Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington

My notes on this book:

Biography

• Washington was born in 1856 as a slave in Virginia.
• His mother was a slave, and his father was a white man from a different plantation.
• His mother was the plantation cook; their cabin also served as the kitchen.
• He didn’t sleep in a bed until after the Civil War.  Growing up, he slept on rags on the ground with his brother and sister.
• He didn’t know his father.  He doesn’t blame his father for not taking responsibility for him; he says that was how the system of slavery was.
• Washington wanted to learn to read from a young age, an ambition supported by his mother.  However, as a kid he was forced to work.  Eventually, he was able to attend school while still working.  Most of his schooling as a youth was at night.
• During his life, he read a lot, although “Fiction I care little for.”  He read mainly newspapers and biographies.  “I think I do not go too far when I say that I have read nearly every book and magazine article that has been written about Abraham Lincoln.”

Slavery

• Washington says that it was clear to everyone that the Civil War was about slavery. “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.”
• Although black slaves were uneducated, they were still be aware of the great societal issues facing the country.  Slaves on the plantations would discuss slavery, Lincoln, and other questions. They were aware of current events through word of mouth. For example, a black person would overhear whites discussing something, and then he'd share that news with other slaves. The information would pass from there.
• Washington asserts that “...the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white man did.”  Blacks, for example, learned handicrafts, since they did the work on the plantation.  Whites did not do labor.  Once slavery ended, whites were left unprepared to fend for themselves.
• When emancipation came, whites were not sad for their lost property.  Rather, they were sad that the slaves, who had been part of their lives for so long, were now gone.  Blacks, in contrast, were initially ecstatic to have freedom.  However, they now had to care and provide for themselves for the first time. This great responsibility was difficult and gloomy.
• Slaves were usually called by their first name only. If they had a last name, it was the same as their owner. Most slaves took new last names when they became free.  For Washington, when he started school, his classmates had last names.  However, the only name he had ever known was “Booker.”  So, to be like his classmates, he made up a last name and chose "Washington." He later learned that his mother had given him the last name of "Taliaferro," which he wasn't aware of.  Hence, he became “Booker T. Washington.”

Tuskegee and approach to education

• Washington attended Hampton Institute, which had a profound effect of his life. There he learned to work hard, be in service to others, appreciate the Bible, and “the dignity of labour.”  He worked as a janitor to pay his education expenses at Hampton.
• He started the school in Tuskegee in June 1881. There was little money, no land, and no buildings when he arrived at Tuskegee.
• Tuskegee officially opened on July 4, 1881. Whites in the area feared the education of blacks.  They thought that it would have an economic impact, that it would be harder to secure blacks for domestic and farming help if blacks were educated.
• All students at Tuskegee did manual labor. Washington felt that learning a skill made someone indispensable to society. To him, knowing a skill would lead to greater acceptance of blacks, because they are contributing a skill to the betterment of the community.
• Washington saw education as a means of learning how to live and how to work. He asserted that as blacks became economically independent, they would garner more respect from whites.
• He believed that blacks who were industrious had more self-reliance and character.
• Washington believed that blacks should not antagonize whites but instead develop friendly relationships with them.  He also believed that blacks need to work their way up from the bottom, not start at the top of society.
• He believed in self-improvement as a means for blacks to better their lives.  He also accepted segregation.  This approach to racial issues conflicted with other leaders at the time, like W.E.B. DuBois.
• The education of blacks was more difficult because of different expectations of the races. When white people do something, they are expected to succeed.  Whereas when black people do something, it is surprising if they don’t fail.

Conclusions

• His rise from slave to founder of Tuskegee, respected and admired around the world, is remarkable.
• His story shows the power of education.
• I think the book is very self-congratulatory. He is not shy about sharing his successes and accolades.
• The book makes race relations sound better than they actually were. Washington describes whites as accepting of him and not resistant to his mission to help black people. I have difficulty believing that whites were so indifferent.