Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his slow and steady rise from a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools—most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama—to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade (something which is reminiscent of the educational theories of John Ruskin). Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to reassure the white community as to the usefulness of educating black people.
Washington was a somewhat controversial figure in his own lifetime, and W. E. B. Du Bois, for example, criticized some of his views. The book was, however, a best-seller. While it is aimed at the general reader, V.S. Naipaul has commented that it appears to be sending out separate messages to black and white readers.[1]
Quotes
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- "During the next half-century and more, my race must continue passing through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet smile, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all."
- "Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work."
References
- Full text available in .pdf format (http://www.studenthandouts.com/upfromslavery.pdf)
- Up From Slavery at Project Gutenberg
- Also available at Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?id=xN45ZsUMgKEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=up+from+slavery)
- Available in PDF, HTML, and MP3 at the Lit2Go project at USF
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