As far as Washington was concerned, slavery only made the black race stronger. His argument that both whites and blacks would benefit from “educating Negroes” in a vocation was criticized for favoring accommodation. This autobiography of a slave’s rise to distinction conveys that a strong work ethic and true excellence in whatever one is doing will be rewarded no matter what race or what position a person holds in life. Up from Slavery also provides an insider’s look at the foundation of the Tuskegee Institute.

Born a slave on a small farm in the Virginia backcountry, Booker T. Washington never knew his father, who he heard was a white man. His mother, a cook on the plantation, suffered many hardships along with her family. After slavery ended, he moved with his family to West Virginia and went to work in the salt furnaces and coal mines. After completing secondary education at Hampton Institute, he accepted a teaching position. Education and teaching became his career goal; in 1881, he founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. In 1895 he secured his influence by delivering The Atlanta Compromise Address before the Cotton States Exposition, and went on to found the National Negro Business League and become chief black advisor to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

 

Up From Slavery (World Digital Library Edition) by Booker T. Washington
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