have to work any longer with their hands now this is an Australian by a story toll of a colored man in Alabama who one hot day in July while he was at work in a cotton field suddenly stopped and looking toward this guy's a tall Lord the cotton M so grassy they work I'm so hard and the Sun am so hot that I believe this doc and call to preach mr. president and gentlemen of the board of directors and citizens one-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race no Enterprise seeking the material civil or moral welfare of this section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest success i but convey to you mr. president and the directors the sentiment of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recognized than by the managers of this magnificent exposition at every stage of its progress it is a recognition that will do more to cement the friendship of the two races than any occurrence just a dawn of our freedom not only this but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us a new era of industrial progress ignorant and inexperienced it is not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead of at the bottom that a seat in Congress or the state legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill that the political convention of stop speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm or shrub garden a ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel from the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal water water we died of thirst the answer from the friendly vessel at once came back cast down your buckets where you are a second time the signal water water send us water ran up from the distressed vessel and was answered cast down your buckets where you are and a third and fourth signal for water was answered cast down your bucket swear you are the captain of the distressed vessel at last heating the injunction cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River to those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with a southern white man who is their next-door neighbor I would say cast down your buckets where you are cast it down in making friends and every manly way are the people of all races by whom we are surrounded cast it down in agriculture mechanics and commerce and domestic service and in the professions and in this connection it is well to bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear when it comes to business pure and simple it is in the South that the Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world and in nothing is this exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the production of our hands and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor and put brains and skills into the common occupations of life shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial the ornamental googles of life and the useful no race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity and tilling a field as in writing a poem it is at the bottom of life that we must begin and not at the top nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities to those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange Chunkin habits for the prosperity to the south well I permitted I would repeat when I say to my own race cast down your buckets where you are cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous met the ruin of your firesides cast down your bucket among these people who have without strikes and labor wars tilled your fields clear Joff forests builded your real in cities and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the south casting down your bucket among white people helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds and to education of head hand in heart you will find that they will buy your surplus land make blossom the waste places in your fields and run your factories while doing this you can be sure 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 seen as we have proved our loyalty to you in the past and nursing your children watching by the sick bed of your mothers and fathers and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves so in the future in our humble way we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach ready to lay down our lives if need be in defense of yours interlacing our industrial commercial civil and religious life with yours and a way that shall make the interests of both races one and all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers yet one as the hand and all things essential to mutual progress there is no defense or security for any of us except in the highest intelligence and development of all if anywhere there are efforts tending to curtail the foolish growth of the Negro let these efforts be turned into stimulating encouraging and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen or means so invested will pay a thousand percent interest these efforts will be twice bless'd blessing him that gives and him that takes there is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable the laws of changeless Justice bind oppressor with oppressed and closed as sin and suffering joined we march to fade abreast nearly 16-million of hands will age you and pulling the load upward or they will pull against you or they will pull against you or they will pull against you or they will pull against you or they will pull against you or they will pull against you or they will pull against you the load downward we shall constitute one third and more of the ignorance and crime of the south are one third is intelligence and progress we shall contribute one third to the business and industrial prosperity of the south or we shall prove a veritable body of death stagnating depressing retarding every effort to advance the body politic gentlemen of the exposition as we present to you our humble effort at an exhibition of our progress you must not expect over much starting 30 years ago with ownership here and there and a few quilts and pumpkins and chickens gather for miscellaneous sources remember the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements buggies steam engine newspapers books statuary carving paintings the management of drugstores and banks has not been trottin without contact with thorns and thistles while we take pride and what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts we do not for a moment forget that our part and this exhibition would fall far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come to our educational life not only from the southern states but especially from northern philanthropists who have made their gifts a constant stream of blessing and encouragement the wisest among Mary's understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremists folly and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than artificial forcing no race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world as long in any degree ostracized it is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercises of these privileges the opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house in conclusion may I repeat that nothing in 30 years has given us more hope and encouragement and drawn us so near to you of the white race as this opportunity offered by the exposition and here bending as it were over the altar that represents the results of the struggles of your race and mine both starving practically empty handed three decades ago I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South you shall have at all times the patient sympathetic help of my race only let this be constantly in mind that while from representations in these buildings of the product of field of forest of mind of factory letters and art much good will come yet far above and beyond material benefits will be that higher good that let us pray God will come and our blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions in a determination to administer absolute justice in a winning obedience among all classes to the mandates of law this then coupled with our material prosperity will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth

Channel: reelblack

Views: 394,918

Rating: 4.7666721 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: EaElY97HMXU

Length: 102min 27sec (6147 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 26 2018