1 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Project Gutenberg EBook of Up From Slavery: An Autobiography, by
2 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker T. Washington
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10 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Title: Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
12 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Author: Booker T. Washington
14 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Posting Date: October 20, 2008 [EBook #2376]
15 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Release Date: October, 2000
16 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu [Last updated: July 4, 2012]
18 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Language: English
21 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UP FROM SLAVERY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY ***
26 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Produced by Internet Wiretap, An Anonymous Project Gutenberg
27 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Volunteer, and Dan Muller
34 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu UP FROM SLAVERY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
36 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu By Booker T. Washington
41 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This volume is dedicated to my Wife
42 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Margaret James Washington
43 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu And to my Brother John H. Washington
44 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Whose patience, fidelity,
45 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and hard work have gone far to make the
46 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work at Tuskegee successful.
53 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This volume is the outgrowth of a series of articles, dealing with
54 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu incidents in my life, which were published consecutively in the Outlook.
55 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While they were appearing in that magazine I was constantly surprised at
56 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the number of requests which came to me from all parts of the country,
57 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu asking that the articles be permanently preserved in book form. I am
58 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most grateful to the Outlook for permission to gratify these requests.
60 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have tried to tell a simple, straightforward story, with no attempt
61 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at embellishment. My regret is that what I have attempted to do has
62 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been done so imperfectly. The greater part of my time and strength is
63 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu required for the executive work connected with the Tuskegee Normal
64 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and Industrial Institute, and in securing the money necessary for the
65 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu support of the institution. Much of what I have said has been written
66 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on board trains, or at hotels or railroad stations while I have been
67 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu waiting for trains, or during the moments that I could spare from my
68 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work while at Tuskegee. Without the painstaking and generous assistance
69 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Mr. Max Bennett Thrasher I could not have succeeded in any
70 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfactory degree.
75 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Introduction
77 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The details of Mr. Washington's early life, as frankly set down in "Up
78 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from Slavery," do not give quite a whole view of his education. He had
79 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the training that a coloured youth receives at Hampton, which, indeed,
80 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the autobiography does explain. But the reader does not get his
81 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intellectual pedigree, for Mr. Washington himself, perhaps, does not
82 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as clearly understand it as another man might. The truth is he had a
83 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training during the most impressionable period of his life that was very
84 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu extraordinary, such a training as few men of his generation have had.
85 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To see its full meaning one must start in the Hawaiian Islands half
86 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a century or more ago.* There Samuel Armstrong, a youth of missionary
87 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu parents, earned enough money to pay his expenses at an American college.
88 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Equipped with this small sum and the earnestness that the undertaking
89 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu implied, he came to Williams College when Dr. Mark Hopkins was
90 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu president. Williams College had many good things for youth in that day,
91 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as it has in this, but the greatest was the strong personality of its
92 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu famous president. Every student does not profit by a great teacher; but
93 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perhaps no young man ever came under the influence of Dr. Hopkins,
94 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whose whole nature was so ripe for profit by such an experience as young
95 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong. He lived in the family of President Hopkins, and thus had a
96 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training that was wholly out of the common; and this training had
97 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu much to do with the development of his own strong character, whose
98 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu originality and force we are only beginning to appreciate.
100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu * For this interesting view of Mr. Washington's education, I
101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu am indebted to Robert C. Ogden, Esq., Chairman of the Board
102 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Trustees of Hampton Institute and the intimate friend of
103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General Armstrong during the whole period of his educational
106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In turn, Samuel Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, took up his
107 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work as a trainer of youth. He had very raw material, and doubtless most
108 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of his pupils failed to get the greatest lessons from him; but, as
109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he had been a peculiarly receptive pupil of Dr. Hopkins, so Booker
110 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington became a peculiarly receptive pupil of his. To the formation
111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Mr. Washington's character, then, went the missionary zeal of New
112 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu England, influenced by one of the strongest personalities in modern
113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education, and the wide-reaching moral earnestness of General Armstrong
114 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu himself. These influences are easily recognizable in Mr. Washington
115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to-day by men who knew Dr. Hopkins and General Armstrong.
117 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I got the cue to Mr. Washington's character from a very simple incident
118 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many years ago. I had never seen him, and I knew little about him,
119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu except that he was the head of a school at Tuskegee, Alabama. I had
120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occasion to write to him, and I addressed him as "The Rev. Booker T.
121 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington." In his reply there was no mention of my addressing him as a
122 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clergyman. But when I had occasion to write to him again, and persisted
123 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in making him a preacher, his second letter brought a postscript: "I
124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have no claim to 'Rev.'" I knew most of the coloured men who at that
125 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time had become prominent as leaders of their race, but I had not then
126 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu known one who was neither a politician nor a preacher; and I had
127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not heard of the head of an important coloured school who was not
128 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a preacher. "A new kind of man in the coloured world," I said to
129 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu myself--"a new kind of man surely if he looks upon his task as an
130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu economic one instead of a theological one." I wrote him an apology for
131 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mistaking him for a preacher.
133 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first time that I went to Tuskegee I was asked to make an address
134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the school on Sunday evening. I sat upon the platform of the large
135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chapel and looked forth on a thousand coloured faces, and the choir of
136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a hundred or more behind me sang a familiar religious melody, and the
137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whole company joined in the chorus with unction. I was the only white
138 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man under the roof, and the scene and the songs made an impression on me
139 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I shall never forget. Mr. Washington arose and asked them to sing
140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one after another of the old melodies that I had heard all my life;
141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but I had never before heard them sung by a thousand voices nor by the
142 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu voices of educated Negroes. I had associated them with the Negro of the
143 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu past, not with the Negro who was struggling upward. They brought to my
144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mind the plantation, the cabin, the slave, not the freedman in quest of
145 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education. But on the plantation and in the cabin they had never been
146 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sung as these thousand students sang them. I saw again all the old
147 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantations that I had ever seen; the whole history of the Negro
148 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ran through my mind; and the inexpressible pathos of his life found
149 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expression in these songs as I had never before felt it.
151 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu And the future? These were the ambitious youths of the race, at work
152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with an earnestness that put to shame the conventional student life of
153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most educational institutions. Another song rolled up along the
154 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rafters. And as soon as silence came, I found myself in front of this
155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu extraordinary mass of faces, thinking not of them, but of that long and
156 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unhappy chapter in our country's history which followed the one great
157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu structural mistake of the Fathers of the Republic; thinking of the one
158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu continuous great problem that generations of statesmen had wrangled
159 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over, and a million men fought about, and that had so dwarfed the mass
160 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of English men in the Southern States as to hold them back a hundred
161 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years behind their fellows in every other part of the world--in England,
162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in Australia, and in the Northern and Western States; I was thinking of
163 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this dark shadow that had oppressed every large-minded statesman from
164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Jefferson to Lincoln. These thousand young men and women about me were
165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu victims of it. I, too, was an innocent victim of it. The whole Republic
166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a victim of that fundamental error of importing Africa into America.
167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I held firmly to the first article of my faith that the Republic
168 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu must stand fast by the principle of a fair ballot; but I recalled the
169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wretched mess that Reconstruction had made of it; I recalled the
170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu low level of public life in all the "black" States. Every effort of
171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu philanthropy seemed to have miscarried, every effort at correcting
172 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu abuses seemed of doubtful value, and the race friction seemed to become
173 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu severer. Here was the century-old problem in all its pathos seated
174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu singing before me. Who were the more to be pitied--these innocent
175 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu victims of an ancient wrong, or I and men like me, who had inherited
176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the problem? I had long ago thrown aside illusions and theories, and was
177 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu willing to meet the facts face to face, and to do whatever in God's name
178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a man might do towards saving the next generation from such a burden.
179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But I felt the weight of twenty well-nigh hopeless years of thought and
180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reading and observation; for the old difficulties remained and new
181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ones had sprung up. Then I saw clearly that the way out of a century
182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of blunders had been made by this man who stood beside me and was
183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu introducing me to this audience. Before me was the material he had used.
184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All about me was the indisputable evidence that he had found the
185 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu natural line of development. He had shown the way. Time and patience and
186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu encouragement and work would do the rest.
188 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was then more clearly than ever before that I understood the
189 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu patriotic significance of Mr. Washington's work. It is this conception
190 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of it and of him that I have ever since carried with me. It is on this
191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that his claim to our gratitude rests.
193 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To teach the Negro to read, whether English, or Greek, or Hebrew,
194 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu butters no parsnips. To make the Negro work, that is what his master did
195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in one way and hunger has done in another; yet both these left Southern
196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life where they found it. But to teach the Negro to do skilful work,
197 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as men of all the races that have risen have worked,--responsible work,
198 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which IS education and character; and most of all when Negroes so teach
199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negroes to do this that they will teach others with a missionary zeal
200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that puts all ordinary philanthropic efforts to shame,--this is to
201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu change the whole economic basis of life and the whole character of a
204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The plan itself is not a new one. It was worked out at Hampton
205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute, but it was done at Hampton by white men. The plan had, in
206 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fact, been many times theoretically laid down by thoughtful students of
207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern life. Handicrafts were taught in the days of slavery on most
208 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu well-managed plantations. But Tuskegee is, nevertheless, a brand-new
209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chapter in the history of the Negro, and in the history of the knottiest
210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu problem we have ever faced. It not only makes "a carpenter of a man; it
211 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu makes a man of a carpenter." In one sense, therefore, it is of greater
212 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu value than any other institution for the training of men and women that
213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we have, from Cambridge to Palo Alto. It is almost the only one of which
214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it may be said that it points the way to a new epoch in a large area of
215 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our national life.
217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To work out the plan on paper, or at a distance--that is one thing. For
218 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a white man to work it out--that too, is an easy thing. For a coloured
219 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man to work it out in the South, where, in its constructive period,
220 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he was necessarily misunderstood by his own people as well as by the
221 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whites, and where he had to adjust it at every step to the strained race
222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relations--that is so very different and more difficult a thing that the
223 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man who did it put the country under lasting obligations to him.
225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was not and is not a mere educational task. Anybody could teach boys
226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trades and give them an elementary education. Such tasks have been done
227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu since the beginning of civilization. But this task had to be done with
228 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the rawest of raw material, done within the civilization of the dominant
229 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race, and so done as not to run across race lines and social lines that
230 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are the strongest forces in the community. It had to be done for the
231 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu benefit of the whole community. It had to be done, moreover, without
232 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu local help, in the face of the direst poverty, done by begging, and done
233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in spite of the ignorance of one race and the prejudice of the other.
235 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu No man living had a harder task, and a task that called for more wisdom
236 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to do it right. The true measure of Mr. Washington's success is, then,
237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not his teaching the pupils of Tuskegee, nor even gaining the support of
238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu philanthropic persons at a distance, but this--that every Southern white
239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man of character and of wisdom has been won to a cordial recognition
240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the value of the work, even men who held and still hold to the
241 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conviction that a mere book education for the Southern blacks under
242 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu present conditions is a positive evil. This is a demonstration of
243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the efficiency of the Hampton-Tuskegee idea that stands like the
244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu demonstration of the value of democratic institutions themselves--a
245 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu demonstration made so clear in spite of the greatest odds that it is no
246 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu longer open to argument.
248 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Consider the change that has come in twenty years in the discussion
249 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the Negro problem. Two or three decades ago social philosophers and
250 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu statisticians and well-meaning philanthropists were still talking and
251 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu writing about the deportation of the Negroes, or about their settlement
252 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu within some restricted area, or about their settling in all parts of the
253 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Union, or about their decline through their neglect of their children,
254 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or about their rapid multiplication till they should expel the whites
255 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from the South--of every sort of nonsense under heaven. All this has
256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu given place to the simple plan of an indefinite extension among the
257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu neglected classes of both races of the Hampton-Tuskegee system of
258 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training. The "problem" in one sense has disappeared. The future will
259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have for the South swift or slow development of its masses and of its
260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu soil in proportion to the swift or slow development of this kind of
261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training. This change of view is a true measure of Mr. Washington's
264 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The literature of the Negro in America is colossal, from political
265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu oratory through abolitionism to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Cotton is
266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu King"--a vast mass of books which many men have read to the waste of
267 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu good years (and I among them); but the only books that I have read a
268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu second time or ever care again to read in the whole list (most of them
269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by tiresome and unbalanced "reformers") are "Uncle Remus" and "Up from
270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Slavery"; for these are the great literature of the subject. One has all
271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the best of the past, the other foreshadows a better future; and the
272 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men who wrote them are the only men who have written of the subject with
273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that perfect frankness and perfect knowledge and perfect poise whose
274 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other name is genius.
276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Washington has won a world-wide fame at an early age. His story
277 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of his own life already has the distinction of translation into more
278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu languages, I think, than any other American book; and I suppose that
279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he has as large a personal acquaintance among men of influence as any
280 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu private citizen now living.
282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu His own teaching at Tuskegee is unique. He lectures to his advanced
283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students on the art of right living, not out of text-books, but
284 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu straight out of life. Then he sends them into the country to visit Negro
285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu families. Such a student will come back with a minute report of the way
286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in which the family that he has seen lives, what their earnings are,
287 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what they do well and what they do ill; and he will explain how they
288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu might live better. He constructs a definite plan for the betterment
289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of that particular family out of the resources that they have. Such a
290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu student, if he be bright, will profit more by an experience like this
291 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than he could profit by all the books on sociology and economics that
292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever were written. I talked with a boy at Tuskegee who had made such a
293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu study as this, and I could not keep from contrasting his knowledge and
294 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enthusiasm with what I heard in a class room at a Negro university
295 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in one of the Southern cities, which is conducted on the idea that a
296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu college course will save the soul. Here the class was reciting a lesson
297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from an abstruse text-book on economics, reciting it by rote, with so
298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu obvious a failure to assimilate it that the waste of labour was pitiful.
300 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I asked Mr. Washington years ago what he regarded as the most important
301 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu result of his work, and he replied:
303 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "I do not know which to put first, the effect of Tuskegee's work on the
304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro, or the effect on the attitude of the white man to the Negro."
306 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The race divergence under the system of miseducation was fast getting
307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wider. Under the influence of the Hampton-Tuskegee idea the races
308 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are coming into a closer sympathy and into an honourable and helpful
309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relation. As the Negro becomes economically independent, he becomes a
310 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu responsible part of the Southern life; and the whites so recognize
311 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him. And this must be so from the nature of things. There is nothing
312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu artificial about it. It is development in a perfectly natural way. And
313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Southern whites not only so recognize it, but they are imitating it
314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the teaching of the neglected masses of their own race. It has thus
315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu come about that the school is taking a more direct and helpful hold on
316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life in the South than anywhere else in the country. Education is not
317 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a thing apart from life--not a "system," nor a philosophy; it is direct
318 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teaching how to live and how to work.
320 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To say that Mr. Washington has won the gratitude of all thoughtful
321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern white men, is to say that he has worked with the highest
322 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu practical wisdom at a large constructive task; for no plan for the
323 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu up-building of the freedman could succeed that ran counter to Southern
324 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opinion. To win the support of Southern opinion and to shape it was a
325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu necessary part of the task; and in this he has so well succeeded that
326 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the South has a sincere and high regard for him. He once said to me that
327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he recalled the day, and remembered it thankfully, when he grew large
328 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enough to regard a Southern white man as he regarded a Northern one. It
329 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is well for our common country that the day is come when he and his work
330 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are regarded as highly in the South as in any other part of the Union. I
331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu think that no man of our generation has a more noteworthy achievement to
332 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his credit than this; and it is an achievement of moral earnestness of
333 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the strong character of a man who has done a great national service.
335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Walter H. Page.
340 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu UP FROM SLAVERY
344 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter I. A Slave Among Slaves
346 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. I am
347 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at
348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time.
349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a cross-roads
350 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu post-office called Hale's Ford, and the year was 1858 or 1859. I do not
351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu know the month or the day. The earliest impressions I can now recall are
352 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the plantation and the slave quarters--the latter being the part of
353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the plantation where the slaves had their cabins.
355 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate,
356 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and discouraging surroundings. This was so, however, not because my
357 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu owners were especially cruel, for they were not, as compared with many
358 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu others. I was born in a typical log cabin, about fourteen by sixteen
359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feet square. In this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and
360 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sister till after the Civil War, when we were all declared free.
362 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Of my ancestry I know almost nothing. In the slave quarters, and even
363 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu later, I heard whispered conversations among the coloured people of
364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the tortures which the slaves, including, no doubt, my ancestors on my
365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mother's side, suffered in the middle passage of the slave ship while
366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being conveyed from Africa to America. I have been unsuccessful in
367 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu securing any information that would throw any accurate light upon
368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the history of my family beyond my mother. She, I remember, had a
369 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu half-brother and a half-sister. In the days of slavery not very much
370 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attention was given to family history and family records--that is,
371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu black family records. My mother, I suppose, attracted the attention of a
372 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purchaser who was afterward my owner and hers. Her addition to the slave
373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu family attracted about as much attention as the purchase of a new horse
374 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or cow. Of my father I know even less than of my mother. I do not even
375 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu know his name. I have heard reports to the effect that he was a white
376 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man who lived on one of the near-by plantations. Whoever he was, I never
377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heard of his taking the least interest in me or providing in any way
378 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for my rearing. But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply
379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily
380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had engrafted upon it at that time.
382 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The cabin was not only our living-place, but was also used as the
383 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kitchen for the plantation. My mother was the plantation cook. The cabin
384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was without glass windows; it had only openings in the side which let in
385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the light, and also the cold, chilly air of winter. There was a door to
386 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the cabin--that is, something that was called a door--but the uncertain
387 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hinges by which it was hung, and the large cracks in it, to say nothing
388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the fact that it was too small, made the room a very uncomfortable
389 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one. In addition to these openings there was, in the lower right-hand
390 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu corner of the room, the "cat-hole,"--a contrivance which almost every
391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mansion or cabin in Virginia possessed during the ante-bellum period.
392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The "cat-hole" was a square opening, about seven by eight inches,
393 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provided for the purpose of letting the cat pass in and out of the house
394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at will during the night. In the case of our particular cabin I could
395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never understand the necessity for this convenience, since there were
396 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at least a half-dozen other places in the cabin that would have
397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accommodated the cats. There was no wooden floor in our cabin, the naked
398 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu earth being used as a floor. In the centre of the earthen floor there
399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a large, deep opening covered with boards, which was used as a place
400 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in which to store sweet potatoes during the winter. An impression of
401 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this potato-hole is very distinctly engraved upon my memory, because I
402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recall that during the process of putting the potatoes in or taking them
403 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out I would often come into possession of one or two, which I roasted
404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and thoroughly enjoyed. There was no cooking-stove on our plantation,
405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and all the cooking for the whites and slaves my mother had to do over
406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an open fireplace, mostly in pots and "skillets." While the poorly built
407 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cabin caused us to suffer with cold in the winter, the heat from the
408 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu open fireplace in summer was equally trying.
410 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The early years of my life, which were spent in the little cabin, were
411 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not very different from those of thousands of other slaves. My mother,
412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of course, had little time in which to give attention to the training of
413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu her children during the day. She snatched a few moments for our care in
414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the early morning before her work began, and at night after the day's
415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work was done. One of my earliest recollections is that of my mother
416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cooking a chicken late at night, and awakening her children for the
417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purpose of feeding them. How or where she got it I do not know. I
418 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu presume, however, it was procured from our owner's farm. Some people may
419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu call this theft. If such a thing were to happen now, I should condemn it
420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as theft myself. But taking place at the time it did, and for the reason
421 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that it did, no one could ever make me believe that my mother was guilty
422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of thieving. She was simply a victim of the system of slavery. I cannot
423 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared
424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu free by the Emancipation Proclamation. Three children--John, my older
425 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brother, Amanda, my sister, and myself--had a pallet on the dirt floor,
426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or, to be more correct, we slept in and on a bundle of filthy rags laid
427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon the dirt floor.
429 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was asked not long ago to tell something about the sports and pastimes
430 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I engaged in during my youth. Until that question was asked it
431 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that was
432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu devoted to play. From the time that I can remember anything, almost
433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every day of my life had been occupied in some kind of labour; though
434 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I think I would now be a more useful man if I had had time for sports.
435 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the period that I spent in slavery I was not large enough to be
436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of much service, still I was occupied most of the time in cleaning the
437 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu yards, carrying water to the men in the fields, or going to the mill to
438 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I used to take the corn, once a week, to be ground. The mill was
439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about three miles from the plantation. This work I always dreaded. The
440 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heavy bag of corn would be thrown across the back of the horse, and the
441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu corn divided about evenly on each side; but in some way, almost
442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without exception, on these trips, the corn would so shift as to become
443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unbalanced and would fall off the horse, and often I would fall with it.
444 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As I was not strong enough to reload the corn upon the horse, I would
445 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have to wait, sometimes for many hours, till a chance passer-by came
446 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu along who would help me out of my trouble. The hours while waiting for
447 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some one were usually spent in crying. The time consumed in this way
448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made me late in reaching the mill, and by the time I got my corn ground
449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and reached home it would be far into the night. The road was a lonely
450 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one, and often led through dense forests. I was always frightened. The
451 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu woods were said to be full of soldiers who had deserted from the army,
452 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and I had been told that the first thing a deserter did to a Negro boy
453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when he found him alone was to cut off his ears. Besides, when I was
454 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu late in getting home I knew I would always get a severe scolding or a
457 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on
458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my
459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young mistresses to carry her books. The picture of several dozen boys
460 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon
461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in
462 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this way would be about the same as getting into paradise.
464 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu So far as I can now recall, the first knowledge that I got of the fact
465 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that we were slaves, and that freedom of the slaves was being discussed,
466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was early one morning before day, when I was awakened by my mother
467 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kneeling over her children and fervently praying that Lincoln and his
468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu armies might be successful, and that one day she and her children might
469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be free. In this connection I have never been able to understand how the
470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slaves throughout the South, completely ignorant as were the masses so
471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far as books or newspapers were concerned, were able to keep themselves
472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so accurately and completely informed about the great National questions
473 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that were agitating the country. From the time that Garrison, Lovejoy,
474 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and others began to agitate for freedom, the slaves throughout the South
475 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kept in close touch with the progress of the movement. Though I was a
476 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mere child during the preparation for the Civil War and during the war
477 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu itself, I now recall the many late-at-night whispered discussions that I
478 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heard my mother and the other slaves on the plantation indulge in. These
479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discussions showed that they understood the situation, and that they
480 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kept themselves informed of events by what was termed the "grape-vine"
483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the campaign when Lincoln was first a candidate for the
484 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Presidency, the slaves on our far-off plantation, miles from any
485 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu railroad or large city or daily newspaper, knew what the issues involved
486 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were. When war was begun between the North and the South, every slave on
487 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our plantation felt and knew that, though other issues were discussed,
488 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the primal one was that of slavery. Even the most ignorant members of
489 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my race on the remote plantations felt in their hearts, with a certainty
490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that admitted of no doubt, that the freedom of the slaves would be the
491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one great result of the war, if the Northern armies conquered. Every
492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu success of the Federal armies and every defeat of the Confederate forces
493 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was watched with the keenest and most intense interest. Often the slaves
494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu got knowledge of the results of great battles before the white people
495 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu received it. This news was usually gotten from the coloured man who was
496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sent to the post-office for the mail. In our case the post-office was
497 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about three miles from the plantation, and the mail came once or twice
498 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a week. The man who was sent to the office would linger about the place
499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu long enough to get the drift of the conversation from the group of white
500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people who naturally congregated there, after receiving their mail,
501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to discuss the latest news. The mail-carrier on his way back to our
502 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu master's house would as naturally retail the news that he had secured
503 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among the slaves, and in this way they often heard of important events
504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before the white people at the "big house," as the master's house was
507 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I cannot remember a single instance during my childhood or early
508 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu boyhood when our entire family sat down to the table together, and God's
509 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu blessing was asked, and the family ate a meal in a civilized manner.
510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On the plantation in Virginia, and even later, meals were gotten by the
511 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu children very much as dumb animals get theirs. It was a piece of bread
512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu here and a scrap of meat there. It was a cup of milk at one time and
513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some potatoes at another. Sometimes a portion of our family would eat
514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out of the skillet or pot, while some one else would eat from a tin
515 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plate held on the knees, and often using nothing but the hands with
516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which to hold the food. When I had grown to sufficient size, I was
517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu required to go to the "big house" at meal-times to fan the flies from
518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the table by means of a large set of paper fans operated by a pulley.
519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Naturally much of the conversation of the white people turned upon the
520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu subject of freedom and the war, and I absorbed a good deal of it. I
521 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remember that at one time I saw two of my young mistresses and some
522 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lady visitors eating ginger-cakes, in the yard. At that time those cakes
523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to me to be absolutely the most tempting and desirable things
524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I had ever seen; and I then and there resolved that, if I ever got
525 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu free, the height of my ambition would be reached if I could get to the
526 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu point where I could secure and eat ginger-cakes in the way that I saw
527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those ladies doing.
529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Of course as the war was prolonged the white people, in many cases,
530 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu often found it difficult to secure food for themselves. I think the
531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slaves felt the deprivation less than the whites, because the usual diet
532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for slaves was corn bread and pork, and these could be raised on the
533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantation; but coffee, tea, sugar, and other articles which the whites
534 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had been accustomed to use could not be raised on the plantation, and
535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the conditions brought about by the war frequently made it impossible
536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to secure these things. The whites were often in great straits. Parched
537 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu corn was used for coffee, and a kind of black molasses was used instead
538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of sugar. Many times nothing was used to sweeten the so-called tea and
541 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first pair of shoes that I recall wearing were wooden ones. They
542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had rough leather on the top, but the bottoms, which were about an
543 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inch thick, were of wood. When I walked they made a fearful noise, and
544 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu besides this they were very inconvenient, since there was no yielding
545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the natural pressure of the foot. In wearing them one presented an
546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exceedingly awkward appearance. The most trying ordeal that I was forced
547 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to endure as a slave boy, however, was the wearing of a flax shirt. In
548 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the portion of Virginia where I lived it was common to use flax as part
549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the clothing for the slaves. That part of the flax from which our
550 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clothing was made was largely the refuse, which of course was the
551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cheapest and roughest part. I can scarcely imagine any torture, except,
552 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting
553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on a new flax shirt for the first time. It is almost equal to the
554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or more chestnut
555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu burrs, or a hundred small pin-points, in contact with his flesh. Even
556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to this day I can recall accurately the tortures that I underwent when
557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu putting on one of these garments. The fact that my flesh was soft and
558 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tender added to the pain. But I had no choice. I had to wear the flax
559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shirt or none; and had it been left to me to choose, I should have
560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chosen to wear no covering. In connection with the flax shirt, my
561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brother John, who is several years older than I am, performed one of
562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most generous acts that I ever heard of one slave relative doing for
563 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu another. On several occasions when I was being forced to wear a new flax
564 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shirt, he generously agreed to put it on in my stead and wear it for
565 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several days, till it was "broken in." Until I had grown to be quite a
566 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu youth this single garment was all that I wore.
568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One may get the idea, from what I have said, that there was bitter
569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feeling toward the white people on the part of my race, because of the
570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fact that most of the white population was away fighting in a war
571 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which would result in keeping the Negro in slavery if the South was
572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu successful. In the case of the slaves on our place this was not true,
573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and it was not true of any large portion of the slave population in the
574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South where the Negro was treated with anything like decency. During
575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Civil War one of my young masters was killed, and two were severely
576 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wounded. I recall the feeling of sorrow which existed among the slaves
577 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when they heard of the death of "Mars' Billy." It was no sham sorrow,
578 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but real. Some of the slaves had nursed "Mars' Billy"; others had played
579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with him when he was a child. "Mars' Billy" had begged for mercy in
580 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the case of others when the overseer or master was thrashing them. The
581 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sorrow in the slave quarter was only second to that in the "big house."
582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When the two young masters were brought home wounded, the sympathy of
583 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the slaves was shown in many ways. They were just as anxious to assist
584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the nursing as the family relatives of the wounded. Some of the
585 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slaves would even beg for the privilege of sitting up at night to nurse
586 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their wounded masters. This tenderness and sympathy on the part of those
587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu held in bondage was a result of their kindly and generous nature. In
588 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu order to defend and protect the women and children who were left on the
589 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantations when the white males went to war, the slaves would have laid
590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down their lives. The slave who was selected to sleep in the "big house"
591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during the absence of the males was considered to have the place of
592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honour. Any one attempting to harm "young Mistress" or "old Mistress"
593 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during the night would have had to cross the dead body of the slave to
594 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu do so. I do not know how many have noticed it, but I think that it will
595 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be found to be true that there are few instances, either in slavery
596 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or freedom, in which a member of my race has been known to betray a
597 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu specific trust.
599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of
600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are
601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and
602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the
603 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu war. I know of instances where the former masters of slaves have for
604 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years been supplied with money by their former slaves to keep them from
605 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu suffering. I have known of still other cases in which the former slaves
606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have assisted in the education of the descendants of their former
607 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu owners. I know of a case on a large plantation in the South in which a
608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young white man, the son of the former owner of the estate, has become
609 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so reduced in purse and self-control by reason of drink that he is a
610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pitiable creature; and yet, notwithstanding the poverty of the coloured
611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people themselves on this plantation, they have for years supplied this
612 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young white man with the necessities of life. One sends him a little
613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coffee or sugar, another a little meat, and so on. Nothing that the
614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people possess is too good for the son of "old Mars' Tom," who
615 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu will perhaps never be permitted to suffer while any remain on the place
616 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who knew directly or indirectly of "old Mars' Tom."
618 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have said that there are few instances of a member of my race
619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu betraying a specific trust. One of the best illustrations of this which
620 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I know of is in the case of an ex-slave from Virginia whom I met not
621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu long ago in a little town in the state of Ohio. I found that this man
622 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to
623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be
624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and
625 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labour where
626 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and for whom he pleased. Finding that he could secure better wages in
627 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ohio, he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his
628 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu master some three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation
629 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man
630 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master
631 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his
632 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hands. In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that
633 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he did not have to pay the debt, but that he had given his word to the
634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu master, and his word he had never broken. He felt that he could not
635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his promise.
637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From some things that I have said one may get the idea that some of the
638 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slaves did not want freedom. This is not true. I have never seen one who
639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.
641 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I pity from the bottom of my heart any nation or body of people that is
642 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so unfortunate as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long
643 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern
644 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of
645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and, besides,
646 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government.
647 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Having once got its tentacles fastened on to the economic and social
648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve
649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu itself of the institution. Then, when we rid ourselves of prejudice, or
650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that,
651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million
652 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors
653 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more
654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously,
655 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of
656 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the globe. This is so to such an extent that Negroes in this country,
657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who themselves or whose forefathers went through the school of slavery,
658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are constantly returning to Africa as missionaries to enlighten those
659 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who remained in the fatherland. This I say, not to justify slavery--on
660 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the other hand, I condemn it as an institution, as we all know that in
661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, and not
662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from a missionary motive--but to call attention to a fact, and to
663 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu show how Providence so often uses men and institutions to accomplish
664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a purpose. When persons ask me in these days how, in the midst of what
665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sometimes seem hopelessly discouraging conditions, I can have such
666 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu faith in the future of my race in this country, I remind them of the
667 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wilderness through which and out of which, a good Providence has already
670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ever since I have been old enough to think for myself, I have
671 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entertained the idea that, notwithstanding the cruel wrongs inflicted
672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon us, the black man got nearly as much out of slavery as the white
673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man did. The hurtful influences of the institution were not by any means
674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu confined to the Negro. This was fully illustrated by the life upon our
675 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu own plantation. The whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to
676 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cause labour, as a rule, to be looked upon as a badge of degradation,
677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of inferiority. Hence labour was something that both races on the slave
678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantation sought to escape. The slave system on our place, in a large
679 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu measure, took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of the white
680 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people. My old master had many boys and girls, but not one, so far as
681 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I know, ever mastered a single trade or special line of productive
682 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu industry. The girls were not taught to cook, sew, or to take care of the
683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu house. All of this was left to the slaves. The slaves, of course,
684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had little personal interest in the life of the plantation, and their
685 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ignorance prevented them from learning how to do things in the most
686 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu improved and thorough manner. As a result of the system, fences were
687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out of repair, gates were hanging half off the hinges, doors creaked,
688 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu window-panes were out, plastering had fallen but was not replaced, weeds
689 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu grew in the yard. As a rule, there was food for whites and blacks, but
690 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inside the house, and on the dining-room table, there was wanting that
691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu delicacy and refinement of touch and finish which can make a home the
692 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most convenient, comfortable, and attractive place in the world. Withal
693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there was a waste of food and other materials which was sad. When
694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew
695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the master, except in the matter of book-learning and ownership of
696 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu property. The slave owner and his sons had mastered no special industry.
697 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu They unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labour was not
698 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the proper thing for them. On the other hand, the slaves, in many cases,
699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had mastered some handicraft, and none were ashamed, and few unwilling,
702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Finally the war closed, and the day of freedom came. It was a momentous
703 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and eventful day to all upon our plantation. We had been expecting it.
704 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Freedom was in the air, and had been for months. Deserting soldiers
705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu returning to their homes were to be seen every day. Others who had been
706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discharged, or whose regiments had been paroled, were constantly passing
707 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu near our place. The "grape-vine telegraph" was kept busy night and day.
708 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The news and mutterings of great events were swiftly carried from one
709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantation to another. In the fear of "Yankee" invasions, the silverware
710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and other valuables were taken from the "big house," buried in the
711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu woods, and guarded by trusted slaves. Woe be to any one who would have
712 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attempted to disturb the buried treasure. The slaves would give the
713 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Yankee soldiers food, drink, clothing--anything but that which had been
714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu specifically intrusted to their care and honour. As the great day drew
715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It
716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the
717 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom. True, they
718 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had sung those same verses before, but they had been careful to explain
719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the "freedom" in these songs referred to the next world, and had
720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu no connection with life in this world. Now they gradually threw off the
721 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mask, and were not afraid to let it be known that the "freedom" in their
722 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu songs meant freedom of the body in this world. The night before the
723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eventful day, word was sent to the slave quarters to the effect that
724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something unusual was going to take place at the "big house" the next
725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu morning. There was little, if any, sleep that night. All as excitement
726 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and expectancy. Early the next morning word was sent to all the slaves,
727 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu old and young, to gather at the house. In company with my mother,
728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brother, and sister, and a large number of other slaves, I went to
729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the master's house. All of our master's family were either standing or
730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seated on the veranda of the house, where they could see what was to
731 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu take place and hear what was said. There was a feeling of deep interest,
732 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or perhaps sadness, on their faces, but not bitterness. As I now recall
733 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the impression they made upon me, they did not at the moment seem to be
734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sad because of the loss of property, but rather because of parting with
735 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those whom they had reared and who were in many ways very close to them.
736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene
737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer,
738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper--the
739 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that
740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother,
741 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while
742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all
743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but
744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fearing that she would never live to see.
746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanksgiving, and wild
747 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu scenes of ecstasy. But there was no feeling of bitterness. In fact,
748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there was pity among the slaves for our former owners. The wild
749 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for
750 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their
751 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of
752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan
753 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. It
754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years
755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out into the world to provide for himself. In a few hours the great
756 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu questions with which the Anglo-Saxon race had been grappling for
757 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu centuries had been thrown upon these people to be solved. These were
758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education,
759 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches. Was it any
760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wonder that within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling
761 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters? To some it seemed
762 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that, now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more
763 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu serious thing than they had expected to find it. Some of the slaves
764 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were seventy or eighty years old; their best days were gone. They had
765 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu no strength with which to earn a living in a strange place and among
766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strange people, even if they had been sure where to find a new place of
767 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu abode. To this class the problem seemed especially hard. Besides, deep
768 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to "old
769 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Marster" and "old Missus," and to their children, which they found it
770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hard to think of breaking off. With these they had spent in some cases
771 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nearly a half-century, and it was no light thing to think of parting.
772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Gradually, one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves began
773 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to wander from the slave quarters back to the "big house" to have a
774 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whispered conversation with their former owners as to the future.
778 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter II. Boyhood Days
780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After the coming of freedom there were two points upon which practically
781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all the people on our place were agreed, and I found that this was
782 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu generally true throughout the South: that they must change their names,
783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that they must leave the old plantation for at least a few days or
784 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu weeks in order that they might really feel sure that they were free.
786 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In some way a feeling got among the coloured people that it was far from
787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proper for them to bear the surname of their former owners, and a great
788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many of them took other surnames. This was one of the first signs of
789 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu freedom. When they were slaves, a coloured person was simply called
790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "John" or "Susan." There was seldom occasion for more than the use of
791 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the one name. If "John" or "Susan" belonged to a white man by the
792 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu name of "Hatcher," sometimes he was called "John Hatcher," or as
793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu often "Hatcher's John." But there was a feeling that "John Hatcher" or
794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Hatcher's John" was not the proper title by which to denote a freeman;
795 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and so in many cases "John Hatcher" was changed to "John S. Lincoln" or
796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "John S. Sherman," the initial "S" standing for no name, it being simply
797 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a part of what the coloured man proudly called his "entitles."
799 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As I have stated, most of the coloured people left the old plantation
800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for a short while at least, so as to be sure, it seemed, that they
801 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could leave and try their freedom on to see how it felt. After they
802 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had remained away for a while, many of the older slaves, especially,
803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu returned to their old homes and made some kind of contract with their
804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu former owners by which they remained on the estate.
806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My mother's husband, who was the stepfather of my brother John and
807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu myself, did not belong to the same owners as did my mother. In fact, he
808 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seldom came to our plantation. I remember seeing him there perhaps once
809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a year, that being about Christmas time. In some way, during the war, by
810 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu running away and following the Federal soldiers, it seems, he found
811 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his way into the new state of West Virginia. As soon as freedom was
812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu declared, he sent for my mother to come to the Kanawha Valley, in West
813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Virginia. At that time a journey from Virginia over the mountains
814 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to West Virginia was rather a tedious and in some cases a painful
815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu undertaking. What little clothing and few household goods we had were
816 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu placed in a cart, but the children walked the greater portion of the
817 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distance, which was several hundred miles.
819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I do not think any of us ever had been very far from the plantation, and
820 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the taking of a long journey into another state was quite an event. The
821 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu parting from our former owners and the members of our own race on the
822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantation was a serious occasion. From the time of our parting till
823 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their death we kept up a correspondence with the older members of the
824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu family, and in later years we have kept in touch with those who were the
825 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu younger members. We were several weeks making the trip, and most of
826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the time we slept in the open air and did our cooking over a log fire
827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out-of-doors. One night I recall that we camped near an abandoned log
828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cabin, and my mother decided to build a fire in that for cooking, and
829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afterward to make a "pallet" on the floor for our sleeping. Just as the
830 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fire had gotten well started a large black snake fully a yard and a half
831 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu long dropped down the chimney and ran out on the floor. Of course we at
832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu once abandoned that cabin. Finally we reached our destination--a little
833 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu town called Malden, which is about five miles from Charleston, the
834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu present capital of the state.
836 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At that time salt-mining was the great industry in that part of West
837 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Virginia, and the little town of Malden was right in the midst of
838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the salt-furnaces. My stepfather had already secured a job at a
839 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu salt-furnace, and he had also secured a little cabin for us to live
840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in. Our new house was no better than the one we had left on the
841 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu old plantation in Virginia. In fact, in one respect it was worse.
842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Notwithstanding the poor condition of our plantation cabin, we were at
843 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all times sure of pure air. Our new home was in the midst of a cluster
844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of cabins crowded closely together, and as there were no sanitary
845 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regulations, the filth about the cabins was often intolerable. Some of
846 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our neighbours were coloured people, and some were the poorest and most
847 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ignorant and degraded white people. It was a motley mixture. Drinking,
848 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gambling, quarrels, fights, and shockingly immoral practices were
849 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu frequent. All who lived in the little town were in one way or another
850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu connected with the salt business. Though I was a mere child, my
851 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stepfather put me and my brother at work in one of the furnaces. Often I
852 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu began work as early as four o'clock in the morning.
854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first thing I ever learned in the way of book knowledge was while
855 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu working in this salt-furnace. Each salt-packer had his barrels marked
856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with a certain number. The number allotted to my stepfather was "18."
857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the close of the day's work the boss of the packers would come around
858 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and put "18" on each of our barrels, and I soon learned to recognize
859 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that figure wherever I saw it, and after a while got to the point where
860 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I could make that figure, though I knew nothing about any other figures
861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or letters.
863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything,
864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read. I determined,
865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life,
866 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common
867 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu books and newspapers. Soon after we got settled in some manner in our
868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu new cabin in West Virginia, I induced my mother to get hold of a book
869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for me. How or where she got it I do not know, but in some way she
870 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu procured an old copy of Webster's "blue-back" spelling-book, which
871 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contained the alphabet, followed by such meaningless words as "ab,"
872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "ba," "ca," "da." I began at once to devour this book, and I think that
873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it was the first one I ever had in my hands. I had learned from somebody
874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the way to begin to read was to learn the alphabet, so I tried
875 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in all the ways I could think of to learn it,--all of course without a
876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teacher, for I could find no one to teach me. At that time there was not
877 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a single member of my race anywhere near us who could read, and I was
878 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu too timid to approach any of the white people. In some way, within a few
879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu weeks, I mastered the greater portion of the alphabet. In all my efforts
880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to learn to read my mother shared fully my ambition, and sympathized
881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with me and aided me in every way that she could. Though she was totally
882 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ignorant, she had high ambitions for her children, and a large fund of
883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu good, hard, common sense, which seemed to enable her to meet and master
884 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every situation. If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel
885 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.
887 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the midst of my struggles and longing for an education, a young
888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured boy who had learned to read in the state of Ohio came to
889 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Malden. As soon as the coloured people found out that he could read, a
890 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu newspaper was secured, and at the close of nearly every day's work
891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this young man would be surrounded by a group of men and women who were
892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anxious to hear him read the news contained in the papers. How I used to
893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu envy this man! He seemed to me to be the one young man in all the world
894 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who ought to be satisfied with his attainments.
896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu About this time the question of having some kind of a school opened for
897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured children in the village began to be discussed by members
898 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the race. As it would be the first school for Negro children that had
899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever been opened in that part of Virginia, it was, of course, to be a
900 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu great event, and the discussion excited the wildest interest. The most
901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perplexing question was where to find a teacher. The young man from
902 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ohio who had learned to read the papers was considered, but his age was
903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu against him. In the midst of the discussion about a teacher, another
904 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young coloured man from Ohio, who had been a soldier, in some way found
905 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his way into town. It was soon learned that he possessed considerable
906 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education, and he was engaged by the coloured people to teach their
907 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first school. As yet no free schools had been started for coloured
908 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people in that section, hence each family agreed to pay a certain
909 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu amount per month, with the understanding that the teacher was to "board
910 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu 'round"--that is, spend a day with each family. This was not bad for the
911 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teacher, for each family tried to provide the very best on the day the
912 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teacher was to be its guest. I recall that I looked forward with an
913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anxious appetite to the "teacher's day" at our little cabin.
915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This experience of a whole race beginning to go to school for the
916 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first time, presents one of the most interesting studies that has ever
917 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occurred in connection with the development of any race. Few people who
918 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were not right in the midst of the scenes can form any exact idea of the
919 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intense desire which the people of my race showed for an education. As
920 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have stated, it was a whole race trying to go to school. Few were too
921 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn. As fast as any
922 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kind of teachers could be secured, not only were day-schools filled, but
923 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night-schools as well. The great ambition of the older people was to try
924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to learn to read the Bible before they died. With this end in view men
925 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and women who were fifty or seventy-five years old would often be found
926 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the night-school. Some day-schools were formed soon after
927 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu freedom, but the principal book studied in the Sunday-school was the
928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spelling-book. Day-school, night-school, Sunday-school, were always
929 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu crowded, and often many had to be turned away for want of room.
931 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The opening of the school in the Kanawha Valley, however, brought to me
932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of the keenest disappointments that I ever experienced. I had been
933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu working in a salt-furnace for several months, and my stepfather had
934 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discovered that I had a financial value, and so, when the school opened,
935 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he decided that he could not spare me from my work. This decision seemed
936 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to cloud my every ambition. The disappointment was made all the more
937 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu severe by reason of the fact that my place of work was where I could see
938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the happy children passing to and from school mornings and afternoons.
939 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Despite this disappointment, however, I determined that I would learn
940 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something, anyway. I applied myself with greater earnestness than ever
941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the mastering of what was in the "blue-back" speller.
943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My mother sympathized with me in my disappointment, and sought to
944 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comfort me in all the ways she could, and to help me find a way to
945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learn. After a while I succeeded in making arrangements with the teacher
946 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to give me some lessons at night, after the day's work was done. These
947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night lessons were so welcome that I think I learned more at night
948 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than the other children did during the day. My own experiences in the
949 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night-school gave me faith in the night-school idea, with which, in
950 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after years, I had to do both at Hampton and Tuskegee. But my boyish
951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heart was still set upon going to the day-school, and I let no
952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity slip to push my case. Finally I won, and was permitted to go
953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the school in the day for a few months, with the understanding that
954 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was to rise early in the morning and work in the furnace till nine
955 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu o'clock, and return immediately after school closed in the afternoon for
956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at least two more hours of work.
958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The schoolhouse was some distance from the furnace, and as I had to work
959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu till nine o'clock, and the school opened at nine, I found myself in
960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a difficulty. School would always be begun before I reached it, and
961 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sometimes my class had recited. To get around this difficulty I yielded
962 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to a temptation for which most people, I suppose, will condemn me; but
963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu since it is a fact, I might as well state it. I have great faith in the
964 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu power and influence of facts. It is seldom that anything is permanently
965 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gained by holding back a fact. There was a large clock in a little
966 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu office in the furnace. This clock, of course, all the hundred or more
967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu workmen depended upon to regulate their hours of beginning and ending
968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the day's work. I got the idea that the way for me to reach school on
969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time was to move the clock hands from half-past eight up to the nine
970 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu o'clock mark. This I found myself doing morning after morning, till the
971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu furnace "boss" discovered that something was wrong, and locked the clock
972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in a case. I did not mean to inconvenience anybody. I simply meant to
973 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reach that schoolhouse in time.
975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When, however, I found myself at the school for the first time, I also
976 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found myself confronted with two other difficulties. In the first place,
977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I found that all the other children wore hats or caps on their heads,
978 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and I had neither hat nor cap. In fact, I do not remember that up to
979 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the time of going to school I had ever worn any kind of covering upon
980 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my head, nor do I recall that either I or anybody else had even thought
981 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anything about the need of covering for my head. But, of course, when
982 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I saw how all the other boys were dressed, I began to feel quite
983 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu uncomfortable. As usual, I put the case before my mother, and she
984 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu explained to me that she had no money with which to buy a "store hat,"
985 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which was a rather new institution at that time among the members of my
986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race and was considered quite the thing for young and old to own,
987 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but that she would find a way to help me out of the difficulty.
988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu She accordingly got two pieces of "homespun" (jeans) and sewed them
989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu together, and I was soon the proud possessor of my first cap.
991 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The lesson that my mother taught me in this has always remained with me,
992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and I have tried as best as I could to teach it to others. I have
993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu always felt proud, whenever I think of the incident, that my mother
994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had strength of character enough not to be led into the temptation
995 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of seeming to be that which she was not--of trying to impress my
996 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu schoolmates and others with the fact that she was able to buy me a
997 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "store hat" when she was not. I have always felt proud that she refused
998 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to go into debt for that which she did not have the money to pay for.
999 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Since that time I have owned many kinds of caps and hats, but never one
1000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of which I have felt so proud as of the cap made of the two pieces of
1001 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cloth sewed together by my mother. I have noted the fact, but without
1002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfaction, I need not add, that several of the boys who began their
1003 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu careers with "store hats" and who were my schoolmates and used to join
1004 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the sport that was made of me because I had only a "homespun" cap,
1005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have ended their careers in the penitentiary, while others are not able
1006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu now to buy any kind of hat.
1008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My second difficulty was with regard to my name, or rather A name.
1009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the time when I could remember anything, I had been called simply
1010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Booker." Before going to school it had never occurred to me that it
1011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was needful or appropriate to have an additional name. When I heard the
1012 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school-roll called, I noticed that all of the children had at least two
1013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu names, and some of them indulged in what seemed to me the extravagance
1014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of having three. I was in deep perplexity, because I knew that the
1015 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teacher would demand of me at least two names, and I had only one.
1016 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu By the time the occasion came for the enrolling of my name, an idea
1017 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occurred to me which I thought would make me equal to the situation; and
1018 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so, when the teacher asked me what my full name was, I calmly told him
1019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Booker Washington," as if I had been called by that name all my life;
1020 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and by that name I have since been known. Later in my life I found that
1021 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my mother had given me the name of "Booker Taliaferro" soon after I was
1022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu born, but in some way that part of my name seemed to disappear and for a
1023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu long while was forgotten, but as soon as I found out about it I revived
1024 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it, and made my full name "Booker Taliaferro Washington." I think there
1025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are not many men in our country who have had the privilege of naming
1026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu themselves in the way that I have.
1028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu More than once I have tried to picture myself in the position of a boy
1029 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or man with an honoured and distinguished ancestry which I could
1030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trace back through a period of hundreds of years, and who had not only
1031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inherited a name, but fortune and a proud family homestead; and yet I
1032 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited these, and had
1033 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to
1034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my colour to
1035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu do that for me which I should do for myself. Years ago I resolved that
1036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my
1037 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher
1040 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The world should not pass judgment upon the Negro, and especially the
1041 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro youth, too quickly or too harshly. The Negro boy has obstacles,
1042 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to
1043 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those not situated as he is. When a white boy undertakes a task, it is
1044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taken for granted that he will succeed. On the other hand, people are
1045 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usually surprised if the Negro boy does not fail. In a word, the Negro
1046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu youth starts out with the presumption against him.
1048 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The influence of ancestry, however, is important in helping forward any
1049 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual or race, if too much reliance is not placed upon it. Those
1050 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who constantly direct attention to the Negro youth's moral weaknesses,
1051 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and compare his advancement with that of white youths, do not consider
1052 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the influence of the memories which cling about the old family
1053 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu homesteads. I have no idea, as I have stated elsewhere, who my
1054 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu grandmother was. I have, or have had, uncles and aunts and cousins,
1055 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but I have no knowledge as to where most of them are. My case will
1056 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu illustrate that of hundreds of thousands of black people in every part
1057 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of our country. The very fact that the white boy is conscious that, if
1058 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he fails in life, he will disgrace the whole family record, extending
1059 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu back through many generations, is of tremendous value in helping him
1060 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to resist temptations. The fact that the individual has behind and
1061 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surrounding him proud family history and connection serves as a stimulus
1062 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to help him to overcome obstacles when striving for success.
1064 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The time that I was permitted to attend school during the day was short,
1065 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and my attendance was irregular. It was not long before I had to stop
1066 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attending day-school altogether, and devote all of my time again to
1067 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work. I resorted to the night-school again. In fact, the greater part
1068 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the education I secured in my boyhood was gathered through the
1069 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night-school after my day's work was done. I had difficulty often in
1070 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu securing a satisfactory teacher. Sometimes, after I had secured some one
1071 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to teach me at night, I would find, much to my disappointment, that
1072 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the teacher knew but little more than I did. Often I would have to walk
1073 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several miles at night in order to recite my night-school lessons. There
1074 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the
1075 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me, and
1076 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that was a determination to secure an education at any cost.
1078 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after we moved to West Virginia, my mother adopted into our family,
1079 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu notwithstanding our poverty, an orphan boy, to whom afterward we gave
1080 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the name of James B. Washington. He has ever since remained a member of
1081 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the family.
1083 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After I had worked in the salt-furnace for some time, work was secured
1084 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for me in a coal-mine which was operated mainly for the purpose of
1085 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu securing fuel for the salt-furnace. Work in the coal-mine I always
1086 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dreaded. One reason for this was that any one who worked in a coal-mine
1087 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was always unclean, at least while at work, and it was a very hard job
1088 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get one's skin clean after the day's work was over. Then it was fully
1089 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a mile from the opening of the coal-mine to the face of the coal, and
1090 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all, of course, was in the blackest darkness. I do not believe that one
1091 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever experiences anywhere else such darkness as he does in a coal-mine.
1092 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The mine was divided into a large number of different "rooms" or
1093 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu departments, and, as I never was able to learn the location of all
1094 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these "rooms," I many times found myself lost in the mine. To add to the
1095 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu horror of being lost, sometimes my light would go out, and then, if I
1096 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did not happen to have a match, I would wander about in the darkness
1097 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu until by chance I found some one to give me a light. The work was not
1098 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu only hard, but it was dangerous. There was always the danger of being
1099 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu blown to pieces by a premature explosion of powder, or of being crushed
1100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by falling slate. Accidents from one or the other of these causes were
1101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu frequently occurring, and this kept me in constant fear. Many children
1102 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the tenderest years were compelled then, as is now true I fear, in
1103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most coal-mining districts, to spend a large part of their lives in
1104 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these coal-mines, with little opportunity to get an education; and, what
1105 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is worse, I have often noted that, as a rule, young boys who begin life
1106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in a coal-mine are often physically and mentally dwarfed. They soon lose
1107 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ambition to do anything else than to continue as a coal-miner.
1109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In those days, and later as a young man, I used to try to picture in my
1110 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu imagination the feelings and ambitions of a white boy with absolutely
1111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu no limit placed upon his aspirations and activities. I used to envy
1112 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the white boy who had no obstacles placed in the way of his becoming a
1113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Congressman, Governor, Bishop, or President by reason of the accident of
1114 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his birth or race. I used to picture the way that I would act under such
1115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu circumstances; how I would begin at the bottom and keep rising until I
1116 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reached the highest round of success.
1118 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In later years, I confess that I do not envy the white boy as I once
1119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did. I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the
1120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has
1121 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I
1122 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and
1123 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu connection with an unpopular race is an advantage, so far as real life
1124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is concerned. With few exceptions, the Negro youth must work harder and
1125 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu must perform his tasks even better than a white youth in order to secure
1126 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recognition. But out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he
1127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses
1128 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.
1130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From any point of view, I had rather be what I am, a member of the Negro
1131 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race, than be able to claim membership with the most favoured of any
1132 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other race. I have always been made sad when I have heard members of any
1133 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race claiming rights or privileges, or certain badges of distinction,
1134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on the ground simply that they were members of this or that race,
1135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regardless of their own individual worth or attainments. I have been
1136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made to feel sad for such persons because I am conscious of the fact
1137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not
1138 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permanently carry an individual forward unless he has individual worth,
1139 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and mere connection with what is regarded as an inferior race will not
1140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu finally hold an individual back if he possesses intrinsic, individual
1141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu merit. Every persecuted individual and race should get much consolation
1142 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out of the great human law, which is universal and eternal, that merit,
1143 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu no matter under what skin found, is, in the long run, recognized and
1144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rewarded. This I have said here, not to call attention to myself as an
1145 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual, but to the race to which I am proud to belong.
1149 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter III. The Struggle For An Education
1151 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One day, while at work in the coal-mine, I happened to overhear two
1152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu miners talking about a great school for coloured people somewhere in
1153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Virginia. This was the first time that I had ever heard anything about
1154 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any kind of school or college that was more pretentious than the little
1155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured school in our town.
1157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the darkness of the mine I noiselessly crept as close as I could to
1158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the two men who were talking. I heard one tell the other that not
1159 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu only was the school established for the members of any race, but the
1160 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunities that it provided by which poor but worthy students could
1161 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work out all or a part of the cost of a board, and at the same time be
1162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taught some trade or industry.
1164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it must
1165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be the greatest place on earth, and not even Heaven presented more
1166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attractions for me at that time than did the Hampton Normal and
1167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Agricultural Institute in Virginia, about which these men were talking.
1168 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I resolved at once to go to that school, although I had no idea where
1169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it was, or how many miles away, or how I was going to reach it; I
1170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remembered only that I was on fire constantly with one ambition, and
1171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with me day and night.
1173 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After hearing of the Hampton Institute, I continued to work for a few
1174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu months longer in the coal-mine. While at work there, I heard of a vacant
1175 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the
1176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu salt-furnace and coal-mine. Mrs. Viola Ruffner, the wife of General
1177 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont. Mrs. Ruffner had a
1178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reputation all through the vicinity for being very strict with her
1179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu servants, and especially with the boys who tried to serve her. Few of
1180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them remained with her more than two or three weeks. They all left with
1181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the same excuse: she was too strict. I decided, however, that I would
1182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rather try Mrs. Ruffner's house than remain in the coal-mine, and so my
1183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mother applied to her for the vacant position. I was hired at a salary
1184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of $5 per month.
1186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had heard so much about Mrs. Ruffner's severity that I was almost
1187 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afraid to see her, and trembled when I went into her presence. I had not
1188 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lived with her many weeks, however, before I began to understand her. I
1189 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu soon began to learn that, first of all, she wanted everything kept clean
1190 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about her, that she wanted things done promptly and systematically,
1191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that at the bottom of everything she wanted absolute honesty and
1192 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu frankness. Nothing must be sloven or slipshod; every door, every fence,
1193 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu must be kept in repair.
1195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I cannot now recall how long I lived with Mrs. Ruffner before going to
1196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton, but I think it must have been a year and a half. At any rate,
1197 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I here repeat what I have said more than once before, that the lessons
1198 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any
1199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education I have ever gotten anywhere else. Even to this day I never see
1200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bits of paper scattered around a house or in the street that I do not
1201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu want to pick them up at once. I never see a filthy yard that I do not
1202 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that I do not want to put it
1203 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that I do not want to paint or
1204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whitewash it, or a button off one's clothes, or a grease-spot on them or
1205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on a floor, that I do not want to call attention to it.
1207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From fearing Mrs. Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one of
1208 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my best friends. When she found that she could trust me she did so
1209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu implicitly. During the one or two winters that I was with her she
1210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour in the day during a
1211 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu portion of the winter months, but most of my studying was done at night,
1212 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sometimes alone, sometimes under some one whom I could hire to teach me.
1213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts
1214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get an education. It was while living with her that I began to get
1215 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu together my first library. I secured a dry-goods box, knocked out one
1216 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu side of it, put some shelves in it, and began putting into it every kind
1217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of book that I could get my hands upon, and called it my "library."
1219 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Notwithstanding my success at Mrs. Ruffner's I did not give up the idea
1220 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of going to the Hampton Institute. In the fall of 1872 I determined
1221 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to make an effort to get there, although, as I have stated, I had no
1222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu definite idea of the direction in which Hampton was, or of what it would
1223 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cost to go there. I do not think that any one thoroughly sympathized
1224 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with me in my ambition to go to Hampton unless it was my mother, and she
1225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was troubled with a grave fear that I was starting out on a "wild-goose
1226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chase." At any rate, I got only a half-hearted consent from her that
1227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I might start. The small amount of money that I had earned had been
1228 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consumed by my stepfather and the remainder of the family, with the
1229 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exception of a very few dollars, and so I had very little with which to
1230 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu buy clothes and pay my travelling expenses. My brother John helped me
1231 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all that he could, but of course that was not a great deal, for his work
1232 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was in the coal-mine, where he did not earn much, and most of what he
1233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did earn went in the direction of paying the household expenses.
1235 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Perhaps the thing that touched and pleased me most in connection with
1236 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my starting for Hampton was the interest that many of the older coloured
1237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people took in the matter. They had spent the best days of their lives
1238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in slavery, and hardly expected to live to see the time when they would
1239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu see a member of their race leave home to attend a boarding-school. Some
1240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of these older people would give me a nickel, others a quarter, or a
1241 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu handkerchief.
1243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Finally the great day came, and I started for Hampton. I had only a
1244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu small, cheap satchel that contained a few articles of clothing I could
1245 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu get. My mother at the time was rather weak and broken in health. I
1246 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hardly expected to see her again, and thus our parting was all the more
1247 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sad. She, however, was very brave through it all. At that time there
1248 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were no through trains connecting that part of West Virginia with
1249 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eastern Virginia. Trains ran only a portion of the way, and the
1250 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remainder of the distance was travelled by stage-coaches.
1252 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. I had
1253 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not been away from home many hours before it began to grow painfully
1254 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu evident that I did not have enough money to pay my fare to Hampton.
1255 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One experience I shall long remember. I had been travelling over the
1256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mountains most of the afternoon in an old-fashion stage-coach, when,
1257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu late in the evening, the coach stopped for the night at a common,
1258 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unpainted house called a hotel. All the other passengers except myself
1259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were whites. In my ignorance I supposed that the little hotel existed
1260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the purpose of accommodating the passengers who travelled on the
1261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stage-coach. The difference that the colour of one's skin would make I
1262 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had not thought anything about. After all the other passengers had been
1263 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shown rooms and were getting ready for supper, I shyly presented myself
1264 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before the man at the desk. It is true I had practically no money in my
1265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pocket with which to pay for bed or food, but I had hoped in some way to
1266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu beg my way into the good graces of the landlord, for at that season
1267 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the mountains of Virginia the weather was cold, and I wanted to get
1268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu indoors for the night. Without asking as to whether I had any money, the
1269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man at the desk firmly refused to even consider the matter of providing
1270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me with food or lodging. This was my first experience in finding out
1271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what the colour of my skin meant. In some way I managed to keep warm by
1272 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu walking about, and so got through the night. My whole soul was so bent
1273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon reaching Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness
1274 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu toward the hotel-keeper.
1276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way,
1277 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about
1278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and
1279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city,
1280 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and this rather added to my misery. When I reached Richmond, I was
1281 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu completely out of money. I had not a single acquaintance in the place,
1282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and, being unused to city ways, I did not know where to go. I applied at
1283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several places for lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what
1284 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I did not have. Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets.
1285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In doing this I passed by many food-stands where fried chicken and
1286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu half-moon apple pies were piled high and made to present a most tempting
1287 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu appearance. At that time it seemed to me that I would have promised all
1288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I expected to possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of
1289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those chicken legs or one of those pies. But I could not get either of
1290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these, nor anything else to eat.
1292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I became so
1293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exhausted that I could walk no longer. I was tired, I was hungry, I was
1294 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu everything but discouraged. Just about the time when I reached extreme
1295 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion of a street where the board
1296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited for a few minutes, till
1297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was sure that no passers-by could see me, and then crept under the
1298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sidewalk and lay for the night upon the ground, with my satchel of
1299 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clothing for a pillow. Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet
1300 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over my head. The next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but
1301 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was extremely hungry, because it had been a long time since I had
1302 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had sufficient food. As soon as it became light enough for me to see my
1303 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surroundings I noticed that I was near a large ship, and that this ship
1304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig iron. I went at once to the vessel
1305 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and asked the captain to permit me to help unload the vessel in order
1306 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get money for food. The captain, a white man, who seemed to be
1307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kind-hearted, consented. I worked long enough to earn money for my
1308 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu breakfast, and it seems to me, as I remember it now, to have been about
1309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the best breakfast that I have ever eaten.
1311 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My work pleased the captain so well that he told me if I desired I could
1312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu continue working for a small amount per day. This I was very glad to do.
1313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I continued working on this vessel for a number of days. After buying
1314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu food with the small wages I received there was not much left to add on
1315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the amount I must get to pay my way to Hampton. In order to economize
1316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in every way possible, so as to be sure to reach Hampton in a reasonable
1317 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time, I continued to sleep under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter
1318 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the first night I was in Richmond. Many years after that the coloured
1319 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu citizens of Richmond very kindly tendered me a reception at which there
1320 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu must have been two thousand people present. This reception was held not
1321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far from the spot where I slept the first night I spent in the city, and
1322 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I must confess that my mind was more upon the sidewalk that first gave
1323 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me shelter than upon the recognition, agreeable and cordial as it was.
1325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When I had saved what I considered enough money with which to reach
1326 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton, I thanked the captain of the vessel for his kindness, and
1327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu started again. Without any unusual occurrence I reached Hampton, with a
1328 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to begin my education. To me
1329 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it had been a long, eventful journey; but the first sight of the large,
1330 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three-story, brick school building seemed to have rewarded me for all
1331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I had undergone in order to reach the place. If the people who gave
1332 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the money to provide that building could appreciate the influence the
1333 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sight of it had upon me, as well as upon thousands of other youths, they
1334 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would feel all the more encouraged to make such gifts. It seemed to me
1335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to be the largest and most beautiful building I had ever seen. The sight
1336 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of it seemed to give me new life. I felt that a new kind of existence
1337 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had now begun--that life would now have a new meaning. I felt that I had
1338 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reached the promised land, and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me
1339 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the
1340 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most good in the world.
1342 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute,
1343 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I presented myself before the head teacher for an assignment to a
1344 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and a change of
1345 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clothing, I did not, of course, make a very favourable impression upon
1346 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about
1347 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the wisdom of admitting me as a student. I felt that I could hardly
1348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu blame her if she got the idea that I was a worthless loafer or tramp.
1349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu For some time she did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in
1350 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my favour, and I continued to linger about her, and to impress her
1351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in all the ways I could with my worthiness. In the meantime I saw her
1352 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort, for I
1353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as well as they, if I could
1354 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu only get a chance to show what was in me.
1356 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The adjoining
1357 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it."
1359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive
1360 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs. Ruffner
1361 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her.
1363 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a dusting-cloth and
1364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dusted it four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench,
1365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu table, and desk, I went over four times with my dusting-cloth. Besides,
1366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every piece of furniture had been moved and every closet and corner in
1367 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had the feeling that in a large
1368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu measure my future depended upon the impression I made upon the teacher
1369 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head
1370 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teacher. She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for dirt.
1371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she
1372 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and
1373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over the table and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt
1374 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly
1375 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remarked, "I guess you will do to enter this institution."
1377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was one of the happiest souls on Earth. The sweeping of that room was
1378 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for
1379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction. I
1380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt that
1381 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this was the best one I ever passed.
1383 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton Institute.
1384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Perhaps few, if any, had anything like the same experience that I had,
1385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but about the same period there were hundreds who found their way to
1386 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton and other institutions after experiencing something of the
1387 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu same difficulties that I went through. The young men and women were
1388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu determined to secure an education at any cost.
1390 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The sweeping of the recitation-room in the manner that I did it seems to
1391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have paved the way for me to get through Hampton. Miss Mary F. Mackie,
1392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the head teacher, offered me a position as janitor. This, of course, I
1393 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gladly accepted, because it was a place where I could work out nearly
1394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all the cost of my board. The work was hard and taxing but I stuck to
1395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it. I had a large number of rooms to care for, and had to work late into
1396 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the night, while at the same time I had to rise by four o'clock in the
1397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu morning, in order to build the fires and have a little time in which to
1398 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prepare my lessons. In all my career at Hampton, and ever since I have
1399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been out in the world, Miss Mary F. Mackie, the head teacher to whom I
1400 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have referred, proved one of my strongest and most helpful friends. Her
1401 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu advice and encouragement were always helpful in strengthening to me in
1402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the darkest hour.
1404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have spoken of the impression that was made upon me by the buildings
1405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and general appearance of the Hampton Institute, but I have not spoken
1406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of that which made the greatest and most lasting impression on me, and
1407 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that was a great man--the noblest, rarest human being that it has
1408 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever been my privilege to meet. I refer to the late General Samuel C.
1409 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong.
1411 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It has been my fortune to meet personally many of what are called great
1412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu characters, both in Europe and America, but I do not hesitate to say
1413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I never met any man who, in my estimation, was the equal of General
1414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong. Fresh from the degrading influences of the slave plantation
1415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the coal-mines, it was a rare privilege for me to be permitted to
1416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu come into direct contact with such a character as General Armstrong. I
1417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shall always remember that the first time I went into his presence he
1418 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made the impression upon me of being a perfect man: I was made to
1419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feel that there was something about him that was superhuman. It was my
1420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu privilege to know the General personally from the time I entered Hampton
1421 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu till he died, and the more I saw of him the greater he grew in my
1422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu estimation. One might have removed from Hampton all the buildings,
1423 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu class-rooms, teachers, and industries, and given the men and women there
1424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the opportunity of coming into daily contact with General Armstrong, and
1425 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that alone would have been a liberal education. The older I grow, the
1426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from
1427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten
1428 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from contact with great men and women. Instead of studying books so
1429 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constantly, how I wish that our schools and colleges might learn to
1430 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu study men and things!
1432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General Armstrong spent two of the last six months of his life in my
1433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu home at Tuskegee. At that time he was paralyzed to the extent that
1434 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he had lost control of his body and voice in a very large degree.
1435 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Notwithstanding his affliction, he worked almost constantly night and
1436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day for the cause to which he had given his life. I never saw a man
1437 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who so completely lost sight of himself. I do not believe he ever had
1438 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a selfish thought. He was just as happy in trying to assist some other
1439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu institution in the South as he was when working for Hampton. Although he
1440 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fought the Southern white man in the Civil War, I never heard him
1441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu utter a bitter word against him afterward. On the other hand, he was
1442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constantly seeking to find ways by which he could be of service to the
1443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern whites.
1445 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It would be difficult to describe the hold that he had upon the students
1446 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Hampton, or the faith they had in him. In fact, he was worshipped by
1447 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his students. It never occurred to me that General Armstrong could fail
1448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in anything that he undertook. There is almost no request that he could
1449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have made that would not have been complied with. When he was a guest at
1450 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my home in Alabama, and was so badly paralyzed that he had to be wheeled
1451 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about in an invalid's chair, I recall that one of the General's former
1452 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students had occasion to push his chair up a long, steep hill that taxed
1453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his strength to the utmost. When the top of the hill was reached, the
1454 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu former pupil, with a glow of happiness on his face, exclaimed, "I am so
1455 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu glad that I have been permitted to do something that was real hard
1456 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the General before he dies!" While I was a student at Hampton, the
1457 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dormitories became so crowded that it was impossible to find room for
1458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all who wanted to be admitted. In order to help remedy the difficulty,
1459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the General conceived the plan of putting up tents to be used as rooms.
1460 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As soon as it became known that General Armstrong would be pleased if
1461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some of the older students would live in the tents during the winter,
1462 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nearly every student in school volunteered to go.
1464 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was one of the volunteers. The winter that we spent in those tents
1465 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was an intensely cold one, and we suffered severely--how much I am sure
1466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General Armstrong never knew, because we made no complaints. It was
1467 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enough for us to know that we were pleasing General Armstrong, and
1468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that we were making it possible for an additional number of students to
1469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secure an education. More than once, during a cold night, when a stiff
1470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gale would be blowing, our tent was lifted bodily, and we would find
1471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ourselves in the open air. The General would usually pay a visit to the
1472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tents early in the morning, and his earnest, cheerful, encouraging voice
1473 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would dispel any feeling of despondency.
1475 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have spoken of my admiration for General Armstrong, and yet he was but
1476 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a type of that Christlike body of men and women who went into the Negro
1477 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu schools at the close of the war by the hundreds to assist in lifting
1478 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu up my race. The history of the world fails to show a higher, purer, and
1479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more unselfish class of men and women than those who found their way
1480 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu into those Negro schools.
1482 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Life at Hampton was a constant revelation to me; was constantly taking
1483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me into a new world. The matter of having meals at regular hours, of
1484 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eating on a tablecloth, using a napkin, the use of the bath-tub and of
1485 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the tooth-brush, as well as the use of sheets upon the bed, were all new
1488 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I sometimes feel that almost the most valuable lesson I got at the
1489 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton Institute was in the use and value of the bath. I learned there
1490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the first time some of its value, not only in keeping the body
1491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu healthy, but in inspiring self-respect and promoting virtue. In all my
1492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu travels in the South and elsewhere since leaving Hampton I have always
1493 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in some way sought my daily bath. To get it sometimes when I have been
1494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the guest of my own people in a single-roomed cabin has not always been
1495 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu easy to do, except by slipping away to some stream in the woods. I have
1496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu always tried to teach my people that some provision for bathing should
1497 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be a part of every house.
1499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu For some time, while a student at Hampton, I possessed but a single pair
1500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of socks, but when I had worn these till they became soiled, I would
1501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wash them at night and hang them by the fire to dry, so that I might
1502 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wear them again the next morning.
1504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The charge for my board at Hampton was ten dollars per month. I was
1505 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expected to pay a part of this in cash and to work out the remainder. To
1506 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meet this cash payment, as I have stated, I had just fifty cents when I
1507 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reached the institution. Aside from a very few dollars that my brother
1508 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu John was able to send me once in a while, I had no money with which to
1509 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pay my board. I was determined from the first to make my work as janitor
1510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so valuable that my services would be indispensable. This I succeeded in
1511 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu doing to such an extent that I was soon informed that I would be allowed
1512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the full cost of my board in return for my work. The cost of tuition was
1513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seventy dollars a year. This, of course, was wholly beyond my ability to
1514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provide. If I had been compelled to pay the seventy dollars for tuition,
1515 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in addition to providing for my board, I would have been compelled to
1516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu leave the Hampton school. General Armstrong, however, very kindly got
1517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. S. Griffitts Morgan, of New Bedford, Mass., to defray the cost of
1518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my tuition during the whole time that I was at Hampton. After I finished
1519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the course at Hampton and had entered upon my lifework at Tuskegee, I
1520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Morgan several times.
1522 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After having been for a while at Hampton, I found myself in difficulty
1523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because I did not have books and clothing. Usually, however, I got
1524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu around the trouble about books by borrowing from those who were more
1525 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fortunate than myself. As to clothes, when I reached Hampton I had
1526 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu practically nothing. Everything that I possessed was in a small hand
1527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satchel. My anxiety about clothing was increased because of the fact
1528 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that General Armstrong made a personal inspection of the young men in
1529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ranks, to see that their clothes were clean. Shoes had to be polished,
1530 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there must be no buttons off the clothing, and no grease-spots. To wear
1531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one suit of clothes continually, while at work and in the schoolroom,
1532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and at the same time keep it clean, was rather a hard problem for me to
1533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu solve. In some way I managed to get on till the teachers learned that
1534 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was in earnest and meant to succeed, and then some of them were kind
1535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enough to see that I was partly supplied with second-hand clothing that
1536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had been sent in barrels from the North. These barrels proved a blessing
1537 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to hundreds of poor but deserving students. Without them I question
1538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whether I should ever have gotten through Hampton.
1540 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When I first went to Hampton I do not recall that I had ever slept in
1541 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a bed that had two sheets on it. In those days there were not many
1542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu buildings there, and room was very precious. There were seven other boys
1543 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the same room with me; most of them, however, students who had been
1544 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there for some time. The sheets were quite a puzzle to me. The first
1545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night I slept under both of them, and the second night I slept on top
1546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of them; but by watching the other boys I learned my lesson in this, and
1547 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have been trying to follow it ever since and to teach it to others.
1549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was among the youngest of the students who were in Hampton at the
1550 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time. Most of the students were men and women--some as old as forty
1551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years of age. As I now recall the scene of my first year, I do not
1552 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu believe that one often has the opportunity of coming into contact with
1553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three or four hundred men and women who were so tremendously in earnest
1554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as these men and women were. Every hour was occupied in study or work.
1555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nearly all had had enough actual contact with the world to teach them
1556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the need of education. Many of the older ones were, of course, too old
1557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to master the text-books very thoroughly, and it was often sad to watch
1558 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their struggles; but they made up in earnest much of what they lacked
1559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in books. Many of them were as poor as I was, and, besides having to
1560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wrestle with their books, they had to struggle with a poverty which
1561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prevented their having the necessities of life. Many of them had aged
1562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu parents who were dependent upon them, and some of them were men who had
1563 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wives whose support in some way they had to provide for.
1565 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of every
1566 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his home. No one
1567 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to think of himself. And the officers and teachers, what a rare
1568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu set of human beings they were! They worked for the students night and
1569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day, in seasons and out of season. They seemed happy only when they were
1570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu helping the students in some manner. Whenever it is written--and I hope
1571 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it will be--the part that the Yankee teachers played in the education
1572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the Negroes immediately after the war will make one of the most
1573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thrilling parts of the history off this country. The time is not far
1574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distant when the whole South will appreciate this service in a way that
1575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it has not yet been able to do.
1579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter IV. Helping Others
1581 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the end of my first year at Hampton I was confronted with another
1582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu difficulty. Most of the students went home to spend their vacation. I
1583 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had no money with which to go home, but I had to go somewhere. In those
1584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu days very few students were permitted to remain at the school during
1585 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vacation. It made me feel very sad and homesick to see the other
1586 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students preparing to leave and starting for home. I not only had no
1587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money with which to go home, but I had none with which to go anywhere.
1589 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In some way, however, I had gotten hold of an extra, second-hand coat
1590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I thought was a pretty valuable coat. This I decided to sell, in
1591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu order to get a little money for travelling expenses. I had a good deal
1592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of boyish pride, and I tried to hide, as far as I could, from the other
1593 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students the fact that I had no money and nowhere to go. I made it known
1594 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to a few people in the town of Hampton that I had this coat to sell,
1595 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and, after a good deal of persuading, one coloured man promised to come
1596 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to my room to look the coat over and consider the matter of buying it.
1597 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This cheered my drooping spirits considerably. Early the next morning my
1598 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prospective customer appeared. After looking the garment over carefully,
1599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he asked me how much I wanted for it. I told him I thought it was worth
1600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three dollars. He seemed to agree with me as to price, but remarked in
1601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most matter-of-fact way: "I tell you what I will do; I will take the
1602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coat, and will pay you five cents, cash down, and pay you the rest of
1603 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the money just as soon as I can get it." It is not hard to imagine what
1604 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my feelings were at the time.
1606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu With this disappointment I gave up all hope of getting out of the town
1607 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Hampton for my vacation work. I wanted very much to go where I
1608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu might secure work that would at least pay me enough to purchase some
1609 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu much-needed clothing and other necessities. In a few days practically
1610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all the students and teachers had left for their homes, and this served
1611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to depress my spirits even more.
1613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After trying for several days in and near the town of Hampton, I finally
1614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secured work in a restaurant at Fortress Monroe. The wages, however,
1615 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were very little more than my board. At night, and between meals, I
1616 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found considerable time for study and reading; and in this direction I
1617 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu improved myself very much during the summer.
1619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When I left school at the end of my first year, I owed the institution
1620 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sixteen dollars that I had not been able to work out. It was my greatest
1621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ambition during the summer to save money enough with which to pay this
1622 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu debt. I felt that this was a debt of honour, and that I could hardly
1623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bring myself to the point of even trying to enter school again till it
1624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was paid. I economized in every way that I could think of--did my own
1625 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu washing, and went without necessary garments--but still I found my
1626 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu summer vacation ending and I did not have the sixteen dollars.
1628 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One day, during the last week of my stay in the restaurant, I found
1629 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu under one of the tables a crisp, new ten-dollar bill. I could hardly
1630 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contain myself, I was so happy. As it was not my place of business I
1631 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu felt it to be the proper thing to show the money to the proprietor. This
1632 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I did. He seemed as glad as I was, but he coolly explained to me that,
1633 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as it was his place of business, he had a right to keep the money, and
1634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he proceeded to do so. This, I confess, was another pretty hard blow
1635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to me. I will not say that I became discouraged, for as I now look
1636 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu back over my life I do not recall that I ever became discouraged over
1637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anything that I set out to accomplish. I have begun everything with
1638 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the
1639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot
1640 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu succeed. I determined to face the situation just as it was. At the end
1641 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the week I went to the treasurer of the Hampton Institute, General
1642 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu J.F.B. Marshall, and told him frankly my condition. To my gratification
1643 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he told me that I could reenter the institution, and that he would trust
1644 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me to pay the debt when I could. During the second year I continued to
1645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work as a janitor.
1647 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The education that I received at Hampton out of the text-books was but
1648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a small part of what I learned there. One of the things that impressed
1649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu itself upon me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the
1650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers. It was hard for me to understand how any individuals could
1651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bring themselves to the point where they could be so happy in working
1652 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for others. Before the end of the year, I think I began learning that
1653 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those who are happiest are those who do the most for others. This lesson
1654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have tried to carry with me ever since.
1656 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I also learned a valuable lesson at Hampton by coming into contact with
1657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the best breeds of live stock and fowls. No student, I think, who
1658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu has had the opportunity of doing this could go out into the world and
1659 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu content himself with the poorest grades.
1661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Perhaps the most valuable thing that I got out of my second year was an
1662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu understanding of the use and value of the Bible. Miss Nathalie Lord, one
1663 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the teachers, from Portland, Me., taught me how to use and love the
1664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Bible. Before this I had never cared a great deal about it, but now I
1665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learned to love to read the Bible, not only for the spiritual help which
1666 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it gives, but on account of it as literature. The lessons taught me in
1667 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this respect took such a hold upon me that at the present time, when I
1668 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu am at home, no matter how busy I am, I always make it a rule to read a
1669 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chapter or a portion of a chapter in the morning, before beginning the
1670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work of the day.
1672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Whatever ability I may have as a public speaker I owe in a measure
1673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to Miss Lord. When she found out that I had some inclination in this
1674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu direction, she gave me private lessons in the matter of breathing,
1675 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu emphasis, and articulation. Simply to be able to talk in public for the
1676 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sake of talking has never had the least attraction to me. In fact,
1677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I consider that there is nothing so empty and unsatisfactory as mere
1678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu abstract public speaking; but from my early childhood I have had a
1679 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu desire to do something to make the world better, and then to be able to
1680 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speak to the world about that thing.
1682 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The debating societies at Hampton were a constant source of delight to
1683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me. These were held on Saturday evening; and during my whole life at
1684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton I do not recall that I missed a single meeting. I not only
1685 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attended the weekly debating society, but was instrumental in organizing
1686 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an additional society. I noticed that between the time when supper was
1687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over and the time to begin evening study there were about twenty minutes
1688 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which the young men usually spent in idle gossip. About twenty of us
1689 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu formed a society for the purpose of utilizing this time in debate or in
1690 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu practice in public speaking. Few persons ever derived more happiness or
1691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu benefit from the use of twenty minutes of time than we did in this way.
1693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the end of my second year at Hampton, by the help of some money sent
1694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me by my mother and brother John, supplemented by a small gift from
1695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of the teachers at Hampton, I was enabled to return to my home in
1696 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Malden, West Virginia, to spend my vacation. When I reached home I found
1697 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the salt-furnaces were not running, and that the coal-mine was not
1698 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being operated on account of the miners being out on "strike." This was
1699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something which, it seemed, usually occurred whenever the men got two or
1700 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three months ahead in their savings. During the strike, of course, they
1701 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spent all that they had saved, and would often return to work in debt at
1702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the same wages, or would move to another mine at considerable expense.
1703 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In either case, my observations convinced me that the miners were worse
1704 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu off at the end of the strike. Before the days of strikes in that section
1705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the country, I knew miners who had considerable money in the bank,
1706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but as soon as the professional labour agitators got control, the
1707 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu savings of even the more thrifty ones began disappearing.
1709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My mother and the other members of my family were, of course, much
1710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rejoiced to see me and to note the improvement that I had made during
1711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my two years' absence. The rejoicing on the part of all classes of the
1712 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people, and especially the older ones, over my return, was
1713 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu almost pathetic. I had to pay a visit to each family and take a meal
1714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with each, and at each place tell the story of my experiences at
1715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton. In addition to this I had to speak before the church and
1716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Sunday-school, and at various other places. The thing that I was most in
1717 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu search of, though, work, I could not find. There was no work on account
1718 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the strike. I spent nearly the whole of the first month of my
1719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vacation in an effort to find something to do by which I could earn
1720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money to pay my way back to Hampton and save a little money to use after
1721 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reaching there.
1723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Toward the end of the first month, I went to a place a considerable
1724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distance from my home, to try to find employment. I did not succeed, and
1725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it was night before I got started on my return. When I had gotten within
1726 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a mile or so of my home I was so completely tired out that I could not
1727 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu walk any farther, and I went into an old, abandoned house to spend the
1728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remainder of the night. About three o'clock in the morning my brother
1729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu John found me asleep in this house, and broke to me, as gently as he
1730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could, the sad news that our dear mother had died during the night.
1732 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This seemed to me the saddest and blankest moment in my life. For
1733 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several years my mother had not been in good health, but I had no idea,
1734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when I parted from her the previous day, that I should never see her
1735 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu alive again. Besides that, I had always had an intense desire to be with
1736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu her when she did pass away. One of the chief ambitions which spurred
1737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me on at Hampton was that I might be able to get to be in a position in
1738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I could better make my mother comfortable and happy. She had so
1739 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu often expressed the wish that she might be permitted to live to see her
1740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu children educated and started out in the world.
1742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In a very short time after the death of my mother our little home was
1743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in confusion. My sister Amanda, although she tried to do the best
1744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu she could, was too young to know anything about keeping house, and my
1745 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stepfather was not able to hire a housekeeper. Sometimes we had food
1746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cooked for us, and sometimes we did not. I remember that more than once
1747 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a can of tomatoes and some crackers constituted a meal. Our clothing
1748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu went uncared for, and everything about our home was soon in a
1749 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tumble-down condition. It seems to me that this was the most dismal
1750 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu period of my life.
1752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My good friend, Mrs. Ruffner, to whom I have already referred, always
1753 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made me welcome at her home, and assisted me in many ways during this
1754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trying period. Before the end of the vacation she gave me some work, and
1755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this, together with work in a coal-mine at some distance from my home,
1756 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enabled me to earn a little money.
1758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At one time it looked as if I would have to give up the idea of
1759 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu returning to Hampton, but my heart was so set on returning that I
1760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu determined not to give up going back without a struggle. I was very
1761 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anxious to secure some clothes for the winter, but in this I was
1762 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu disappointed, except for a few garments which my brother John secured
1763 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for me. Notwithstanding my need of money and clothing, I was very
1764 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu happy in the fact that I had secured enough money to pay my travelling
1765 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expenses back to Hampton. Once there, I knew that I could make myself
1766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so useful as a janitor that I could in some way get through the school
1769 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Three weeks before the time for the opening of the term at Hampton, I
1770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from my good friend Miss
1771 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mary F. Mackie, the lady principal, asking me to return to Hampton two
1772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu weeks before the opening of the school, in order that I might assist her
1773 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in cleaning the buildings and getting things in order for the new school
1774 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu year. This was just the opportunity I wanted. It gave me a chance to
1775 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secure a credit in the treasurer's office. I started for Hampton at
1778 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During these two weeks I was taught a lesson which I shall never forget.
1779 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Miss Mackie was a member of one of the oldest and most cultured families
1780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the North, and yet for two weeks she worked by my side cleaning
1781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu windows, dusting rooms, putting beds in order, and what not. She felt
1782 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that things would not be in condition for the opening of school unless
1783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every window-pane was perfectly clean, and she took the greatest
1784 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfaction in helping to clean them herself. The work which I have
1785 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu described she did every year that I was at Hampton.
1787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was hard for me at this time to understand how a woman of her
1788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education and social standing could take such delight in performing such
1789 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu service, in order to assist in the elevation of an unfortunate race.
1790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ever since then I have had no patience with any school for my race in
1791 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the South which did not teach its students the dignity of labour.
1793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During my last year at Hampton every minute of my time that was not
1794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occupied with my duties as janitor was devoted to hard study. I was
1795 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu determined, if possible, to make such a record in my class as would
1796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cause me to be placed on the "honour roll" of Commencement speakers.
1797 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This I was successful in doing. It was June of 1875 when I finished the
1798 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regular course of study at Hampton. The greatest benefits that I got out
1799 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of my my life at the Hampton Institute, perhaps, may be classified under
1800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu two heads:--
1802 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu First was contact with a great man, General S.C. Armstrong, who, I
1803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu repeat, was, in my opinion, the rarest, strongest, and most beautiful
1804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu character that it has ever been my privilege to meet.
1806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Second, at Hampton, for the first time, I learned what education was
1807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expected to do for an individual. Before going there I had a good deal
1808 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the then rather prevalent idea among our people that to secure an
1809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education meant to have a good, easy time, free from all necessity for
1810 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu manual labour. At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace
1811 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial
1812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu value, but for labour's own sake and for the independence and
1813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants
1814 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu done brings. At that institution I got my first taste of what it meant
1815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the fact that the
1816 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and
1819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was completely out of money when I graduated. In company with other
1820 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton students, I secured a place as a table waiter in a summer hotel
1821 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in Connecticut, and managed to borrow enough money with which to get
1822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there. I had not been in this hotel long before I found out that I knew
1823 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu practically nothing about waiting on a hotel table. The head waiter,
1824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu however, supposed that I was an accomplished waiter. He soon gave me
1825 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu charge of the table at which there sat four or five wealthy and rather
1826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu aristocratic people. My ignorance of how to wait upon them was so
1827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu apparent that they scolded me in such a severe manner that I became
1828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu frightened and left their table, leaving them sitting there without
1829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu food. As a result of this I was reduced from the position of waiter to
1830 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that of a dish-carrier.
1832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But I determined to learn the business of waiting, and did so within
1833 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a few weeks and was restored to my former position. I have had the
1834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfaction of being a guest in this hotel several times since I was a
1835 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu waiter there.
1837 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the close of the hotel season I returned to my former home in Malden,
1838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and was elected to teach the coloured school at that place. This was the
1839 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu beginning of one of the happiest periods of my life. I now felt that I
1840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had the opportunity to help the people of my home town to a higher life.
1841 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I felt from the first that mere book education was not all that the
1842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young people of that town needed. I began my work at eight o'clock in
1843 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the morning, and, as a rule, it did not end until ten o'clock at night.
1844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In addition to the usual routine of teaching, I taught the pupils to
1845 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comb their hair, and to keep their hands and faces clean, as well as
1846 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their clothing. I gave special attention to teaching them the proper
1847 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu use of the tooth-brush and the bath. In all my teaching I have watched
1848 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu carefully the influence of the tooth-brush, and I am convinced
1849 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that there are few single agencies of civilization that are more
1850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far-reaching.
1852 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There were so many of the older boys and girls in the town, as well as
1853 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men and women, who had to work in the daytime and still were craving an
1854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity for an education, that I soon opened a night-school. From
1855 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the first, this was crowded every night, being about as large as the
1856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school that I taught in the day. The efforts of some of the men and
1857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu women, who in many cases were over fifty years of age, to learn, were in
1858 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some cases very pathetic.
1860 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My day and night school work was not all that I undertook. I established
1861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a small reading-room and a debating society. On Sundays I taught two
1862 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Sunday-schools, one in the town of Malden in the afternoon, and the
1863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other in the morning at a place three miles distant from Malden. In
1864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu addition to this, I gave private lessons to several young men whom I was
1865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fitting to send to the Hampton Institute. Without regard to pay and with
1866 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu little thought of it, I taught any one who wanted to learn anything that
1867 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I could teach him. I was supremely happy in the opportunity of being
1868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu able to assist somebody else. I did receive, however, a small salary
1869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from the public fund, for my work as a public-school teacher.
1871 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the time that I was a student at Hampton my older brother, John,
1872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not only assisted me all that he could, but worked all of the time in
1873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coal-mines in order to support the family. He willingly neglected
1874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his own education that he might help me. It was my earnest wish to help
1875 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him to prepare to enter Hampton, and to save money to assist him in his
1876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expenses there. Both of these objects I was successful in accomplishing.
1877 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In three years my brother finished the course at Hampton, and he is
1878 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu now holding the important position of Superintendent of Industries at
1879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee. When he returned from Hampton, we both combined our efforts
1880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and savings to send our adopted brother, James, through the Hampton
1881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute. This we succeeded in doing, and he is now the postmaster
1882 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the Tuskegee Institute. The year 1877, which was my second year of
1883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teaching in Malden, I spent very much as I did the first.
1885 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was while my home was at Malden that what was known as the "Ku Klux
1886 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Klan" was in the height of its activity. The "Ku Klux" were bands of
1887 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men who had joined themselves together for the purpose of regulating the
1888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conduct of the coloured people, especially with the object of preventing
1889 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the members of the race from exercising any influence in politics. They
1890 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu corresponded somewhat to the "patrollers" of whom I used to hear a
1891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu great deal during the days of slavery, when I was a small boy. The
1892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "patrollers" were bands of white men--usually young men--who were
1893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu organized largely for the purpose of regulating the conduct of the
1894 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slaves at night in such matters as preventing the slaves from going from
1895 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one plantation to another without passes, and for preventing them from
1896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu holding any kind of meetings without permission and without the presence
1897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at these meetings of at least one white man.
1899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Like the "patrollers" the "Ku Klux" operated almost wholly at night.
1900 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu They were, however, more cruel than the "patrollers." Their objects, in
1901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the main, were to crush out the political aspirations of the Negroes,
1902 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but they did not confine themselves to this, because schoolhouses as
1903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu well as churches were burned by them, and many innocent persons were
1904 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made to suffer. During this period not a few coloured people lost their
1907 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As a young man, the acts of these lawless bands made a great impression
1908 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon me. I saw one open battle take place at Malden between some of the
1909 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured and white people. There must have been not far from a hundred
1910 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu persons engaged on each side; many on both sides were seriously injured,
1911 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among them General Lewis Ruffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola
1912 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ruffner. General Ruffner tried to defend the coloured people, and
1913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for this he was knocked down and so seriously wounded that he never
1914 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu completely recovered. It seemed to me as I watched this struggle between
1915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu members of the two races, that there was no hope for our people in this
1916 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country. The "Ku Klux" period was, I think, the darkest part of the
1917 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Reconstruction days.
1919 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have referred to this unpleasant part of the history of the South
1920 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu simply for the purpose of calling attention to the great change that has
1921 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taken place since the days of the "Ku Klux." To-day there are no such
1922 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu organizations in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is
1923 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu almost forgotten by both races. There are few places in the South now
1924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu where public sentiment would permit such organizations to exist.
1928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter V. The Reconstruction Period
1930 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The years from 1867 to 1878 I think may be called the period of
1931 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Reconstruction. This included the time that I spent as a student at
1932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia. During the whole of the
1933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Reconstruction period two ideas were constantly agitating in the minds
1934 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the coloured people, or, at least, in the minds of a large part of
1935 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the race. One of these was the craze for Greek and Latin learning, and
1936 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the other was a desire to hold office.
1938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It could not have been expected that a people who had spent generations
1939 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in slavery, and before that generations in the darkest heathenism, could
1940 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at first form any proper conception of what an education meant. In every
1941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu part of the South, during the Reconstruction period, schools, both
1942 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day and night, were filled to overflowing with people of all ages and
1943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conditions, some being as far along in age as sixty and seventy
1944 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years. The ambition to secure an education was most praiseworthy and
1945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu encouraging. The idea, however, was too prevalent that, as soon as one
1946 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secured a little education, in some unexplainable way he would be free
1947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from most of the hardships of the world, and, at any rate, could live
1948 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without manual labour. There was a further feeling that a knowledge,
1949 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu however little, of the Greek and Latin languages would make one a very
1950 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu superior human being, something bordering almost on the supernatural. I
1951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remember that the first coloured man whom I saw who knew something about
1952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu foreign languages impressed me at the time as being a man of all others
1953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to be envied.
1955 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Naturally, most of our people who received some little education became
1956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers or preachers. While among those two classes there were many
1957 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu capable, earnest, godly men and women, still a large proportion took
1958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu up teaching or preaching as an easy way to make a living. Many became
1959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers who could do little more than write their names. I remember
1960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there came into our neighbourhood one of this class, who was in search
1961 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of a school to teach, and the question arose while he was there as to
1962 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the shape of the earth and how he could teach the children concerning
1963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the subject. He explained his position in the matter by saying that he
1964 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was prepared to teach that the earth was either flat or round, according
1965 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the preference of a majority of his patrons.
1967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The ministry was the profession that suffered most--and still suffers,
1968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu though there has been great improvement--on account of not only ignorant
1969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but in many cases immoral men who claimed that they were "called to
1970 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu preach." In the earlier days of freedom almost every coloured man who
1971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learned to read would receive "a call to preach" within a few days
1972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after he began reading. At my home in West Virginia the process of being
1973 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu called to the ministry was a very interesting one. Usually the "call"
1974 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came when the individual was sitting in church. Without warning the one
1975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu called would fall upon the floor as if struck by a bullet, and would lie
1976 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there for hours, speechless and motionless. Then the news would spread
1977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all through the neighborhood that this individual had received a "call."
1978 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu If he were inclined to resist the summons, he would fall or be made to
1979 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fall a second or third time. In the end he always yielded to the call.
1980 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While I wanted an education badly, I confess that in my youth I had a
1981 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fear that when I had learned to read and write very well I would receive
1982 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of these "calls"; but, for some reason, my call never came.
1984 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When we add the number of wholly ignorant men who preached or "exhorted"
1985 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to that of those who possessed something of an education, it can be seen
1986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at a glance that the supply of ministers was large. In fact, some time
1987 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ago I knew a certain church that had a total membership of about two
1988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred, and eighteen of that number were ministers. But, I repeat, in
1989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many communities in the South the character of the ministry is being
1990 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu improved, and I believe that within the next two or three decades a very
1991 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large proportion of the unworthy ones will have disappeared. The "calls"
1992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to preach, I am glad to say, are not nearly so numerous now as they were
1993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu formerly, and the calls to some industrial occupation are growing more
1994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu numerous. The improvement that has taken place in the character of the
1995 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers is even more marked than in the case of the ministers.
1997 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the whole of the Reconstruction period our people throughout the
1998 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South looked to the Federal Government for everything, very much as
1999 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a child looks to its mother. This was not unnatural. The central
2000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu government gave them freedom, and the whole Nation had been enriched for
2001 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more than two centuries by the labour of the Negro. Even as a youth,
2002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and later in manhood, I had the feeling that it was cruelly wrong in
2003 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the central government, at the beginning of our freedom, to fail to make
2004 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some provision for the general education of our people in addition
2005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to what the states might do, so that the people would be the better
2006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prepared for the duties of citizenship.
2008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It is easy to find fault, to remark what might have been done, and
2009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perhaps, after all, and under all the circumstances, those in charge
2010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the conduct of affairs did the only thing that could be done at the
2011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time. Still, as I look back now over the entire period of our freedom,
2012 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I cannot help feeling that it would have been wiser if some plan could
2013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have been put in operation which would have made the possession of
2014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a certain amount of education or property, or both, a test for the
2015 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exercise of the franchise, and a way provided by which this test should
2016 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be made to apply honestly and squarely to both the white and black
2019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Though I was but little more than a youth during the period of
2020 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Reconstruction, I had the feeling that mistakes were being made, and
2021 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that things could not remain in the condition that they were in then
2022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu very long. I felt that the Reconstruction policy, so far as it related
2023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to my race, was in a large measure on a false foundation, was artificial
2024 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and forced. In many cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race
2025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was being used as a tool with which to help white men into office,
2026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that there was an element in the North which wanted to punish the
2027 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern white men by forcing the Negro into positions over the heads
2028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the Southern whites. I felt that the Negro would be the one to suffer
2029 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for this in the end. Besides, the general political agitation drew
2030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the attention of our people away from the more fundamental matters of
2031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perfecting themselves in the industries at their doors and in securing
2034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I came
2035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu very near yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing so
2036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way by
2037 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race through a generous
2038 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education of the hand, head, and heart. I saw coloured men who were
2039 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu members of the state legislatures, and county officers, who, in some
2040 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cases, could not read or write, and whose morals were as weak as their
2041 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education. Not long ago, when passing through the streets of a certain
2042 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu city in the South, I heard some brick-masons calling out, from the
2043 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu top of a two-story brick building on which they were working, for the
2044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Governor" to "hurry up and bring up some more bricks." Several times
2045 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I heard the command, "Hurry up, Governor!" "Hurry up, Governor!" My
2046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu curiosity was aroused to such an extent that I made inquiry as to who
2047 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the "Governor" was, and soon found that he was a coloured man who at one
2048 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time had held the position of Lieutenant-Governor of his state.
2050 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But not all the coloured people who were in office during Reconstruction
2051 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were unworthy of their positions, by any means. Some of them, like
2052 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the late Senator B.K. Bruce, Governor Pinchback, and many others, were
2053 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strong, upright, useful men. Neither were all the class designated as
2054 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu carpetbaggers dishonourable men. Some of them, like ex-Governor Bullock,
2055 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Georgia, were men of high character and usefulness.
2057 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Of course the coloured people, so largely without education, and wholly
2058 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without experience in government, made tremendous mistakes, just as many
2059 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people similarly situated would have done. Many of the Southern whites
2060 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have a feeling that, if the Negro is permitted to exercise his political
2061 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rights now to any degree, the mistakes of the Reconstruction period will
2062 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu repeat themselves. I do not think this would be true, because the Negro
2063 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is a much stronger and wiser man than he was thirty-five years ago, and
2064 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he is fast learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in a manner
2065 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that will alienate his Southern white neighbours from him. More and more
2066 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am convinced that the final solution of the political end of our race
2067 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu problem will be for each state that finds it necessary to change the law
2068 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bearing upon the franchise to make the law apply with absolute honesty,
2069 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and without opportunity for double dealing or evasion, to both races
2070 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu alike. Any other course my daily observation in the South convinces me,
2071 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu will be unjust to the Negro, unjust to the white man, and unfair to the
2072 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rest of the state in the Union, and will be, like slavery, a sin that at
2073 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some time we shall have to pay for.
2075 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the fall of 1878, after having taught school in Malden for two years,
2076 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and after I had succeeded in preparing several of the young men and
2077 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu women, besides my two brothers, to enter the Hampton Institute, I
2078 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu decided to spend some months in study at Washington, D.C. I remained
2079 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there for eight months. I derived a great deal of benefit from the
2080 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu studies which I pursued, and I came into contact with some strong
2081 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men and women. At the institution I attended there was no industrial
2082 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training given to the students, and I had an opportunity of comparing
2083 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the influence of an institution with no industrial training with that of
2084 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one like the Hampton Institute, that emphasizes the industries. At this
2085 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school I found the students, in most cases, had more money, were better
2086 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dressed, wore the latest style of all manner of clothing, and in some
2087 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cases were more brilliant mentally. At Hampton it was a standing rule
2088 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that, while the institution would be responsible for securing some one
2089 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to pay the tuition for the students, the men and women themselves must
2090 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provide for their own board, books, clothing, and room wholly by work,
2091 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or partly by work and partly in cash. At the institution at which I
2092 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu now was, I found that a large portion of the students by some means
2093 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had their personal expenses paid for them. At Hampton the student was
2094 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constantly making the effort through the industries to help himself,
2095 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that very effort was of immense value in character-building. The
2096 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students at the other school seemed to be less self-dependent. They
2097 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to give more attention to mere outward appearances. In a word,
2098 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they did not appear to me to be beginning at the bottom, on a real,
2099 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu solid foundation, to the extent that they were at Hampton. They knew
2100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more about Latin and Greek when they left school, but they seemed to
2101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu know less about life and its conditions as they would meet it at their
2102 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu homes. Having lived for a number of years in the midst of comfortable
2103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surroundings, they were not as much inclined as the Hampton students to
2104 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu go into the country districts of the South, where there was little of
2105 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comfort, to take up work for our people, and they were more inclined to
2106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu yield to the temptation to become hotel waiters and Pullman-car porters
2107 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as their life-work.
2109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the time I was a student at Washington the city was crowded with
2110 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people, many of whom had recently come from the South. A large
2111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proportion of these people had been drawn to Washington because they
2112 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu felt that they could lead a life of ease there. Others had secured minor
2113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu government positions, and still another large class was there in the
2114 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hope of securing Federal positions. A number of coloured men--some of
2115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them very strong and brilliant--were in the House of Representatives
2116 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at that time, and one, the Hon. B.K. Bruce, was in the Senate. All
2117 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this tended to make Washington an attractive place for members of the
2118 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured race. Then, too, they knew that at all times they could have
2119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the protection of the law in the District of Columbia. The public
2120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu schools in Washington for coloured people were better then than they
2121 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were elsewhere. I took great interest in studying the life of our people
2122 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there closely at that time. I found that while among them there was
2123 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a large element of substantial, worthy citizens, there was also a
2124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed me.
2125 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I saw young coloured men who were not earning more than four dollars a
2126 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu week spend two dollars or more for a buggy on Sunday to ride up and down
2127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Pennsylvania Avenue in, in order that they might try to convince the
2128 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu world that they were worth thousands. I saw other young men who received
2129 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seventy-five or one hundred dollars per month from the Government, who
2130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were in debt at the end of every month. I saw men who but a few months
2131 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu previous were members of Congress, then without employment and in
2132 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu poverty. Among a large class there seemed to be a dependence upon the
2133 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Government for every conceivable thing. The members of this class had
2134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the
2135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Federal officials to create one for them. How many times I wished then,
2136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and have often wished since, that by some power of magic I might remove
2137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the great bulk of these people into the county districts and plant them
2138 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon the soil, upon the solid and never deceptive foundation of Mother
2139 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nature, where all nations and races that have ever succeeded have gotten
2140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their start,--a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but one
2141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that nevertheless is real.
2143 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In Washington I saw girls whose mothers were earning their living by
2144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu laundrying. These girls were taught by their mothers, in rather a crude
2145 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu way it is true, the industry of laundrying. Later, these girls entered
2146 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the public schools and remained there perhaps six or eight years. When
2147 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the public school course was finally finished, they wanted more costly
2148 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dresses, more costly hats and shoes. In a word, while their wants
2149 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have been increased, their ability to supply their wants had not been
2150 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu increased in the same degree. On the other hand, their six or eight
2151 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years of book education had weaned them away from the occupation of
2152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their mothers. The result of this was in too many cases that the girls
2153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu went to the bad. I often thought how much wiser it would have been to
2154 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu give these girls the same amount of maternal training--and I favour any
2155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kind of training, whether in the languages or mathematics, that gives
2156 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strength and culture to the mind--but at the same time to give them the
2157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most thorough training in the latest and best methods of laundrying and
2158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other kindred occupations.
2162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter VI. Black Race And Red Race
2164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the year that I spent in Washington, and for some little time
2165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before this, there had been considerable agitation in the state of
2166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu West Virginia over the question of moving the capital of the state
2167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from Wheeling to some other central point. As a result of this, the
2168 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Legislature designated three cities to be voted upon by the citizens of
2169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the state as the permanent seat of government. Among these cities was
2170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Charleston, only five miles from Malden, my home. At the close of my
2171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school year in Washington I was very pleasantly surprised to receive,
2172 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from a committee of three white people in Charleston, an invitation
2173 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to canvass the state in the interests of that city. This invitation I
2174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accepted, and spent nearly three months in speaking in various parts of
2175 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the state. Charleston was successful in winning the prize, and is now
2176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the permanent seat of government.
2178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The reputation that I made as a speaker during this campaign induced a
2179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of persons to make an earnest effort to get me to enter political
2180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life, but I refused, still believing that I could find other service
2181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which would prove of more permanent value to my race. Even then I had a
2182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strong feeling that what our people most needed was to get a foundation
2183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in education, industry, and property, and for this I felt that they
2184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could better afford to strive than for political preferment. As for my
2185 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual self, it appeared to me to be reasonably certain that I could
2186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu succeed in political life, but I had a feeling that it would be a rather
2187 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu selfish kind of success--individual success at the cost of failing to do
2188 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my duty in assisting in laying a foundation for the masses.
2190 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At this period in the progress of our race a very large proportion of
2191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the young men who went to school or to college did so with the expressed
2192 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu determination to prepare themselves to be great lawyers, or Congressmen,
2193 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and many of the women planned to become music teachers; but I had a
2194 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reasonably fixed idea, even at that early period in my life, that there
2195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a need for something to be done to prepare the way for successful
2196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lawyers, Congressmen, and music teachers.
2198 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I felt that the conditions were a good deal like those of an old
2199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured man, during the days of slavery, who wanted to learn how to
2200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu play on the guitar. In his desire to take guitar lessons he applied to
2201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of his young masters to teach him, but the young man, not having
2202 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu much faith in the ability of the slave to master the guitar at his age,
2203 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sought to discourage him by telling him: "Uncle Jake, I will give you
2204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu guitar lessons; but, Jake, I will have to charge you three dollars for
2205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the first lesson, two dollars for the second lesson, and one dollar for
2206 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the third lesson. But I will charge you only twenty-five cents for the
2207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu last lesson."
2209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Uncle Jake answered: "All right, boss, I hires you on dem terms. But,
2210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu boss! I wants yer to be sure an' give me dat las' lesson first."
2212 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after my work in connection with the removal of the capital was
2213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu finished, I received an invitation which gave me great joy and which
2214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the same time was a very pleasant surprise. This was a letter
2215 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from General Armstrong, inviting me to return to Hampton at the next
2216 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Commencement to deliver what was called the "post-graduate address."
2217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This was an honour which I had not dreamed of receiving. With much
2218 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu care I prepared the best address that I was capable of. I chose for my
2219 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu subject "The Force That Wins."
2221 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As I returned to Hampton for the purpose of delivering this address,
2222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I went over much of the same ground--now, however, covered entirely by
2223 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu railroad--that I had traversed nearly six years before, when I first
2224 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sought entrance into Hampton Institute as a student. Now I was able to
2225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ride the whole distance in the train. I was constantly contrasting this
2226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with my first journey to Hampton. I think I may say, without seeming
2227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu egotism, that it is seldom that five years have wrought such a change in
2228 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the life and aspirations of an individual.
2230 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At Hampton I received a warm welcome from teachers and students. I found
2231 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that during my absence from Hampton the institute each year had been
2232 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu getting closer to the real needs and conditions of our people; that the
2233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu industrial teaching, as well as that of the academic department, had
2234 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatly improved. The plan of the school was not modelled after that of
2235 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any other institution then in existence, but every improvement was made
2236 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu under the magnificent leadership of General Armstrong solely with the
2237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu view of meeting and helping the needs of our people as they presented
2238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu themselves at the time. Too often, it seems to me, in missionary
2239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and educational work among underdeveloped races, people yield to the
2240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu temptation of doing that which was done a hundred years before, or is
2241 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being done in other communities a thousand miles away. The temptation
2242 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu often is to run each individual through a certain educational
2243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mould, regardless of the condition of the subject or the end to be
2244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accomplished. This was not so at Hampton Institute.
2246 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The address which I delivered on Commencement Day seems to have pleased
2247 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every one, and many kind and encouraging words were spoken to me
2248 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regarding it. Soon after my return to my home in West Virginia, where
2249 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had planned to continue teaching, I was again surprised to receive a
2250 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu letter from General Armstrong, asking me to return to Hampton partly as
2251 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a teacher and partly to pursue some supplementary studies. This was
2252 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the summer of 1879. Soon after I began my first teaching in West
2253 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Virginia I had picked out four of the brightest and most promising of my
2254 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pupils, in addition to my two brothers, to whom I have already referred,
2255 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and had given them special attention, with the view of having them go
2256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to Hampton. They had gone there, and in each case the teachers had found
2257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them so well prepared that they entered advanced classes. This fact, it
2258 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seems, led to my being called back to Hampton as a teacher. One of
2259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the young men that I sent to Hampton in this way is now Dr. Samuel E.
2260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Courtney, a successful physician in Boston, and a member of the School
2261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Board of that city.
2263 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu About this time the experiment was being tried for the first time, by
2264 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General Armstrong, of educating Indians at Hampton. Few people then had
2265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any confidence in the ability of the Indians to receive education and
2266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to profit by it. General Armstrong was anxious to try the experiment
2267 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu systematically on a large scale. He secured from the reservations in
2268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Western states over one hundred wild and for the most part perfectly
2269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ignorant Indians, the greater proportion of whom were young men. The
2270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu special work which the General desired me to do was to be a sort of "house
2271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu father" to the Indian young men--that is, I was to live in the building
2272 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with them and have the charge of their discipline, clothing, rooms, and
2273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so on. This was a very tempting offer, but I had become so much absorbed
2274 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in my work in West Virginia that I dreaded to give it up. However, I
2275 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tore myself away from it. I did not know how to refuse to perform any
2276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu service that General Armstrong desired of me.
2278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On going to Hampton, I took up my residence in a building with about
2279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seventy-five Indian youths. I was the only person in the building who
2280 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was not a member of their race. At first I had a good deal of doubt
2281 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about my ability to succeed. I knew that the average Indian felt himself
2282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu above the white man, and, of course, he felt himself far above the
2283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro, largely on account of the fact of the Negro having submitted to
2284 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slavery--a thing which the Indian would never do. The Indians, in the
2285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Indian Territory, owned a large number of slaves during the days of
2286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slavery. Aside from this, there was a general feeling that the attempt
2287 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to educate and civilize the red men at Hampton would be a failure.
2288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All this made me proceed very cautiously, for I felt keenly the great
2289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu responsibility. But I was determined to succeed. It was not long before
2290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had the complete confidence of the Indians, and not only this, but
2291 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I think I am safe in saying that I had their love and respect. I found
2292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that they were about like any other human beings; that they responded
2293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to kind treatment and resented ill-treatment. They were continually
2294 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu planning to do something that would add to my happiness and comfort. The
2295 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu things that they disliked most, I think, were to have their long hair
2296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cut, to give up wearing their blankets, and to cease smoking; but no
2297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until
2298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he wears the white man's clothes, eats the white man's food, speaks the
2299 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white man's language, and professes the white man's religion.
2301 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When the difficulty of learning the English language was subtracted, I
2302 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found that in the matter of learning trades and in mastering academic
2303 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu studies there was little difference between the coloured and Indian
2304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students. It was a constant delight to me to note the interest which
2305 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured students took in trying to help the Indians in every way
2306 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu possible. There were a few of the coloured students who felt that the
2307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Indians ought not to be admitted to Hampton, but these were in the
2308 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu minority. Whenever they were asked to do so, the Negro students gladly
2309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu took the Indians as room-mates, in order that they might teach them to
2310 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speak English and to acquire civilized habits.
2312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have often wondered if there was a white institution in this country
2313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whose students would have welcomed the incoming of more than a hundred
2314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu companions of another race in the cordial way that these black students
2315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Hampton welcomed the red ones. How often I have wanted to say to
2316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white students that they lift themselves up in proportion as they help
2317 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to lift others, and the more unfortunate the race, and the lower in the
2318 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu scale of civilization, the more does one raise one's self by giving the
2319 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu assistance.
2321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This reminds me of a conversation which I once had with the Hon.
2322 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Frederick Douglass. At one time Mr. Douglass was travelling in the state
2323 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of his colour, to ride in
2324 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the baggage-car, in spite of the fact that he had paid the same price
2325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for his passage that the other passengers had paid. When some of the
2326 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white passengers went into the baggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and
2327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of them said to him: "I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been
2328 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu degraded in this manner," Mr. Douglass straightened himself up on
2329 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the box upon which he was sitting, and replied: "They cannot degrade
2330 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I
2331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but
2332 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those who are inflicting it upon me."
2334 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In one part of the country, where the law demands the separation of
2335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the races on the railroad trains, I saw at one time a rather amusing
2336 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu instance which showed how difficult it sometimes is to know where the
2337 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu black begins and the white ends.
2339 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There was a man who was well known in his community as a Negro, but who
2340 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was so white that even an expert would have hard work to classify him as
2341 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a black man. This man was riding in the part of the train set aside for
2342 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured passengers. When the train conductor reached him, he showed
2343 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at once that he was perplexed. If the man was a Negro, the conductor did
2344 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not want to send him to the white people's coach; at the same time, if
2345 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he was a white man, the conductor did not want to insult him by asking
2346 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him if he was a Negro. The official looked him over carefully, examining
2347 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his hair, eyes, nose, and hands, but still seemed puzzled. Finally, to
2348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu solve the difficulty, he stooped over and peeped at the man's feet. When
2349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I saw the conductor examining the feet of the man in question, I said to
2350 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu myself, "That will settle it;" and so it did, for the trainman promptly
2351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu decided that the passenger was a Negro, and let him remain where he was.
2352 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I congratulated myself that my race was fortunate in not losing one of
2353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its members.
2355 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to
2356 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is
2357 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu less fortunate than his own. This is illustrated in no better way than
2358 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by observing the conduct of the old-school type of Southern gentleman
2359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when he is in contact with his former slaves or their descendants.
2361 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu An example of what I mean is shown in a story told of George Washington,
2362 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who, meeting a coloured man in the road once, who politely lifted his
2363 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hat, lifted his own in return. Some of his white friends who saw
2364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the incident criticised Washington for his action. In reply to their
2365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu criticism George Washington said: "Do you suppose that I am going to
2366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permit a poor, ignorant, coloured man to be more polite than I am?"
2368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While I was in charge of the Indian boys at Hampton, I had one or two
2369 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu experiences which illustrate the curious workings of caste in America.
2370 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One of the Indian boys was taken ill, and it became my duty to take him
2371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to Washington, deliver him over to the Secretary of the Interior, and
2372 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu get a receipt for him, in order that he might be returned to his Western
2373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reservation. At that time I was rather ignorant of the ways of the
2374 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu world. During my journey to Washington, on a steamboat, when the bell
2375 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rang for dinner, I was careful to wait and not enter the dining room
2376 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu until after the greater part of the passengers had finished their meal.
2377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Then, with my charge, I went to the dining saloon. The man in charge
2378 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu politely informed me that the Indian could be served, but that I could
2379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not. I never could understand how he knew just where to draw the colour
2380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu line, since the Indian and I were of about the same complexion. The
2381 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu steward, however, seemed to be an expert in this manner. I had been
2382 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu directed by the authorities at Hampton to stop at a certain hotel in
2383 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington with my charge, but when I went to this hotel the clerk
2384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stated that he would be glad to receive the Indian into the house, but
2385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu said that he could not accommodate me.
2387 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu An illustration of something of this same feeling came under my
2388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu observation afterward. I happened to find myself in a town in which
2389 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so much excitement and indignation were being expressed that it seemed
2390 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu likely for a time that there would be a lynching. The occasion of the
2391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trouble was that a dark-skinned man had stopped at the local hotel.
2392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Investigation, however, developed the fact that this individual was a
2393 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu citizen of Morocco, and that while travelling in this country he spoke
2394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the English language. As soon as it was learned that he was not an
2395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu American Negro, all the signs of indignation disappeared. The man who
2396 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was the innocent cause of the excitement, though, found it prudent after
2397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that not to speak English.
2399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the end of my first year with the Indians there came another opening
2400 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for me at Hampton, which, as I look back over my life now, seems to
2401 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have come providentially, to help to prepare me for my work at Tuskegee
2402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu later. General Armstrong had found out that there was quite a number of
2403 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu young coloured men and women who were intensely in earnest in wishing to
2404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu get an education, but who were prevented from entering Hampton Institute
2405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because they were too poor to be able to pay any portion of the cost of
2406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their board, or even to supply themselves with books. He conceived the
2407 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu idea of starting a night-school in connection with the Institute, into
2408 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which a limited number of the most promising of these young men and
2409 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu women would be received, on condition that they were to work for ten
2410 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hours during the day, and attend school for two hours at night. They
2411 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were to be paid something above the cost of their board for their work.
2412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The greater part of their earnings was to be reserved in the school's
2413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu treasury as a fund to be drawn on to pay their board when they had
2414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu become students in the day-school, after they had spent one or two years
2415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the night-school. In this way they would obtain a start in their
2416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu books and a knowledge of some trade or industry, in addition to the
2417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other far-reaching benefits of the institution.
2419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General Armstrong asked me to take charge of the night-school, and I
2420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did so. At the beginning of this school there were about twelve strong,
2421 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu earnest men and women who entered the class. During the day the greater
2422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu part of the young men worked in the school's sawmill, and the young
2423 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu women worked in the laundry. The work was not easy in either place,
2424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but in all my teaching I never taught pupils who gave me much genuine
2425 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfaction as these did. They were good students, and mastered their
2426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work thoroughly. They were so much in earnest that only the ringing of
2427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the retiring-bell would make them stop studying, and often they would
2428 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu urge me to continue the lessons after the usual hour for going to bed
2431 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu These students showed so much earnestness, both in their hard work
2432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during the day, as well as in their application to their studies at
2433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night, that I gave them the name of "The Plucky Class"--a name which
2434 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu soon grew popular and spread throughout the institution. After a student
2435 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had been in the night-school long enough to prove what was in him, I
2436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gave him a printed certificate which read something like this:--
2438 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "This is to certify that James Smith is a member of The Plucky Class of
2439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Hampton Institute, and is in good and regular standing."
2441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The students prized these certificates highly, and they added greatly to
2442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the popularity of the night-school. Within a few weeks this department
2443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had grown to such an extent that there were about twenty-five students
2444 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in attendance. I have followed the course of many of these twenty-five
2445 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men and women ever since then, and they are now holding important and
2446 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu useful positions in nearly every part of the South. The night-school at
2447 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton, which started with only twelve students, now numbers between
2448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three and four hundred, and is one of the permanent and most important
2449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu features of the institution.
2453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter VII. Early Days At Tuskegee
2455 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the time that I had charge of the Indians and the night-school
2456 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Hampton, I pursued some studies myself, under the direction of
2457 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the instructors there. One of these instructors was the Rev. Dr. H.B.
2458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Frissell, the present Principal of the Hampton Institute, General
2459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong's successor.
2461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In May, 1881, near the close of my first year in teaching the
2462 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night-school, in a way that I had not dared expect, the opportunity
2463 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opened for me to begin my life-work. One night in the chapel, after the
2464 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usual chapel exercises were over, General Armstrong referred to the fact
2465 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that he had received a letter from some gentlemen in Alabama asking him
2466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to recommend some one to take charge of what was to be a normal school
2467 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the coloured people in the little town of Tuskegee in that state.
2468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu These gentlemen seemed to take it for granted that no coloured man
2469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu suitable for the position could be secured, and they were expecting the
2470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General to recommend a white man for the place. The next day General
2471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong sent for me to come to his office, and, much to my surprise,
2472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu asked me if I thought I could fill the position in Alabama. I told him
2473 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I would be willing to try. Accordingly, he wrote to the people
2474 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who had applied to him for the information, that he did not know of any
2475 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white man to suggest, but if they would be willing to take a coloured
2476 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man, he had one whom he could recommend. In this letter he gave them my
2479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Several days passed before anything more was heard about the matter.
2480 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Some time afterward, one Sunday evening during the chapel exercises, a
2481 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu messenger came in and handed the general a telegram. At the end of the
2482 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exercises he read the telegram to the school. In substance, these were
2483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its words: "Booker T. Washington will suit us. Send him at once."
2485 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There was a great deal of joy expressed among the students and teachers,
2486 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and I received very hearty congratulations. I began to get ready at once
2487 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to go to Tuskegee. I went by way of my old home in West Virginia, where
2488 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I remained for several days, after which I proceeded to Tuskegee. I
2489 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found Tuskegee to be a town of about two thousand inhabitants, nearly
2490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one-half of whom were coloured. It was in what was known as the Black
2491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Belt of the South. In the county in which Tuskegee is situated the
2492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people outnumbered the whites by about three to one. In some of
2493 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the adjoining and near-by counties the proportion was not far from six
2494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured persons to one white.
2496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have often been asked to define the term "Black Belt." So far as I can
2497 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learn, the term was first used to designate a part of the country which
2498 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was distinguished by the colour of the soil. The part of the country
2499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu possessing this thick, dark, and naturally rich soil was, of course,
2500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the part of the South where the slaves were most profitable, and
2501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consequently they were taken there in the largest numbers. Later,
2502 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and especially since the war, the term seems to be used wholly in a
2503 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu political sense--that is, to designate the counties where the black
2504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people outnumber the white.
2506 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Before going to Tuskegee I had expected to find there a building and
2507 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all the necessary apparatus ready for me to begin teaching. To my
2508 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu disappointment, I found nothing of the kind. I did find, though, that
2509 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which no costly building and apparatus can supply,--hundreds of hungry,
2510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge.
2512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee seemed an ideal place for the school. It was in the midst of
2513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the great bulk of the Negro population, and was rather secluded, being
2514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu five miles from the main line of railroad, with which it was connected
2515 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by a short line. During the days of slavery, and since, the town had
2516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been a centre for the education of the white people. This was an added
2517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu advantage, for the reason that I found the white people possessing
2518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a degree of culture and education that is not surpassed by many
2519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu localities. While the coloured people were ignorant, they had not, as a
2520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rule, degraded and weakened their bodies by vices such as are common to
2521 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the lower class of people in the large cities. In general, I found the
2522 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relations between the two races pleasant. For example, the largest, and
2523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I think at that time the only hardware store in the town was owned and
2524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu operated jointly by a coloured man and a white man. This copartnership
2525 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu continued until the death of the white partner.
2527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I found that about a year previous to my going to Tuskegee some of the
2528 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people who had heard something of the work of education being
2529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu done at Hampton had applied to the state Legislature, through their
2530 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu representatives, for a small appropriation to be used in starting a
2531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu normal school in Tuskegee. This request the Legislature had complied
2532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with to the extent of granting an annual appropriation of two thousand
2533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dollars. I soon learned, however, that this money could be used only for
2534 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the payment of the salaries of the instructors, and that there was no
2535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provision for securing land, buildings, or apparatus. The task before me
2536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did not seem a very encouraging one. It seemed much like making bricks
2537 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without straw. The coloured people were overjoyed, and were constantly
2538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu offering their services in any way in which they could be of assistance
2539 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in getting the school started.
2541 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My first task was to find a place in which to open the school. After
2542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu looking the town over with some care, the most suitable place that could
2543 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be secured seemed to be a rather dilapidated shanty near the coloured
2544 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Methodist church, together with the church itself as a sort of
2545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu assembly-room. Both the church and the shanty were in about as bad
2546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu condition as was possible. I recall that during the first months of
2547 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school that I taught in this building it was in such poor repair that,
2548 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whenever it rained, one of the older students would very kindly leave
2549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his lessons and hold an umbrella over me while I heard the recitations
2550 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the others. I remember, also, that on more than one occasion my
2551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu landlady held an umbrella over me while I ate breakfast.
2553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the time I went to Alabama the coloured people were taking
2554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu considerable interest in politics, and they were very anxious that I
2555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu should become one of them politically, in every respect. They seemed to
2556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have a little distrust of strangers in this regard. I recall that one
2557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man, who seemed to have been designated by the others to look after my
2558 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu political destiny, came to me on several occasions and said, with a
2559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu good deal of earnestness: "We wants you to be sure to vote jes' like we
2560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu votes. We can't read de newspapers very much, but we knows how to vote,
2561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an' we wants you to vote jes' like we votes." He added: "We watches de
2562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white man, and we keeps watching de white man till we finds out which
2563 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu way de white man's gwine to vote; an' when we finds out which way de
2564 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white man's gwine to vote, den we votes 'xactly de other way. Den we
2565 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knows we's right."
2567 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am glad to add, however, that at the present time the disposition
2568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to vote against the white man merely because he is white is largely
2569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu disappearing, and the race is learning to vote from principle, for what
2570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the voter considers to be for the best interests of both races.
2572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I reached Tuskegee, as I have said, early in June, 1881. The first month
2573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I spent in finding accommodations for the school, and in travelling
2574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu through Alabama, examining into the actual life of the people,
2575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu especially in the court districts, and in getting the school advertised
2576 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among the class of people that I wanted to have attend it. The most of
2577 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my travelling was done over the country roads, with a mule and a cart
2578 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or a mule and a buggy wagon for conveyance. I ate and slept with the
2579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people, in their little cabins. I saw their farms, their schools, their
2580 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu churches. Since, in the case of the most of these visits, there had
2581 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been no notice given in advance that a stranger was expected, I had the
2582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu advantage of seeing the real, everyday life of the people.
2584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the plantation districts I found that, as a rule, the whole family
2585 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slept in one room, and that in addition to the immediate family there
2586 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sometimes were relatives, or others not related to the family, who slept
2587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the same room. On more than one occasion I went outside the house
2588 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get ready for bed, or to wait until the family had gone to bed. They
2589 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usually contrived some kind of a place for me to sleep, either on the
2590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu floor or in a special part of another's bed. Rarely was there any place
2591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provided in the cabin where one could bathe even the face and hands, but
2592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usually some provision was made for this outside the house, in the yard.
2594 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The common diet of the people was fat pork and corn bread. At times I
2595 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have eaten in cabins where they had only corn bread and "black-eye peas"
2596 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cooked in plain water. The people seemed to have no other idea than to
2597 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu live on this fat meat and corn bread,--the meat, and the meal of which
2598 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the bread was made, having been bought at a high price at a store in
2599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu town, notwithstanding the fact that the land all about the cabin homes
2600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could easily have been made to produce nearly every kind of garden
2601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vegetable that is raised anywhere in the country. Their one object
2602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to be to plant nothing but cotton; and in many cases cotton was
2603 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu planted up to the very door of the cabin.
2605 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In these cabin homes I often found sewing-machines which had been
2606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bought, or were being bought, on instalments, frequently at a cost of
2607 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as much as sixty dollars, or showy clocks for which the occupants of
2608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the cabins had paid twelve or fourteen dollars. I remember that on one
2609 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occasion when I went into one of these cabins for dinner, when I sat
2610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down to the table for a meal with the four members of the family, I
2611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu noticed that, while there were five of us at the table, there was but
2612 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one fork for the five of us to use. Naturally there was an awkward pause
2613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on my part. In the opposite corner of that same cabin was an organ
2614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for which the people told me they were paying sixty dollars in monthly
2615 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu instalments. One fork, and a sixty-dollar organ!
2617 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In most cases the sewing-machine was not used, the clocks were so
2618 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu worthless that they did not keep correct time--and if they had, in nine
2619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cases out of ten there would have been no one in the family who could
2620 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have told the time of day--while the organ, of course, was rarely used
2621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for want of a person who could play upon it.
2623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the case to which I have referred, where the family sat down to the
2624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu table for the meal at which I was their guest, I could see plainly that
2625 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this was an awkward and unusual proceeding, and was done in my honour.
2626 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In most cases, when the family got up in the morning, for example, the
2627 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wife would put a piece of meat in a frying-pan and put a lump of dough
2628 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in a "skillet," as they called it. These utensils would be placed on the
2629 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fire, and in ten or fifteen minutes breakfast would be ready. Frequently
2630 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the husband would take his bread and meat in his hand and start for the
2631 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu field, eating as he walked. The mother would sit down in a corner and
2632 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eat her breakfast, perhaps from a plate and perhaps directly from the
2633 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "skillet" or frying-pan, while the children would eat their portion of
2634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the bread and meat while running about the yard. At certain seasons of
2635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the year, when meat was scarce, it was rarely that the children who were
2636 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not old enough or strong enough to work in the fields would have the
2637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu luxury of meat.
2639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The breakfast over, and with practically no attention given to the
2640 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu house, the whole family would, as a general thing, proceed to the
2641 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cotton-field. Every child that was large enough to carry a hoe was put
2642 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to work, and the baby--for usually there was at least one baby--would be
2643 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu laid down at the end of the cotton row, so that its mother could give
2644 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it a certain amount of attention when she had finished chopping her
2645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu row. The noon meal and the supper were taken in much the same way as the
2646 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu breakfast.
2648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All the days of the family would be spent after much this same routine,
2649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the whole family would spent at
2650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu least half a day, and often a whole day, in town. The idea in going to
2651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu town was, I suppose, to do shopping, but all the shopping that the whole
2652 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu family had money for could have been attended to in ten minutes by one
2653 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu person. Still, the whole family remained in town for most of the day,
2654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spending the greater part of the time in standing on the streets, the
2655 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu women, too often, sitting about somewhere smoking or dipping snuff.
2656 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Sunday was usually spent in going to some big meeting. With few
2657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exceptions, I found that the crops were mortgaged in the counties where
2658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I went, and that the most of the coloured farmers were in debt. The
2659 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu state had not been able to build schoolhouses in the country districts,
2660 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and, as a rule, the schools were taught in churches or in log cabins.
2661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu More than once, while on my journeys, I found that there was no
2662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provision made in the house used for school purposes for heating the
2663 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building during the winter, and consequently a fire had to be built in
2664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the yard, and teacher and pupils passed in and out of the house as they
2665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu got cold or warm. With few exceptions, I found the teachers in these
2666 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country schools to be miserably poor in preparation for their work, and
2667 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu poor in moral character. The schools were in session from three to five
2668 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu months. There was practically no apparatus in the schoolhouses, except
2669 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that occasionally there was a rough blackboard. I recall that one day I
2670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu went into a schoolhouse--or rather into an abandoned log cabin that was
2671 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being used as a schoolhouse--and found five pupils who were studying a
2672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lesson from one book. Two of these, on the front seat, were using
2673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the book between them; behind these were two others peeping over the
2674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shoulders of the first two, and behind the four was a fifth little
2675 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fellow who was peeping over the shoulders of all four.
2677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu What I have said concerning the character of the schoolhouses and
2678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers will also apply quite accurately as a description of the church
2679 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu buildings and the ministers.
2681 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I met some very interesting characters during my travels. As
2682 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu illustrating the peculiar mental processes of the country people, I
2683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remember that I asked one coloured man, who was about sixty years old,
2684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to tell me something of his history. He said that he had been born in
2685 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Virginia, and sold into Alabama in 1845. I asked him how many were sold
2686 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the same time. He said, "There were five of us; myself and brother
2687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and three mules."
2689 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In giving all these descriptions of what I saw during my month of travel
2690 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the country around Tuskegee, I wish my readers to keep in mind the
2691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fact that there were many encouraging exceptions to the conditions which
2692 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have described. I have stated in such plain words what I saw, mainly
2693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the reason that later I want to emphasize the encouraging changes
2694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that have taken place in the community, not wholly by the work of the
2695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee school, but by that of other institutions as well.
2699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter VIII. Teaching School In A Stable And A Hen-House
2701 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I confess that what I saw during my month of travel and investigation
2702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu left me with a very heavy heart. The work to be done in order to lift
2703 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these people up seemed almost beyond accomplishing. I was only one
2704 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu person, and it seemed to me that the little effort which I could put
2705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu forth could go such a short distance toward bringing about results. I
2706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wondered if I could accomplish anything, and if it were worth while for
2707 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me to try.
2709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Of one thing I felt more strongly convinced than ever, after spending
2710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this month in seeing the actual life of the coloured people, and that
2711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was that, in order to lift them up, something must be done more than
2712 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu merely to imitate New England education as it then existed. I saw more
2713 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clearly than ever the wisdom of the system which General Armstrong had
2714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inaugurated at Hampton. To take the children of such people as I had
2715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been among for a month, and each day give them a few hours of mere book
2716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education, I felt would be almost a waste of time.
2718 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After consultation with the citizens of Tuskegee, I set July 4, 1881,
2719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the day for the opening of the school in the little shanty and church
2720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which had been secured for its accommodation. The white people, as well
2721 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the coloured, were greatly interested in the starting of the new
2722 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school, and the opening day was looked forward to with much earnest
2723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discussion. There were not a few white people in the vicinity of
2724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee who looked with some disfavour upon the project. They
2725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu questioned its value to the coloured people, and had a fear that it
2726 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu might result in bringing about trouble between the races. Some had the
2727 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feeling that in proportion as the Negro received education, in the same
2728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proportion would his value decrease as an economic factor in the state.
2729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu These people feared the result of education would be that the Negroes
2730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would leave the farms, and that it would be difficult to secure them for
2731 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu domestic service.
2733 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The white people who questioned the wisdom of starting this new school
2734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had in their minds pictures of what was called an educated Negro, with a
2735 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu high hat, imitation gold eye-glasses, a showy walking-stick, kid gloves,
2736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fancy boots, and what not--in a word, a man who was determined to live
2737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by his wits. It was difficult for these people to see how education
2738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would produce any other kind of a coloured man.
2740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the midst of all the difficulties which I encountered in getting
2741 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the little school started, and since then through a period of nineteen
2742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years, there are two men among all the many friends of the school in
2743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee upon whom I have depended constantly for advice and guidance;
2744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the success of the undertaking is largely due to these men, from
2745 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whom I have never sought anything in vain. I mention them simply as
2746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu types. One is a white man and an ex-slaveholder, Mr. George W. Campbell;
2747 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the other is a black man and an ex-slave, Mr. Lewis Adams. These were
2748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the men who wrote to General Armstrong for a teacher.
2750 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Campbell is a merchant and banker, and had had little experience in
2751 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dealing with matters pertaining to education. Mr. Adams was a
2752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mechanic, and had learned the trades of shoemaking, harness-making, and
2753 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tinsmithing during the days of slavery. He had never been to school a
2754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day in his life, but in some way he had learned to read and write while
2755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a slave. From the first, these two men saw clearly what my plan of
2756 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education was, sympathized with me, and supported me in every effort. In
2757 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the days which were darkest financially for the school, Mr. Campbell was
2758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never appealed to when he was not willing to extend all the aid in his
2759 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu power. I do not know two men, one an ex-slaveholder, one an ex-slave,
2760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whose advice and judgment I would feel more like following in everything
2761 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which concerns the life and development of the school at Tuskegee than
2762 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those of these two men.
2764 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have always felt that Mr. Adams, in a large degree, derived his
2765 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unusual power of mind from the training given his hands in the process
2766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of mastering well three trades during the days of slavery. If one
2767 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu goes to-day into any Southern town, and asks for the leading and most
2768 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reliable coloured man in the community, I believe that in five cases
2769 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out of ten he will be directed to a Negro who learned a trade during the
2770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu days of slavery.
2772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On the morning that the school opened, thirty students reported for
2773 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu admission. I was the only teacher. The students were about equally
2774 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu divided between the sexes. Most of them lived in Macon County,
2775 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the county in which Tuskegee is situated, and of which it is the
2776 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu county-seat. A great many more students wanted to enter the school, but
2777 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it had been decided to receive only those who were above fifteen years
2778 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of age, and who had previously received some education. The greater part
2779 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the thirty were public-school teachers, and some of them were nearly
2780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu forty years of age. With the teachers came some of their former pupils,
2781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and when they were examined it was amusing to note that in several cases
2782 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the pupil entered a higher class than did his former teacher. It was
2783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu also interesting to note how many big books some of them had studied,
2784 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and how many high-sounding subjects some of them claimed to have
2785 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mastered. The bigger the book and the longer the name of the subject,
2786 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the prouder they felt of their accomplishment. Some had studied Latin,
2787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and one or two Greek. This they thought entitled them to special
2788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distinction.
2790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In fact, one of the saddest things I saw during the month of travel
2791 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I have described was a young man, who had attended some high
2792 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school, sitting down in a one-room cabin, with grease on his clothing,
2793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu filth all around him, and weeds in the yard and garden, engaged in
2794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu studying a French grammar.
2796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The students who came first seemed to be fond of memorizing long and
2797 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu complicated "rules" in grammar and mathematics, but had little thought
2798 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or knowledge of applying these rules to their everyday affairs of their
2799 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life. One subject which they liked to talk about, and tell me that they
2800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had mastered, in arithmetic, was "banking and discount," but I soon
2801 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found out that neither they nor almost any one in the neighbourhood in
2802 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which they had lived had ever had a bank account. In registering the
2803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu names of the students, I found that almost every one of them had one or
2804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more middle initials. When I asked what the "J" stood for, in the name
2805 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of John J. Jones, it was explained to me that this was a part of his
2806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "entitles." Most of the students wanted to get an education because they
2807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thought it would enable them to earn more money as school-teachers.
2809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Notwithstanding what I have said about them in these respects, I have
2810 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never seen a more earnest and willing company of young men and women
2811 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than these students were. They were all willing to learn the right thing
2812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as soon as it was shown them what was right. I was determined to start
2813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them off on a solid and thorough foundation, so far as their books were
2814 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu concerned. I soon learned that most of them had the merest smattering of
2815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the high-sounding things that they had studied. While they could locate
2816 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Desert of Sahara or the capital of China on an artificial globe,
2817 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I found out that the girls could not locate the proper places for the
2818 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knives and forks on an actual dinner-table, or the places on which the
2819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bread and meat should be set.
2821 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had to summon a good deal of courage to take a student who had been
2822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu studying cube root and "banking and discount," and explain to him
2823 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the wisest thing for him to do first was thoroughly master the
2824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu multiplication table.
2826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The number of pupils increased each week, until by the end of the first
2827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu month there were nearly fifty. Many of them, however, said that, as they
2828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could remain only for two or three months, they wanted to enter a high
2829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu class and get a diploma the first year if possible.
2831 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the end of the first six weeks a new and rare face entered the school
2832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as a co-teacher. This was Miss Olivia A. Davidson, who later became
2833 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my wife. Miss Davidson was born in Ohio, and received her preparatory
2834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education in the public schools of that state. When little more than a
2835 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu girl, she heard of the need of teachers in the South. She went to the
2836 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu state of Mississippi and began teaching there. Later she taught in the
2837 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu city of Memphis. While teaching in Mississippi, one of her pupils became
2838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ill with smallpox. Every one in the community was so frightened that no
2839 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one would nurse the boy. Miss Davidson closed her school and remained by
2840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the bedside of the boy night and day until he recovered. While she was
2841 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at her Ohio home on her vacation, the worst epidemic of yellow fever
2842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu broke out in Memphis, Tenn., that perhaps has ever occurred in the
2843 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South. When she heard of this, she at once telegraphed the Mayor of
2844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Memphis, offering her services as a yellow-fever nurse, although she had
2845 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never had the disease.
2847 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Miss Davidon's experience in the South showed her that the people needed
2848 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something more than mere book-learning. She heard of the Hampton system
2849 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of education, and decided that this was what she wanted in order to
2850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prepare herself for better work in the South. The attention of Mrs. Mary
2851 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hemenway, of Boston, was attracted to her rare ability. Through Mrs.
2852 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hemenway's kindness and generosity, Miss Davidson, after graduating
2853 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Hampton, received an opportunity to complete a two years' course of
2854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training at the Massachusetts State Normal School at Framingham.
2856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Before she went to Framingham, some one suggested to Miss Davidson
2857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that, since she was so very light in colour, she might find it more
2858 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comfortable not to be known as a coloured women in this school in
2859 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Massachusetts. She at once replied that under no circumstances and for
2860 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu no considerations would she consent to deceive any one in regard to her
2861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu racial identity.
2863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after her graduation from the Framingham institution, Miss Davidson
2864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came to Tuskegee, bringing into the school many valuable and fresh ideas
2865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as to the best methods of teaching, as well as a rare moral character
2866 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and a life of unselfishness that I think has seldom been equalled. No
2867 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu single individual did more toward laying the foundations of the Tuskegee
2868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute so as to insure the successful work that has been done there
2869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than Olivia A. Davidson.
2871 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Miss Davidson and I began consulting as to the future of the school from
2872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the first. The students were making progress in learning books and in
2873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu developing their minds; but it became apparent at once that, if we
2874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were to make any permanent impression upon those who had come to us
2875 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for training we must do something besides teach them mere books. The
2876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students had come from homes where they had had no opportunities for
2877 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lessons which would teach them how to care for their bodies. With few
2878 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exceptions, the homes in Tuskegee in which the students boarded were
2879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but little improvement upon those from which they had come. We wanted
2880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to teach the students how to bathe; how to care for their teeth and
2881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clothing. We wanted to teach them what to eat, and how to eat it
2882 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu properly, and how to care for their rooms. Aside from this, we wanted to
2883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu give them such a practical knowledge of some one industry, together with
2884 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the spirit of industry, thrift, and economy, that they would be sure of
2885 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knowing how to make a living after they had left us. We wanted to teach
2886 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them to study actual things instead of mere books alone.
2888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We found that the most of our students came from the country districts,
2889 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu where agriculture in some form or other was the main dependence of
2890 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the people. We learned that about eighty-five per cent of the coloured
2891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people in the Gulf states depended upon agriculture for their living.
2892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Since this was true, we wanted to be careful not to educate our students
2893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out of sympathy with agricultural life, so that they would be attracted
2894 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from the country to the cities, and yield to the temptation of trying
2895 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to live by their wits. We wanted to give them such an education as would
2896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fit a large proportion of them to be teachers, and at the same time
2897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cause them to return to the plantation districts and show the people
2898 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming, as well as into
2899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people.
2901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All these ideas and needs crowded themselves upon us with a seriousness
2902 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that seemed well-nigh overwhelming. What were we to do? We had only
2903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the little old shanty and the abandoned church which the good
2904 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people of the town of Tuskegee had kindly loaned us for the
2905 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accommodation of the classes. The number of students was increasing
2906 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu daily. The more we saw of them, and the more we travelled through the
2907 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country districts, the more we saw that our efforts were reaching, to
2908 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu only a partial degree, the actual needs of the people whom we wanted to
2909 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lift up through the medium of the students whom we should educate and
2910 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu send out as leaders.
2912 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The more we talked with the students, who were then coming to us from
2913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several parts of the state, the more we found that the chief ambition
2914 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among a large proportion of them was to get an education so that they
2915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would not have to work any longer with their hands.
2917 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This is illustrated by a story told of a coloured man in Alabama, who,
2918 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one hot day in July, while he was at work in a cotton-field, suddenly
2919 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stopped, and, looking toward the skies, said: "O Lawd, de cotton am
2920 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so grassy, de work am so hard, and the sun am so hot dat I b'lieve dis
2921 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu darky am called to preach!"
2923 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu About three months after the opening of the school, and at the time when
2924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were in the greatest anxiety about our work, there came into market
2925 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for sale an old and abandoned plantation which was situated about a
2926 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mile from the town of Tuskegee. The mansion house--or "big house," as
2927 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it would have been called--which had been occupied by the owners during
2928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slavery, had been burned. After making a careful examination of the
2929 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu place, it seemed to be just the location that we wanted in order to make
2930 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our work effective and permanent.
2932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But how were we to get it? The price asked for it was very little--only
2933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu five hundred dollars--but we had no money, and we were strangers in the
2934 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu town and had no credit. The owner of the land agreed to let us occupy
2935 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the place if we could make a payment of two hundred and fifty dollars
2936 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down, with the understanding that the remaining two hundred and fifty
2937 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dollars must be paid within a year. Although five hundred dollars was
2938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cheap for the land, it was a large sum when one did not have any part of
2941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the midst of the difficulty I summoned a great deal of courage and
2942 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wrote to my friend General J.F.B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the Hampton
2943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute, putting the situation before him and beseeching him to lend
2944 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me the two hundred and fifty dollars on my own personal responsibility.
2945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Within a few days a reply came to the effect that he had no authority to
2946 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lend me the money belonging to the Hampton Institute, but that he would
2947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gladly lend me the amount needed from his own personal funds.
2949 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I confess that the securing of this money in this way was a great
2950 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surprise to me, as well as a source of gratification. Up to that time I
2951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never had had in my possession so much money as one hundred dollars at
2952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a time, and the loan which I had asked General Marshall for seemed a
2953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tremendously large sum to me. The fact of my being responsible for the
2954 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu repaying of such a large amount of money weighed very heavily upon me.
2956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I lost no time in getting ready to move the school on to the new farm.
2957 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the time we occupied the place there were standing upon it a cabin,
2958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu formerly used as a dining room, an old kitchen, a stable, and an old
2959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of these structures in use. The
2960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stable was repaired and used as a recitation-room, and very presently
2961 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the hen-house was utilized for the same purpose.
2963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I recall that one morning, when I told an old coloured man who lived
2964 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu near, and who sometimes helped me, that our school had grown so large
2965 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that it would be necessary for us to use the hen-house for school
2966 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purposes, and that I wanted him to help me give it a thorough cleaning
2967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out the next day, he replied, in the most earnest manner: "What
2968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu you mean, boss? You sholy ain't gwine clean out de hen-house in de
2969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day-time?"
2971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nearly all the work of getting the new location ready for school
2972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purposes was done by the students after school was over in the
2973 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afternoon. As soon as we got the cabins in condition to be used, I
2974 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu determined to clear up some land so that we could plant a crop. When I
2975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu explained my plan to the young men, I noticed that they did not seem
2976 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to take to it very kindly. It was hard for them to see the connection
2977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu between clearing land and an education. Besides, many of them had been
2978 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school-teachers, and they questioned whether or not clearing land would
2979 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be in keeping with their dignity. In order to relieve them from any
2980 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu embarrassment, each afternoon after school I took my axe and led the way
2981 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the woods. When they saw that I was not afraid or ashamed to work,
2982 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they began to assist with more enthusiasm. We kept at the work each
2983 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afternoon, until we had cleared about twenty acres and had planted a
2986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the meantime Miss Davidson was devising plans to repay the loan. Her
2987 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first effort was made by holding festivals, or "suppers." She made a
2988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu personal canvass among the white and coloured families in the town
2989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Tuskegee, and got them to agree to give something, like a cake, a
2990 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chicken, bread, or pies, that could be sold at the festival. Of course
2991 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured people were glad to give anything that they could spare,
2992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but I want to add that Miss Davidson did not apply to a single white
2993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu family, so far as I now remember, that failed to donate something; and
2994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in many ways the white families showed their interest in the school.
2996 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Several of these festivals were held, and quite a little sum of money
2997 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was raised. A canvass was also made among the people of both races for
2998 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu direct gifts of money, and most of those applied to gave small sums. It
2999 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was often pathetic to note the gifts of the older coloured people, most
3000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of whom had spent their best days in slavery. Sometimes they would give
3001 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu five cents, sometimes twenty-five cents. Sometimes the contribution was
3002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a quilt, or a quantity of sugarcane. I recall one old coloured women who
3003 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was about seventy years of age, who came to see me when we were raising
3004 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money to pay for the farm. She hobbled into the room where I was,
3005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu leaning on a cane. She was clad in rags; but they were clean. She said:
3006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Mr. Washin'ton, God knows I spent de bes' days of my life in slavery.
3007 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu God knows I's ignorant an' poor; but," she added, "I knows what you an'
3008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Miss Davidson is tryin' to do. I knows you is tryin' to make better men
3009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an' better women for de coloured race. I ain't got no money, but I wants
3010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu you to take dese six eggs, what I's been savin' up, an' I wants you to
3011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu put dese six eggs into the eddication of dese boys an' gals."
3013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Since the work at Tuskegee started, it has been my privilege to receive
3014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many gifts for the benefit of the institution, but never any, I think,
3015 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that touched me so deeply as this one.
3019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter IX. Anxious Days And Sleepless Nights
3021 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The coming of Christmas, that first year of our residence in Alabama,
3022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gave us an opportunity to get a farther insight into the real life of
3023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the people. The first thing that reminded us that Christmas had arrived
3024 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was the "foreday" visits of scores of children rapping at our doors,
3025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu asking for "Chris'mus gifts! Chris'mus gifts!" Between the hours of two
3026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu o'clock and five o'clock in the morning I presume that we must have had
3027 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a half-hundred such calls. This custom prevails throughout this portion
3028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the South to-day.
3030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally observed
3031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu throughout all the Southern states to give the coloured people a week of
3032 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu holiday at Christmas, or to allow the holiday to continue as long as the
3033 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "yule log" lasted. The male members of the race, and often the female
3034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu members, were expected to get drunk. We found that for a whole week
3035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured people in and around Tuskegee dropped work the day before
3036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Christmas, and that it was difficult for any one to perform any service
3037 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from the time they stopped work until after the New Year. Persons who at
3038 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other times did not use strong drink thought it quite the proper thing
3039 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to indulge in it rather freely during the Christmas week. There was
3040 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a widespread hilarity, and a free use of guns, pistols, and gunpowder
3041 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu generally. The sacredness of the season seemed to have been almost
3042 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wholly lost sight of.
3044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During this first Christmas vacation I went some distance from the town
3045 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to visit the people on one of the large plantations. In their poverty
3046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and ignorance it was pathetic to see their attempts to get joy out of
3047 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the season that in most parts of the country is so sacred and so dear to
3048 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the heart. In one cabin I notice that all that the five children had to
3049 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remind them of the coming of Christ was a single bunch of firecrackers,
3050 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which they had divided among them. In another cabin, where there were
3051 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at least a half-dozen persons, they had only ten cents' worth of
3052 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ginger-cakes, which had been bought in the store the day before. In
3053 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu another family they had only a few pieces of sugarcane. In still another
3054 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cabin I found nothing but a new jug of cheap, mean whiskey, which the
3055 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu husband and wife were making free use of, notwithstanding the fact that
3056 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the husband was one of the local ministers. In a few instances I found
3057 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the people had gotten hold of some bright-coloured cards that had
3058 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been designed for advertising purposes, and were making the most of
3059 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these. In other homes some member of the family had bought a new pistol.
3060 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the majority of cases there was nothing to be seen in the cabin to
3061 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remind one of the coming of the Saviour, except that the people had
3062 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ceased work in the fields and were lounging about their homes. At night,
3063 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during Christmas week, they usually had what they called a "frolic," in
3064 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some cabin on the plantation. That meant a kind of rough dance, where
3065 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there was likely to be a good deal of whiskey used, and where there
3066 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu might be some shooting or cutting with razors.
3068 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While I was making this Christmas visit I met an old coloured man who
3069 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was one of the numerous local preachers, who tried to convince me, from
3070 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the experience Adam had in the Garden of Eden, that God had cursed all
3071 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu labour, and that, therefore, it was a sin for any man to work. For that
3072 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reason this man sought to do as little work as possible. He seemed at
3073 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that time to be supremely happy, because he was living, as he expressed
3074 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it, through one week that was free from sin.
3076 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the school we made a special effort to teach our students the meaning
3077 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Christmas, and to give them lessons in its proper observance. In this
3078 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we have been successful to a degree that makes me feel safe in saying
3079 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the season now has a new meaning, not only through all that
3080 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu immediate region, but, in a measure, wherever our graduates have gone.
3082 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the present time one of the most satisfactory features of the
3083 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Christmas and Thanksgiving season at Tuskegee is the unselfish and
3084 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu beautiful way in which our graduates and students spend their time in
3085 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu administering to the comfort and happiness of others, especially the
3086 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unfortunate. Not long ago some of our young men spent a holiday
3087 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in rebuilding a cabin for a helpless coloured women who was about
3088 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seventy-five years old. At another time I remember that I made it known
3089 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in chapel, one night, that a very poor student was suffering from cold,
3090 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because he needed a coat. The next morning two coats were sent to my
3091 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu office for him.
3093 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have referred to the disposition on the part of the white people in
3094 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the town of Tuskegee and vicinity to help the school. From the first, I
3095 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu resolved to make the school a real part of the community in which it was
3096 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu located. I was determined that no one should have the feeling that it
3097 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a foreign institution, dropped down in the midst of the people, for
3098 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which they had no responsibility and in which they had no interest.
3099 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I noticed that the very fact that they had been asking to contribute
3100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu toward the purchase of the land made them begin to feel as if it was
3101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu going to be their school, to a large degree. I noted that just in
3102 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proportion as we made the white people feel that the institution was
3103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a part of the life of the community, and that, while we wanted to make
3104 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu friends in Boston, for example, we also wanted to make white friends in
3105 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee, and that we wanted to make the school of real service to all
3106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the people, their attitude toward the school became favourable.
3108 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Perhaps I might add right here, what I hope to demonstrate later, that,
3109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so far as I know, the Tuskegee school at the present time has no warmer
3110 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and more enthusiastic friends anywhere than it has among the white
3111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu citizens of Tuskegee and throughout the state of Alabama and the entire
3112 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South. From the first, I have advised our people in the South to
3113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu make friends in every straightforward, manly way with their next-door
3114 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu neighbour, whether he be a black man or a white man. I have also advised
3115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them, where no principle is at stake, to consult the interests of their
3116 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu local communities, and to advise with their friends in regard to their
3119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu For several months the work of securing the money with which to pay for
3120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the farm went on without ceasing. At the end of three months enough was
3121 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secured to repay the loan of two hundred and fifty dollars to General
3122 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Marshall, and within two months more we had secured the entire five
3123 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred dollars and had received a deed of the one hundred acres of
3124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu land. This gave us a great deal of satisfaction. It was not only a
3125 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu source of satisfaction to secure a permanent location for the school,
3126 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but it was equally satisfactory to know that the greater part of the
3127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money with which it was paid for had been gotten from the white and
3128 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured people in the town of Tuskegee. The most of this money was
3129 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu obtained by holding festivals and concerts, and from small individual
3130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu donations.
3132 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Our next effort was in the direction of increasing the cultivation of
3133 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the land, so as to secure some return from it, and at the same time give
3134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the students training in agriculture. All the industries at Tuskegee
3135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have been started in natural and logical order, growing out of the needs
3136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of a community settlement. We began with farming, because we wanted
3137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something to eat.
3139 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Many of the students, also, were able to remain in school but a few
3140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu weeks at a time, because they had so little money with which to pay
3141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their board. Thus another object which made it desirable to get an
3142 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu industrial system started was in order to make it available as a means
3143 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of helping the students to earn money enough so that they might be able
3144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to remain in school during the nine months' session of the school year.
3146 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first animal that the school came into possession of was an old
3147 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu blind horse given us by one of the white citizens of Tuskegee. Perhaps
3148 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I may add here that at the present time the school owns over two hundred
3149 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu horses, colts, mules, cows, calves, and oxen, and about seven hundred
3150 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hogs and pigs, as well as a large number of sheep and goats.
3152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The school was constantly growing in numbers, so much so that, after we
3153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had got the farm paid for, the cultivation of the land begun, and the
3154 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu old cabins which we had found on the place somewhat repaired, we turned
3155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our attention toward providing a large, substantial building. After
3156 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu having given a good deal of thought to the subject, we finally had the
3157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plans drawn for a building that was estimated to cost about six thousand
3158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dollars. This seemed to us a tremendous sum, but we knew that the school
3159 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu must go backward or forward, and that our work would mean little unless
3160 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we could get hold of the students in their home life.
3162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One incident which occurred about this time gave me a great deal of
3163 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfaction as well as surprise. When it became known in the town that
3164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were discussing the plans for a new, large building, a Southern white
3165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man who was operating a sawmill not far from Tuskegee came to me and
3166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu said that he would gladly put all the lumber necessary to erect the
3167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building on the grounds, with no other guarantee for payment than my
3168 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu word that it would be paid for when we secured some money. I told the
3169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man frankly that at the time we did not have in our hands one dollar of
3170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the money needed. Notwithstanding this, he insisted on being allowed to
3171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu put the lumber on the grounds. After we had secured some portion of the
3172 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money we permitted him to do this.
3174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Miss Davidson again began the work of securing in various ways small
3175 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contributions for the new building from the white and coloured people
3176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in and near Tuskegee. I think I never saw a community of people so happy
3177 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over anything as were the coloured people over the prospect of this new
3178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building. One day, when we were holding a meeting to secure funds for
3179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its erection, an old, ante-bellum coloured man came a distance of twelve
3180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu miles and brought in his ox-cart a large hog. When the meeting was in
3181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu progress, he rose in the midst of the company and said that he had no
3182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money which he could give, but he had raised two fine hogs, and that
3183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he had brought one of them as a contribution toward the expenses of the
3184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building. He closed his announcement by saying: "Any nigger that's got
3185 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any love for his race, or any respect for himself, will bring a hog
3186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the next meeting." Quite a number of men in the community also
3187 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu volunteered to give several days' work, each, toward the erection of the
3190 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After we had secured all the help that we could in Tuskegee, Miss
3191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Davidson decided to go North for the purpose of securing additional
3192 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu funds. For weeks she visited individuals and spoke in churches and
3193 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before Sunday schools and other organizations. She found this work quite
3194 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trying, and often embarrassing. The school was not known, but she was
3195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not long in winning her way into the confidence of the best people in
3196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the North.
3198 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first gift from any Northern person was received from a New York
3199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lady whom Miss Davidson met on the boat that was bringing her North.
3200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu They fell into a conversation, and the Northern lady became so much
3201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu interested in the effort being made at Tuskegee that before they parted
3202 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Miss Davidson was handed a check for fifty dollars. For some time before
3203 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our marriage, and also after it, Miss Davidson kept up the work of
3204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu securing money in the North and in the South by interesting people by
3205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu personal visits and through correspondence. At the same time she kept in
3206 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu close touch with the work at Tuskegee, as lady principal and classroom
3207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teacher. In addition to this, she worked among the older people in and
3208 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu near Tuskegee, and taught a Sunday school class in the town. She was
3209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never very strong, but never seemed happy unless she was giving all
3210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of her strength to the cause which she loved. Often, at night, after
3211 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spending the day in going from door to door trying to interest persons
3212 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the work at Tuskegee, she would be so exhausted that she could not
3213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu undress herself. A lady upon whom she called, in Boston, afterward told
3214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me that at one time when Miss Davidson called her to see and send up her
3215 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu card the lady was detained a little before she could see Miss Davidson,
3216 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and when she entered the parlour she found Miss Davidson so exhausted
3217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that she had fallen asleep.
3219 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While putting up our first building, which was named Porter Hall, after
3220 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. A.H. Porter, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who gave a generous sum toward
3221 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its erection, the need for money became acute. I had given one of our
3222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu creditors a promise that upon a certain day he should be paid four
3223 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred dollars. On the morning of that day we did not have a dollar.
3224 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The mail arrived at the school at ten o'clock, and in this mail there
3225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a check sent by Miss Davidson for exactly four hundred dollars.
3226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I could relate many instances of almost the same character. This four
3227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred dollars was given by two ladies in Boston. Two years later, when
3228 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the work at Tuskegee had grown considerably, and when we were in the
3229 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu midst of a season when we were so much in need of money that the future
3230 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu looked doubtful and gloomy, the same two Boston ladies sent us
3231 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu six thousand dollars. Words cannot describe our surprise, or the
3232 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu encouragement that the gift brought to us. Perhaps I might add here that
3233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for fourteen years these same friends have sent us six thousand dollars
3236 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As soon as the plans were drawn for the new building, the students began
3237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu digging out the earth where the foundations were to be laid, working
3238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after the regular classes were over. They had not fully outgrown the
3239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu idea that it was hardly the proper thing for them to use their hands,
3240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu since they had come there, as one of them expressed it, "to be educated,
3241 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and not to work." Gradually, though, I noted with satisfaction that a
3242 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sentiment in favour of work was gaining ground. After a few weeks of
3243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hard work the foundations were ready, and a day was appointed for the
3244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu laying of the corner-stone.
3246 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When it is considered that the laying of this corner-stone took place in
3247 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the heart of the South, in the "Black Belt," in the centre of that
3248 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu part of our country that was most devoted to slavery; that at that time
3249 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu slavery had been abolished only about sixteen years; that only sixteen
3250 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years before no Negro could be taught from books without the teacher
3251 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu receiving the condemnation of the law or of public sentiment--when all
3252 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this is considered, the scene that was witnessed on that spring day at
3253 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee was a remarkable one. I believe there are few places in the
3254 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu world where it could have taken place.
3256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The principal address was delivered by the Hon. Waddy Thompson, the
3257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Superintendent of Education for the county. About the corner-stone were
3258 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gathered the teachers, the students, their parents and friends, the
3259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu county officials--who were white--and all the leading white men in that
3260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vicinity, together with many of the black men and women whom the same
3261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white people but a few years before had held a title to as property. The
3262 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu members of both races were anxious to exercise the privilege of placing
3263 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu under the corner-stone some momento.
3265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Before the building was completed we passed through some very trying
3266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seasons. More than once our hearts were made to bleed, as it were,
3267 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because bills were falling due that we did not have the money to meet.
3268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Perhaps no one who has not gone through the experience, month after
3269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu month, of trying to erect buildings and provide equipment for a
3270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school when no one knew where the money was to come from, can properly
3271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu appreciate the difficulties under which we laboured. During the first
3272 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years at Tuskegee I recall that night after night I would roll and toss
3273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on my bed, without sleep, because of the anxiety and uncertainty which
3274 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were in regarding money. I knew that, in a large degree, we were
3275 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trying an experiment--that of testing whether or not it was possible
3276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for Negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large education
3277 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu institution. I knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race.
3278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I knew that the presumption was against us. I knew that in the case of
3279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white people beginning such an enterprise it would be taken for granted
3280 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that they were going to succeed, but in our case I felt that people
3281 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would be surprised if we succeeded. All this made a burden which pressed
3282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down on us, sometimes, it seemed, at the rate of a thousand pounds to
3283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the square inch.
3285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In all our difficulties and anxieties, however, I never went to a white
3286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or a black person in the town of Tuskegee for any assistance that was
3287 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in their power to render, without being helped according to their means.
3288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu More than a dozen times, when bills figuring up into the hundreds of
3289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dollars were falling due, I applied to the white men of Tuskegee for
3290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu small loans, often borrowing small amounts from as many as a half-dozen
3291 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu persons, to meet our obligations. One thing I was determined to do from
3292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the first, and that was to keep the credit of the school high; and
3293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this, I think I can say without boasting, we have done all through these
3296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I shall always remember a bit of advice given me by Mr. George W.
3297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Campbell, the white man to whom I have referred to as the one who
3298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu induced General Armstrong to send me to Tuskegee. Soon after I entered
3299 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon the work Mr. Campbell said to me, in his fatherly way: "Washington,
3300 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu always remember that credit is capital."
3302 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At one time when we were in the greatest distress for money that we ever
3303 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu experienced, I placed the situation frankly before General Armstrong.
3304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Without hesitation he gave me his personal check for all the money which
3305 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he had saved for his own use. This was not the only time that General
3306 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong helped Tuskegee in this way. I do not think I have ever made
3307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this fact public before.
3309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the summer of 1882, at the end of the first year's work of the
3310 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school, I was married to Miss Fannie N. Smith, of Malden, W. Va. We
3311 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu began keeping house in Tuskegee early in the fall. This made a home for
3312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our teachers, who now had been increased to four in number. My wife was
3313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu also a graduate of the Hampton Institute. After earnest and constant
3314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work in the interests of the school, together with her housekeeping
3315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu duties, my wife passed away in May, 1884. One child, Portia M.
3316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington, was born during our marriage.
3318 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the first, my wife most earnestly devoted her thoughts and time to
3319 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the work of the school, and was completely one with me in every interest
3320 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and ambition. She passed away, however, before she had an opportunity of
3321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seeing what the school was designed to be.
3325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter X. A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw
3327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the very beginning, at Tuskegee, I was determined to have the
3328 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students do not only the agricultural and domestic work, but to
3329 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have them erect their own buildings. My plan was to have them, while
3330 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu performing this service, taught the latest and best methods of labour,
3331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so that the school would not only get the benefit of their efforts,
3332 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but the students themselves would be taught to see not only utility in
3333 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu labour, but beauty and dignity; would be taught, in fact, how to lift
3334 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu labour up from mere drudgery and toil, and would learn to love work for
3335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its own sake. My plan was not to teach them to work in the old way,
3336 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but to show them how to make the forces of nature--air, water, steam,
3337 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu electricity, horse-power--assist them in their labour.
3339 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At first many advised against the experiment of having the buildings
3340 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu erected by the labour of the students, but I was determined to stick to
3341 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it. I told those who doubted the wisdom of the plan that I knew that
3342 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our first buildings would not be so comfortable or so complete in their
3343 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu finish as buildings erected by the experienced hands of outside workmen,
3344 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but that in the teaching of civilization, self-help, and self-reliance,
3345 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the erection of buildings by the students themselves would more than
3346 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu compensate for any lack of comfort or fine finish.
3348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I further told those who doubted the wisdom of this plan, that the
3349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu majority of our students came to us in poverty, from the cabins of the
3350 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the South, and that while I knew
3351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it would please the students very much to place them at once in finely
3352 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constructed buildings, I felt that it would be following out a more
3353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu natural process of development to teach them how to construct their own
3354 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu buildings. Mistakes I knew would be made, but these mistakes would teach
3355 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu us valuable lessons for the future.
3357 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the now nineteen years' existence of the Tuskegee school, the
3358 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plan of having the buildings erected by student labour has been adhered
3359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to. In this time forty buildings, counting small and large, have been
3360 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu built, and all except four are almost wholly the product of student
3361 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu labour. As an additional result, hundreds of men are now scattered
3362 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu throughout the South who received their knowledge of mechanics while
3363 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being taught how to erect these buildings. Skill and knowledge are now
3364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu handed down from one set of students to another in this way, until
3365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the present time a building of any description or size can be
3366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constructed wholly by our instructors and students, from the drawing of
3367 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the plans to the putting in of the electric fixtures, without going off
3368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the grounds for a single workman.
3370 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Not a few times, when a new student has been led into the temptation of
3371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu marring the looks of some building by leadpencil marks or by the cuts
3372 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of a jack-knife, I have heard an old student remind him: "Don't do that.
3373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu That is our building. I helped put it up."
3375 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the early days of the school I think my most trying experience was
3376 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the matter of brickmaking. As soon as we got the farm work reasonably
3377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu well started, we directed our next efforts toward the industry of making
3378 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bricks. We needed these for use in connection with the erection of our
3379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu own buildings; but there was also another reason for establishing this
3380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu industry. There was no brickyard in the town, and in addition to our own
3381 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu needs there was a demand for bricks in the general market.
3383 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had always sympathized with the "Children of Israel," in their task
3384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of "making bricks without straw," but ours was the task of making bricks
3385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with no money and no experience.
3387 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the first place, the work was hard and dirty, and it was difficult
3388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get the students to help. When it came to brickmaking, their distaste
3389 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for manual labour in connection with book education became especially
3390 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu manifest. It was not a pleasant task for one to stand in the mud-pit for
3391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hours, with the mud up to his knees. More than one man became disgusted
3392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and left the school.
3394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We tried several locations before we opened up a pit that furnished
3395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brick clay. I had always supposed that brickmaking was very simple, but
3396 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I soon found out by bitter experience that it required special skill and
3397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knowledge, particularly in the burning of the bricks. After a good deal
3398 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of effort we moulded about twenty-five thousand bricks, and put them
3399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu into a kiln to be burned. This kiln turned out to be a failure, because
3400 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it was not properly constructed or properly burned. We began at once,
3401 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu however, on a second kiln. This, for some reason, also proved a failure.
3402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The failure of this kiln made it still more difficult to get the
3403 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students to take part in the work. Several of the teachers, however,
3404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who had been trained in the industries at Hampton, volunteered their
3405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu services, and in some way we succeeded in getting a third kiln ready for
3406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu burning. The burning of a kiln required about a week. Toward the latter
3407 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu part of the week, when it seemed as if we were going to have a good
3408 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many thousand bricks in a few hours, in the middle of the night the kiln
3409 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fell. For the third time we had failed.
3411 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The failure of this last kiln left me without a single dollar with which
3412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to make another experiment. Most of the teachers advised the abandoning
3413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the effort to make bricks. In the midst of my troubles I thought of
3414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a watch which had come into my possession years before. I took the watch
3415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the city of Montgomery, which was not far distant, and placed it in a
3416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pawn-shop. I secured cash upon it to the amount of fifteen dollars, with
3417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which to renew the brickmaking experiment. I returned to Tuskegee, and,
3418 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with the help of the fifteen dollars, rallied our rather demoralized and
3419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discouraged forces and began a fourth attempt to make bricks. This time,
3420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am glad to say, we were successful. Before I got hold of any money,
3421 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the time-limit on my watch had expired, and I have never seen it since;
3422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but I have never regretted the loss of it.
3424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Brickmaking has now become such an important industry at the school
3425 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that last season our students manufactured twelve hundred thousand of
3426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first-class bricks, of a quality suitable to be sold in any market. Aside
3427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from this, scores of young men have mastered the brickmaking trade--both
3428 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the making of bricks by hand and by machinery--and are now engaged in
3429 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this industry in many parts of the South.
3431 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The making of these bricks taught me an important lesson in regard to
3432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the relations of the two races in the South. Many white people who had
3433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had no contact with the school, and perhaps no sympathy with it, came to
3434 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu us to buy bricks because they found out that ours were good bricks.
3435 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu They discovered that we were supplying a real want in the community.
3436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The making of these bricks caused many of the white residents of the
3437 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu neighbourhood to begin to feel that the education of the Negro was not
3438 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu making him worthless, but that in educating our students we were adding
3439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something to the wealth and comfort of the community. As the people of
3440 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the neighbourhood came to us to buy bricks, we got acquainted with them;
3441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they traded with us and we with them. Our business interests became
3442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intermingled. We had something which they wanted; they had something
3443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which we wanted. This, in a large measure, helped to lay the foundation
3444 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the pleasant relations that have continued to exist between us and
3445 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the white people in that section, and which now extend throughout the
3448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Wherever one of our brickmakers has gone in the South, we find that
3449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he has something to contribute to the well-being of the community into
3450 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which he has gone; something that has made the community feel that, in
3451 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a degree, it is indebted to him, and perhaps, to a certain extent,
3452 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dependent upon him. In this way pleasant relations between the races
3453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have been stimulated.
3455 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My experience is that there is something in human nature which always
3456 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu makes an individual recognize and reward merit, no matter under what
3457 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu colour of skin merit is found. I have found, too, that it is the
3458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu visible, the tangible, that goes a long ways in softening prejudices.
3459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten
3460 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought
3461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to build, or perhaps could build.
3463 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The same principle of industrial education has been carried out in the
3464 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building of our own wagons, carts, and buggies, from the first. We now
3465 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu own and use on our farm and about the school dozens of these vehicles,
3466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and every one of them has been built by the hands of the students. Aside
3467 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from this, we help supply the local market with these vehicles. The
3468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu supplying of them to the people in the community has had the same effect
3469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the supplying of bricks, and the man who learns at Tuskegee to build
3470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and repair wagons and carts is regarded as a benefactor by both races in
3471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the community where he goes. The people with whom he lives and works are
3472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu going to think twice before they part with such a man.
3474 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The individual who can do something that the world wants done will,
3475 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the end, make his way regardless of race. One man may go into a
3476 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu community prepared to supply the people there with an analysis of Greek
3477 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sentences. The community may not at the time be prepared for, or feel
3478 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the need of, Greek analysis, but it may feel its need of bricks and
3479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu houses and wagons. If the man can supply the need for those, then, it
3480 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu will lead eventually to a demand for the first product, and with the
3481 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu demand will come the ability to appreciate it and to profit by it.
3483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu About the time that we succeeded in burning our first kiln of bricks
3484 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we began facing in an emphasized form the objection of the students
3485 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to being taught to work. By this time it had gotten to be pretty well
3486 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu advertised throughout the state that every student who came to Tuskegee,
3487 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu no matter what his financial ability might be, must learn some industry.
3488 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Quite a number of letters came from parents protesting against their
3489 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu children engaging in labour while they were in the school. Other parents
3490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came to the school to protest in person. Most of the new students
3491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brought a written or a verbal request from their parents to the effect
3492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that they wanted their children taught nothing but books. The more
3493 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu books, the larger they were, and the longer the titles printed upon
3494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them, the better pleased the students and their parents seemed to be.
3496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I gave little heed to these protests, except that I lost no opportunity
3497 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to go into as many parts of the state as I could, for the purpose
3498 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of speaking to the parents, and showing them the value of industrial
3499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education. Besides, I talked to the students constantly on the subject.
3500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Notwithstanding the unpopularity of industrial work, the school
3501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu continued to increase in numbers to such an extent that by the middle of
3502 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the second year there was an attendance of about one hundred and fifty,
3503 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu representing almost all parts of the state of Alabama, and including a
3504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu few from other states.
3506 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the summer of 1882 Miss Davidson and I both went North and engaged in
3507 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the work of raising funds for the completion of our new building. On my
3508 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu way North I stopped in New York to try to get a letter of recommendation
3509 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from an officer of a missionary organization who had become somewhat
3510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu acquainted with me a few years previous. This man not only refused to
3511 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu give me the letter, but advised me most earnestly to go back home at
3512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu once, and not make any attempt to get money, for he was quite sure that
3513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I would never get more than enough to pay my travelling expenses. I
3514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thanked him for his advice, and proceeded on my journey.
3516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first place I went to in the North, was Northampton, Mass., where
3517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I spent nearly a half-day in looking for a coloured family with whom I
3518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could board, never dreaming that any hotel would admit me. I was
3519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatly surprised when I found that I would have no trouble in being
3520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accommodated at a hotel.
3522 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We were successful in getting money enough so that on Thanksgiving Day
3523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of that year we held our first service in the chapel of Porter Hall,
3524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu although the building was not completed.
3526 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In looking about for some one to preach the Thanksgiving sermon, I found
3527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of the rarest men that it has ever been my privilege to know. This
3528 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was the Rev. Robert C. Bedford, a white man from Wisconsin, who was then
3529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pastor of a little coloured Congregational church in Montgomery, Ala.
3530 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Before going to Montgomery to look for some one to preach this sermon
3531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had never heard of Mr. Bedford. He had never heard of me. He gladly
3532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consented to come to Tuskegee and hold the Thanksgiving service. It was
3533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the first service of the kind that the coloured people there had ever
3534 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu observed, and what a deep interest they manifested in it! The sight
3535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the new building made it a day of Thanksgiving for them never to be
3536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu forgotten.
3538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Bedford consented to become one of the trustees of the school, and
3539 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in that capacity, and as a worker for it, he has been connected with it
3540 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for eighteen years. During this time he has borne the school upon his
3541 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heart night and day, and is never so happy as when he is performing some
3542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu service, no matter how humble, for it. He completely obliterates himself
3543 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in everything, and looks only for permission to serve where service is
3544 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most disagreeable, and where others would not be attracted. In all my
3545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relations with him he has seemed to me to approach as nearly to the
3546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spirit of the Master as almost any man I ever met.
3548 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu A little later there came into the service of the school another man,
3549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu quite young at the time, and fresh from Hampton, without whose service
3550 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the school never could have become what it is. This was Mr. Warren
3551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Logan, who now for seventeen years has been the treasurer of the
3552 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute, and the acting principal during my absence. He has always
3553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shown a degree of unselfishness and an amount of business tact, coupled
3554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with a clear judgment, that has kept the school in good condition no
3555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu matter how long I have been absent from it. During all the financial
3556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stress through which the school has passed, his patience and faith in
3557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our ultimate success have not left him.
3559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As soon as our first building was near enough to completion so that we
3560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could occupy a portion of it--which was near the middle of the second
3561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu year of the school--we opened a boarding department. Students had begun
3562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coming from quite a distance, and in such increasing numbers that we
3563 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu felt more and more that we were merely skimming over the surface, in
3564 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that we were not getting hold of the students in their home life.
3566 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We had nothing but the students and their appetites with which to begin
3567 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a boarding department. No provision had been made in the new building
3568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for a kitchen and dining room; but we discovered that by digging out a
3569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large amount of earth from under the building we could make a partially
3570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lighted basement room that could be used for a kitchen and dining room.
3571 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Again I called on the students to volunteer for work, this time to
3572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu assist in digging out the basement. This they did, and in a few weeks
3573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we had a place to cook and eat in, although it was very rough and
3574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu uncomfortable. Any one seeing the place now would never believe that it
3575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was once used for a dining room.
3577 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The most serious problem, though, was to get the boarding department
3578 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu started off in running order, with nothing to do with in the way of
3579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu furniture, and with no money with which to buy anything. The merchants
3580 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the town would let us have what food we wanted on credit. In fact, in
3581 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those earlier years I was constantly embarrassed because people seemed
3582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to have more faith in me than I had in myself. It was pretty hard to
3583 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cook, however, without stoves, and awkward to eat without dishes. At
3584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first the cooking was done out-of-doors, in the old-fashioned, primitive
3585 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu style, in pots and skillets placed over a fire. Some of the carpenters'
3586 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu benches that had been used in the construction of the building were
3587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu utilized for tables. As for dishes, there were too few to make it worth
3588 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu while to spend time in describing them.
3590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu No one connected with the boarding department seemed to have any idea
3591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that meals must be served at certain fixed and regular hours, and this
3592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a source of great worry. Everything was so out of joint and so
3593 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inconvenient that I feel safe in saying that for the first two weeks
3594 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something was wrong at every meal. Either the meat was not done or had
3595 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been burnt, or the salt had been left out of the bread, or the tea had
3596 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been forgotten.
3598 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Early one morning I was standing near the dining-room door listening
3599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the complaints of the students. The complaints that morning were
3600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu especially emphatic and numerous, because the whole breakfast had been
3601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a failure. One of the girls who had failed to get any breakfast came out
3602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and went to the well to draw some water to drink and take the place of
3603 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the breakfast which she had not been able to get. When she reached
3604 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the well, she found that the rope was broken and that she could get no
3605 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu water. She turned from the well and said, in the most discouraged tone,
3606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not knowing that I was where I could hear her, "We can't even get
3607 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu water to drink at this school." I think no one remark ever came so near
3608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discouraging me as that one.
3610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At another time, when Mr. Bedford--whom I have already spoken of as one
3611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of our trustees, and a devoted friend of the institution--was visiting
3612 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the school, he was given a bedroom immediately over the dining room.
3613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Early in the morning he was awakened by a rather animated discussion
3614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu between two boys in the dining room below. The discussion was over the
3615 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu question as to whose turn it was to use the coffee-cup that morning. One
3616 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu boy won the case by proving that for three mornings he had not had an
3617 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to use the cup at all.
3619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But gradually, with patience and hard work, we brought order out of
3620 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chaos, just as will be true of any problem if we stick to it with
3621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu patience and wisdom and earnest effort.
3623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As I look back now over that part of our struggle, I am glad to see
3624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that we had it. I am glad that we endured all those discomforts and
3625 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inconveniences. I am glad that our students had to dig out the place for
3626 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their kitchen and dining room. I am glad that our first boarding-place
3627 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was in the dismal, ill-lighted, and damp basement. Had we started in a
3628 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fine, attractive, convenient room, I fear we would have "lost our heads"
3629 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and become "stuck up." It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a
3630 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu foundation which one has made for one's self.
3632 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When our old students return to Tuskegee now, as they often do, and
3633 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu go into our large, beautiful, well-ventilated, and well-lighted dining
3634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu room, and see tempting, well-cooked food--largely grown by the students
3635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu themselves--and see tables, neat tablecloths and napkins, and vases of
3636 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu flowers upon the tables, and hear singing birds, and note that each meal
3637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is served exactly upon the minute, with no disorder, and with almost no
3638 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu complaint coming from the hundreds that now fill our dining room, they,
3639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu too, often say to me that they are glad that we started as we did,
3640 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and built ourselves up year by year, by a slow and natural process of
3645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XI. Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them
3647 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu A little later in the history of the school we had a visit from General
3648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu J.F.B. Marshall, the Treasurer of the Hampton Institute, who had had
3649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu faith enough to lend us the first two hundred and fifty dollars with
3650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which to make a payment down on the farm. He remained with us a week,
3651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and made a careful inspection of everything. He seemed well pleased
3652 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with our progress, and wrote back interesting and encouraging reports to
3653 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton. A little later Miss Mary F. Mackie, the teacher who had given
3654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me the "sweeping" examination when I entered Hampton, came to see us,
3655 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and still later General Armstrong himself came.
3657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the time of the visits of these Hampton friends the number of
3658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers at Tuskegee had increased considerably, and the most of the new
3659 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers were graduates of the Hampton Institute. We gave our Hampton
3660 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu friends, especially General Armstrong, a cordial welcome. They were all
3661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surprised and pleased at the rapid progress that the school had made
3662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu within so short a time. The coloured people from miles around came to
3663 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the school to get a look at General Armstrong, about whom they had heard
3664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so much. The General was not only welcomed by the members of my own
3665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race, but by the Southern white people as well.
3667 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This first visit which General Armstrong made to Tuskegee gave me an
3668 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to get an insight into his character such as I had not
3669 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before had. I refer to his interest in the Southern white people. Before
3670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this I had had the thought that General Armstrong, having fought the
3671 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern white man, rather cherished a feeling of bitterness toward the
3672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white South, and was interested in helping only the coloured man there.
3673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But this visit convinced me that I did not know the greatness and the
3674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu generosity of the man. I soon learned, by his visits to the Southern
3675 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white people, and from his conversations with them, that he was as
3676 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anxious about the prosperity and the happiness of the white race as the
3677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu black. He cherished no bitterness against the South, and was happy
3678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when an opportunity offered for manifesting his sympathy. In all my
3679 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu acquaintance with General Armstrong I never heard him speak, in public
3680 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or in private, a single bitter word against the white man in the South.
3681 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From his example in this respect I learned the lesson that great men
3682 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred.
3683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it
3684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.
3686 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It is now long ago that I learned this lesson from General Armstrong,
3687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might
3688 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God's
3689 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling
3690 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu toward the Southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted
3691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon my race. I am made to feel just as happy now when I am rendering
3692 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu service to Southern white men as when the service is rendered to a
3693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu member of my own race. I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual
3694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race
3695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prejudice.
3697 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The more I consider the subject, the more strongly I am convinced that
3698 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most harmful effect of the practice to which the people in certain
3699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sections of the South have felt themselves compelled to resort, in order
3700 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get rid of the force of the Negroes' ballot, is not wholly in the
3701 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wrong done to the Negro, but in the permanent injury to the morals of
3702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the white man. The wrong to the Negro is temporary, but to the morals of
3703 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the white man the injury is permanent. I have noted time and time again
3704 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that when an individual perjures himself in order to break the force of
3705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the black man's ballot, he soon learns to practise dishonesty in other
3706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relations of life, not only where the Negro is concerned, but equally so
3707 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu where a white man is concerned. The white man who begins by cheating a
3708 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro usually ends by cheating a white man. The white man who begins to
3709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu break the law by lynching a Negro soon yields to the temptation to lynch
3710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a white man. All this, it seems to me, makes it important that the whole
3711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nation lend a hand in trying to lift the burden of ignorance from the
3714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Another thing that is becoming more apparent each year in the
3715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu development of education in the South is the influence of General
3716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong's idea of education; and this not upon the blacks alone, but
3717 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon the whites also. At the present time there is almost no Southern
3718 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu state that is not putting forth efforts in the direction of securing
3719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu industrial education for its white boys and girls, and in most cases it
3720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is easy to trace the history of these efforts back to General Armstrong.
3722 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after the opening of our humble boarding department students began
3723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coming to us in still larger numbers. For weeks we not only had to
3724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contend with the difficulty of providing board, with no money, but also
3725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with that of providing sleeping accommodations. For this purpose we
3726 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rented a number of cabins near the school. These cabins were in a
3727 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dilapidated condition, and during the winter months the students who
3728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occupied them necessarily suffered from the cold. We charge the students
3729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eight dollars a month--all they were able to pay--for their board.
3730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This included, besides board, room, fuel, and washing. We also gave the
3731 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students credit on their board bills for all the work which they did
3732 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the school which was of any value to the institution. The cost of
3733 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tuition, which was fifty dollars a year for each student, we had to
3734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secure then, as now, wherever we could.
3736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This small charge in cash gave us no capital with which to start a
3737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu boarding department. The weather during the second winter of our work
3738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was very cold. We were not able to provide enough bed-clothes to keep
3739 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the students warm. In fact, for some time we were not able to provide,
3740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu except in a few cases, bedsteads and mattresses of any kind. During the
3741 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coldest nights I was so troubled about the discomfort of the students
3742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I could not sleep myself. I recall that on several occasions I went
3743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the middle of the night to the shanties occupied by the young men,
3744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the purpose of confronting them. Often I found some of them sitting
3745 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu huddled around a fire, with the one blanket which we had been able to
3746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provide wrapped around them, trying in this way to keep warm. During the
3747 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whole night some of them did not attempt to lie down. One morning,
3748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when the night previous had been unusually cold, I asked those of the
3749 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students in the chapel who thought that they had been frostbitten during
3750 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the night to raise their hands. Three hands went up. Notwithstanding
3751 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these experiences, there was almost no complaining on the part of the
3752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students. They knew that we were doing the best that we could for them.
3753 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu They were happy in the privilege of being permitted to enjoy any kind of
3754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity that would enable them to improve their condition. They
3755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were constantly asking what they might do to lighten the burdens of the
3758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have heard it stated more than once, both in the North and in the
3759 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South, that coloured people would not obey and respect each other when
3760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one member of the race is placed in a position of authority over others.
3761 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In regard to this general belief and these statements, I can say that
3762 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during the nineteen years of my experience at Tuskegee I never, either
3763 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by word or act, have been treated with disrespect by any student
3764 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or officer connected with the institution. On the other hand, I am
3765 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constantly embarrassed by the many acts of thoughtful kindness. The
3766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students do not seem to want to see me carry a large book or a satchel
3767 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or any kind of a burden through the grounds. In such cases more than one
3768 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu always offers to relieve me. I almost never go out of my office when
3769 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the rain is falling that some student does not come to my side with an
3770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu umbrella and ask to be allowed to hold it over me.
3772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While writing upon this subject, it is a pleasure for me to add that in
3773 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all my contact with the white people of the South I have never received
3774 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a single personal insult. The white people in and near Tuskegee, to
3775 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an especial degree, seem to count it as a privilege to show me all the
3776 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu respect within their power, and often go out of their way to do this.
3778 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Not very long ago I was making a journey between Dallas (Texas) and
3779 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Houston. In some way it became known in advance that I was on the train.
3780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At nearly every station at which the train stopped, numbers of white
3781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people, including in most cases of the officials of the town, came
3782 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu aboard and introduced themselves and thanked me heartily for the work
3783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I was trying to do for the South.
3785 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On another occasion, when I was making a trip from Augusta, Georgia,
3786 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to Atlanta, being rather tired from much travel, I rode in a Pullman
3787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sleeper. When I went into the car, I found there two ladies from Boston
3788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whom I knew well. These good ladies were perfectly ignorant, it seems,
3789 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the customs of the South, and in the goodness of their hearts
3790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu insisted that I take a seat with them in their section. After some
3791 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hesitation I consented. I had been there but a few minutes when one of
3792 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them, without my knowledge, ordered supper to be served for the three
3793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of us. This embarrassed me still further. The car was full of Southern
3794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white men, most of whom had their eyes on our party. When I found that
3795 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu supper had been ordered, I tried to contrive some excuse that would
3796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permit me to leave the section, but the ladies insisted that I must eat
3797 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with them. I finally settled back in my seat with a sigh, and said to
3798 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu myself, "I am in for it now, sure."
3800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To add further to the embarrassment of the situation, soon after the
3801 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu supper was placed on the table one of the ladies remembered that she had
3802 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in her satchel a special kind of tea which she wished served, and as
3803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu she said she felt quite sure the porter did not know how to brew it
3804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu properly, she insisted upon getting up and preparing and serving it
3805 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu herself. At last the meal was over; and it seemed the longest one that I
3806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had ever eaten. When we were through, I decided to get myself out of the
3807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu embarrassing situation and go to the smoking-room, where most of the men
3808 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were by that time, to see how the land lay. In the meantime, however, it
3809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had become known in some way throughout the car who I was. When I went
3810 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu into the smoking-room I was never more surprised in my life than when
3811 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu each man, nearly every one of them a citizen of Georgia, came up and
3812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu introduced himself to me and thanked me earnestly for the work that I
3813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was trying to do for the whole South. This was not flattery, because
3814 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu each one of these individuals knew that he had nothing to gain by trying
3815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to flatter me.
3817 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the first I have sought to impress the students with the idea that
3818 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee is not my institution, or that of the officers, but that it is
3819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their institution, and that they have as much interest in it as any of
3820 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the trustees or instructors. I have further sought to have them feel
3821 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I am at the institution as their friend and adviser, and not as
3822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their overseer. It has been my aim to have them speak with directness
3823 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and frankness about anything that concerns the life of the school.
3824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Two or three times a year I ask the students to write me a letter
3825 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu criticising or making complaints or suggestions about anything connected
3826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with the institution. When this is not done, I have them meet me in the
3827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chapel for a heart-to-heart talk about the conduct of the school. There
3828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are no meetings with our students that I enjoy more than these, and none
3829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are more helpful to me in planning for the future. These meetings, it
3830 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seems to me, enable me to get at the very heart of all that concerns the
3831 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school. Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility
3832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. When I have read of
3833 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu labour troubles between employers and employees, I have often thought
3834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that many strikes and similar disturbances might be avoided if
3835 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the employers would cultivate the habit of getting nearer to their
3836 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu employees, of consulting and advising with them, and letting them feel
3837 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the interests of the two are the same. Every individual responds to
3838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu confidence, and this is not more true of any race than of the Negroes.
3839 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Let them once understand that you are unselfishly interested in them,
3840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and you can lead them to any extent.
3842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was my aim from the first at Tuskegee to not only have the buildings
3843 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu erected by the students themselves, but to have them make their own
3844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu furniture as far as was possible. I now marvel at the patience of the
3845 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students while sleeping upon the floor while waiting for some kind of a
3846 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bedstead to be constructed, or at their sleeping without any kind of a
3847 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mattress while waiting for something that looked like a mattress to be
3850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the early days we had very few students who had been used to handling
3851 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu carpenters' tools, and the bedsteads made by the students then were very
3852 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rough and very weak. Not unfrequently when I went into the students'
3853 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rooms in the morning I would find at least two bedsteads lying about on
3854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the floor. The problem of providing mattresses was a difficult one to
3855 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu solve. We finally mastered this, however, by getting some cheap cloth
3856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and sewing pieces of this together as to make large bags. These bags
3857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we filled with the pine straw--or, as it is sometimes called, pine
3858 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu needles--which we secured from the forests near by. I am glad to say
3859 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the industry of mattress-making has grown steadily since then, and
3860 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu has been improved to such an extent that at the present time it is an
3861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu important branch of the work which is taught systematically to a
3862 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of our girls, and that the mattresses that now come out of the
3863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mattress-shop at Tuskegee are about as good as those bought in
3864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the average store. For some time after the opening of the boarding
3865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu department we had no chairs in the students' bedrooms or in the dining
3866 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rooms. Instead of chairs we used stools which the students constructed
3867 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by nailing together three pieces of rough board. As a rule, the
3868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu furniture in the students' rooms during the early days of the school
3869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consisted of a bed, some stools, and sometimes a rough table made by the
3870 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students. The plan of having the students make the furniture is still
3871 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu followed, but the number of pieces in a room has been increased, and
3872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the workmanship has so improved that little fault can be found with the
3873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu articles now. One thing that I have always insisted upon at Tuskegee
3874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is that everywhere there should be absolute cleanliness. Over and over
3875 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu again the students were reminded in those first years--and are reminded
3876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu now--that people would excuse us for our poverty, for our lack of
3877 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comforts and conveniences, but that they would not excuse us for dirt.
3879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Another thing that has been insisted upon at the school is the use of
3880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the tooth-brush. "The gospel of the tooth-brush," as General Armstrong
3881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu used to call it, is part of our creed at Tuskegee. No student is
3882 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permitted to retain who does not keep and use a tooth-brush. Several
3883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu times, in recent years, students have come to us who brought with them
3884 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu almost no other article except a tooth-brush. They had heard from the
3885 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lips of other students about our insisting upon the use of this, and
3886 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so, to make a good impression, they brought at least a tooth-brush with
3887 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them. I remember that one morning, not long ago, I went with the lady
3888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu principal on her usual morning tour of inspection of the girls' rooms.
3889 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We found one room that contained three girls who had recently arrived
3890 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the school. When I asked them if they had tooth-brushes, one of the
3891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu girls replied, pointing to a brush: "Yes, sir. That is our brush. We
3892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bought it together, yesterday." It did not take them long to learn a
3893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu different lesson.
3895 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It has been interesting to note the effect that the use of the
3896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tooth-brush has had in bringing about a higher degree of civilization
3897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among the students. With few exceptions, I have noticed that, if we can
3898 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu get a student to the point where, when the first or second tooth-brush
3899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu disappears, he of his own motion buys another, I have not been
3900 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu disappointed in the future of that individual. Absolute cleanliness of
3901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the body has been insisted upon from the first. The students have been
3902 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taught to bathe as regularly as to take their meals. This lesson we
3903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu began teaching before we had anything in the shape of a bath-house.
3904 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Most of the students came from plantation districts, and often we had
3905 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to teach them how to sleep at night; that is, whether between the
3906 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu two sheets--after we got to the point where we could provide them two
3907 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sheets--or under both of them. Naturally I found it difficult to teach
3908 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them to sleep between two sheets when we were able to supply but one.
3909 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The importance of the use of the night-gown received the same attention.
3911 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu For a long time one of the most difficult tasks was to teach the
3912 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students that all the buttons were to be kept on their clothes, and that
3913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there must be no torn places or grease-spots. This lesson, I am pleased
3914 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to be able to say, has been so thoroughly learned and so faithfully
3915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu handed down from year to year by one set of students to another that
3916 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu often at the present time, when the students march out of the chapel in
3917 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the evening and their dress is inspected, as it is every night, not one
3918 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu button is found to be missing.
3922 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XII. Raising Money
3924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When we opened our boarding department, we provided rooms in the attic
3925 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Porter Hall, our first building, for a number of girls. But the
3926 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of students, of both sexes, continued to increase. We could find
3927 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rooms outside the school grounds for many of the young men, but the
3928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu girls we did not care to expose in this way. Very soon the problem
3929 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of providing more rooms for the girls, as well as a larger boarding
3930 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu department for all the students, grew serious. As a result, we finally
3931 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu decided to undertake the construction of a still larger building--a
3932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building that would contain rooms for the girls and boarding
3933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accommodations for all.
3935 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After having had a preliminary sketch of the needed building made, we
3936 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found that it would cost about ten thousand dollars. We had no money
3937 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whatever with which to begin; still we decided to give the needed
3938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu building a name. We knew we could name it, even though we were in doubt
3939 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about our ability to secure the means for its construction. We decided
3940 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to call the proposed building Alabama Hall, in honour of the state in
3941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which we were labouring. Again Miss Davidson began making efforts to
3942 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enlist the interest and help of the coloured and white people in and
3943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu near Tuskegee. They responded willingly, in proportion to their means.
3944 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The students, as in the case of our first building, Porter Hall, began
3945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu digging out the dirt in order to allow the laying of the foundations.
3947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When we seemed at the end of our resources, so far as securing money
3948 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was concerned, something occurred which showed the greatness of General
3949 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong--something which proved how far he was above the ordinary
3950 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual. When we were in the midst of great anxiety as to where and
3951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu how we were to get funds for the new building, I received a telegram
3952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from General Armstrong asking me if I could spend a month travelling
3953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with him through the North, and asking me, if I could do so, to come to
3954 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hampton at once. Of course I accepted General Armstrong's invitation,
3955 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and went to Hampton immediately. On arriving there I found that the
3956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General had decided to take a quartette of singers through the North,
3957 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and hold meetings for a month in important cities, at which meetings
3958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he and I were to speak. Imagine my surprise when the General told me,
3959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu further, that these meetings were to be held, not in the interests
3960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Hampton, but in the interests of Tuskegee, and that the Hampton
3961 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute was to be responsible for all the expenses.
3963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Although he never told me so in so many words, I found that General
3964 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Armstrong took this method of introducing me to the people of the North,
3965 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as well as for the sake of securing some immediate funds to be used in
3966 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the erection of Alabama Hall. A weak and narrow man would have reasoned
3967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that all the money which came to Tuskegee in this way would be just
3968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so much taken from the Hampton Institute; but none of these selfish or
3969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu short-sighted feelings ever entered the breast of General Armstrong. He
3970 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was too big to be little, too good to be mean. He knew that the people
3971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the North who gave money gave it for the purpose of helping the whole
3972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cause of Negro civilization, and not merely for the advancement of any
3973 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one school. The General knew, too, that the way to strengthen Hampton
3974 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was to make it a centre of unselfish power in the working out of the
3975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whole Southern problem.
3977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In regard to the addresses which I was to make in the North, I recall
3978 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu just one piece of advice which the General gave me. He said: "Give them
3979 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an idea for every word." I think it would be hard to improve upon this
3980 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu advice; and it might be made to apply to all public speaking. From that
3981 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time to the present I have always tried to keep his advice in mind.
3983 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Meetings were held in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, and
3984 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other large cities, and at all of these meetings General Armstrong
3985 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pleaded, together with myself, for help, not for Hampton, but for
3986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee. At these meetings an especial effort was made to secure help
3987 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the building of Alabama Hall, as well as to introduce the school to
3988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the attention of the general public. In both these respects the meetings
3989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proved successful.
3991 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After that kindly introduction I began going North alone to secure
3992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu funds. During the last fifteen years I have been compelled to spend a
3993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large proportion of my time away from the school, in an effort to secure
3994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money to provide for the growing needs of the institution. In my efforts
3995 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get funds I have had some experiences that may be of interest to my
3996 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu readers. Time and time again I have been asked, by people who are
3997 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trying to secure money for philanthropic purposes, what rule or rules
3998 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I followed to secure the interest and help of people who were able to
3999 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contribute money to worthy objects. As far as the science of what is
4000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu called begging can be reduced to rules, I would say that I have had but
4001 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu two rules. First, always to do my whole duty regarding making our work
4002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu known to individuals and organizations; and, second, not to worry about
4003 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the results. This second rule has been the hardest for me to live up to.
4004 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When bills are on the eve of falling due, with not a dollar in hand
4005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with which to meet them, it is pretty difficult to learn not to worry,
4006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu although I think I am learning more and more each year that all worry
4007 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu simply consumes, and to no purpose, just so much physical and mental
4008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strength that might otherwise be given to effective work. After
4009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu considerable experience in coming into contact with wealthy and noted
4010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men, I have observed that those who have accomplished the greatest
4011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu results are those who "keep under the body"; are those who never grow
4012 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu excited or lose self-control, but are always calm, self-possessed,
4013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu patient, and polite. I think that President William McKinley is the best
4014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu example of a man of this class that I have ever seen.
4016 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In order to be successful in any kind of undertaking, I think the
4017 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu main thing is for one to grow to the point where he completely forgets
4018 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu himself; that is, to lose himself in a great cause. In proportion as
4019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one loses himself in the way, in the same degree does he get the highest
4020 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu happiness out of his work.
4022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My experience in getting money for Tuskegee has taught me to have no
4023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu patience with those people who are always condemning the rich because
4024 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they are rich, and because they do not give more to objects of charity.
4025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the first place, those who are guilty of such sweeping criticisms
4026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu do not know how many people would be made poor, and how much suffering
4027 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would result, if wealthy people were to part all at once with any large
4028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proportion of their wealth in a way to disorganize and cripple great
4029 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu business enterprises. Then very few persons have any idea of the large
4030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of applications for help that rich people are constantly being
4031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu flooded with. I know wealthy people who receive as much as twenty calls
4032 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a day for help. More than once when I have gone into the offices of rich
4033 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men, I have found half a dozen persons waiting to see them, and all come
4034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the same purpose, that of securing money. And all these calls in
4035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu person, to say nothing of the applications received through the mails.
4036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Very few people have any idea of the amount of money given away by
4037 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu persons who never permit their names to be known. I have often heard
4038 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu persons condemned for not giving away money, who, to my own knowledge,
4039 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were giving away thousands of dollars every year so quietly that the
4040 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu world knew nothing about it.
4042 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As an example of this, there are two ladies in New York, whose names
4043 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rarely appear in print, but who, in a quiet way, have given us the means
4044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with which to erect three large and important buildings during the last
4045 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eight years. Besides the gift of these buildings, they have made other
4046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu generous donations to the school. And they not only help Tuskegee, but
4047 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they are constantly seeking opportunities to help other worthy causes.
4049 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Although it has been my privilege to be the medium through which a
4050 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu good many hundred thousand dollars have been received for the work at
4051 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee, I have always avoided what the world calls "begging." I often
4052 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tell people that I have never "begged" any money, and that I am not
4053 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a "beggar." My experience and observation have convinced me that
4054 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu persistent asking outright for money from the rich does not, as a rule,
4055 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secure help. I have usually proceeded on the principle that persons who
4056 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu possess sense enough to earn money have sense enough to know how to give
4057 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it away, and that the mere making known of the facts regarding Tuskegee,
4058 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and especially the facts regarding the work of the graduates, has been
4059 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more effective than outright begging. I think that the presentation of
4060 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu facts, on a high, dignified plane, is all the begging that most rich
4061 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people care for.
4063 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While the work of going from door to door and from office to office
4064 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is hard, disagreeable, and costly in bodily strength, yet it has some
4065 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu compensations. Such work gives one a rare opportunity to study human
4066 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nature. It also has its compensations in giving one an opportunity to
4067 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meet some of the best people in the world--to be more correct, I think
4068 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I should say the best people in the world. When one takes a broad survey
4069 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the country, he will find that the most useful and influential people
4070 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in it are those who take the deepest interest in institutions that exist
4071 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the purpose of making the world better.
4073 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At one time, when I was in Boston, I called at the door of a rather
4074 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wealthy lady, and was admitted to the vestibule and sent up my card.
4075 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While I was waiting for an answer, her husband came in, and asked me in
4076 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most abrupt manner what I wanted. When I tried to explain the object
4077 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of my call, he became still more ungentlemanly in his words and manner,
4078 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and finally grew so excited that I left the house without waiting for
4079 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a reply from the lady. A few blocks from that house I called to see a
4080 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gentleman who received me in the most cordial manner. He wrote me his
4081 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu check for a generous sum, and then, before I had had an opportunity to
4082 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thank him, said: "I am so grateful to you, Mr. Washington, for giving me
4083 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the opportunity to help a good cause. It is a privilege to have a share
4084 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in it. We in Boston are constantly indebted to you for doing our work."
4085 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My experience in securing money convinces me that the first type of
4086 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man is growing more rare all the time, and that the latter type is
4087 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu increasing; that is, that, more and more, rich people are coming to
4088 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regard men and women who apply to them for help for worthy objects, not
4089 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as beggars, but as agents for doing their work.
4091 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the city of Boston I have rarely called upon an individual for funds
4092 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I have not been thanked for calling, usually before I could get an
4093 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to thank the donor for the money. In that city the donors
4094 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seem to feel, in a large degree, that an honour is being conferred upon
4095 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them in their being permitted to give. Nowhere else have I met with, in
4096 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so large a measure, this fine and Christlike spirit as in the city of
4097 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Boston, although there are many notable instances of it outside that
4098 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu city. I repeat my belief that the world is growing in the direction
4099 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of giving. I repeat that the main rule by which I have been guided in
4100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu collecting money is to do my full duty in regard to giving people who
4101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have money an opportunity for help.
4103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the early years of the Tuskegee school I walked the streets or
4104 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu travelled country roads in the North for days and days without receiving
4105 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a dollar. Often as it happened, when during the week I had been
4106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu disappointed in not getting a cent from the very individuals from whom
4107 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I most expected help, and when I was almost broken down and discouraged,
4108 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that generous help has come from some one who I had had little idea
4109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would give at all.
4111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I recall that on one occasion I obtained information that led me to
4112 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu believe that a gentleman who lived about two miles out in the country
4113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from Stamford, Conn., might become interested in our efforts at Tuskegee
4114 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu if our conditions and needs were presented to him. On an unusually cold
4115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and stormy day I walked the two miles to see him. After some difficulty
4116 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I succeeded in securing an interview with him. He listened with some
4117 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu degree of interest to what I had to say, but did not give me anything.
4118 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I could not help having the feeling that, in a measure, the three
4119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hours that I had spent in seeing him had been thrown away. Still, I had
4120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu followed my usual rule of doing my duty. If I had not seen him, I should
4121 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have felt unhappy over neglect of duty.
4123 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Two years after this visit a letter came to Tuskegee from this man,
4124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which read like this: "Enclosed I send you a New York draft for ten
4125 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thousand dollars, to be used in furtherance of your work. I had placed
4126 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this sum in my will for your school, but deem it wiser to give it to you
4127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu while I live. I recall with pleasure your visit to me two years ago."
4129 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I can hardly imagine any occurrence which could have given me more
4130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu genuine satisfaction than the receipt of this draft. It was by far
4131 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the largest single donation which up to that time the school had ever
4132 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu received. It came at a time when an unusually long period had passed
4133 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu since we had received any money. We were in great distress because of
4134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lack of funds, and the nervous strain was tremendous. It is difficult
4135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for me to think of any situation that is more trying on the nerves than
4136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that of conducting a large institution, with heavy obligations to
4137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meet, without knowing where the money is to come from to meet these
4138 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu obligations from month to month.
4140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In our case I felt a double responsibility, and this made the anxiety
4141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all the more intense. If the institution had been officered by white
4142 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu persons, and had failed, it would have injured the cause of Negro
4143 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education; but I knew that the failure of our institution, officered
4144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by Negroes, would not only mean the loss of a school, but would cause
4145 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people, in a large degree, to lose faith in the ability of the entire
4146 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race. The receipt of this draft for ten thousand dollars, under all
4147 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these circumstances, partially lifted a burden that had been pressing
4148 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down upon me for days.
4150 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the beginning of our work to the present I have always had the
4151 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feeling, and lose no opportunity to impress our teachers with the same
4152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu idea, that the school will always be supported in proportion as the
4153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inside of the institution is kept clean and pure and wholesome.
4155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first time I ever saw the late Collis P. Huntington, the great
4156 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu railroad man, he gave me two dollars for our school. The last time I saw
4157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him, which was a few months before he died, he gave me fifty thousand
4158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dollars toward our endowment fund. Between these two gifts there were
4159 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu others of generous proportions which came every year from both Mr. and
4160 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Huntington.
4162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Some people may say that it was Tuskegee's good luck that brought to us
4163 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this gift of fifty thousand dollars. No, it was not luck. It was hard
4164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work. Nothing ever comes to me, that is worth having, except as the
4165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu result of hard work. When Mr. Huntington gave me the first two dollars,
4166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I did not blame him for not giving me more, but made up my mind that
4167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was going to convince him by tangible results that we were worthy of
4168 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu larger gifts. For a dozen years I made a strong effort to convince Mr.
4169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Huntington of the value of our work. I noted that just in proportion as
4170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the usefulness of the school grew, his donations increased. Never did
4171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I meet an individual who took a more kindly and sympathetic interest in
4172 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our school than did Mr. Huntington. He not only gave money to us, but
4173 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu took time in which to advise me, as a father would a son, about the
4174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu general conduct of the school.
4176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu More than once I have found myself in some pretty tight places while
4177 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu collecting money in the North. The following incident I have never
4178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu related but once before, for the reason that I feared that people would
4179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not believe it. One morning I found myself in Providence, Rhode Island,
4180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without a cent of money with which to buy breakfast. In crossing the
4181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu street to see a lady from whom I hoped to get some money, I found a
4182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bright new twenty-five-cent piece in the middle of the street track. I
4183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not only had this twenty-five cents for my breakfast, but within a few
4184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu minutes I had a donation from the lady on whom I had started to call.
4186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At one of our Commencements I was bold enough to invite the Rev. E.
4187 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Winchester Donald, D.D., rector of Trinity Church, Boston, to preach the
4188 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Commencement sermon. As we then had no room large enough to accommodate
4189 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all who would be present, the place of meeting was under a large
4190 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu improvised arbour, built partly of brush and partly of rough boards.
4191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after Dr. Donald had begun speaking, the rain came down in
4192 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu torrents, and he had to stop, while someone held an umbrella over him.
4194 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The boldness of what I had done never dawned upon me until I saw the
4195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu picture made by the rector of Trinity Church standing before that large
4196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audience under an old umbrella, waiting for the rain to cease so that he
4197 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could go on with his address.
4199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was not very long before the rain ceased and Dr. Donald finished his
4200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sermon; and an excellent sermon it was, too, in spite of the weather.
4201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After he had gone to his room, and had gotten the wet threads of his
4202 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clothes dry, Dr. Donald ventured the remark that a large chapel at
4203 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee would not be out of place. The next day a letter came from two
4204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ladies who were then travelling in Italy, saying that they had decided
4205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to give us the money for such a chapel as we needed.
4207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu A short time ago we received twenty thousand dollars from Mr. Andrew
4208 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Carnegie, to be used for the purpose of erecting a new library building.
4209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Our first library and reading-room were in a corner of a shanty, and the
4210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whole thing occupied a space about five by twelve feet. It required ten
4211 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years of work before I was able to secure Mr. Carnegie's interest and
4212 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu help. The first time I saw him, ten years ago, he seemed to take but
4213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu little interest in our school, but I was determined to show him that
4214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were worthy of his help. After ten years of hard work I wrote him a
4215 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu letter reading as follows:
4217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu December 15, 1900.
4219 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Andrew Carnegie, 5 W. Fifty-first St., New York.
4221 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dear Sir: Complying with the request which you made of me when I saw you
4222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at your residence a few days ago, I now submit in writing an appeal for
4223 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a library building for our institution.
4225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We have 1100 students, 86 officers and instructors, together with their
4226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu families, and about 200 coloured people living near the school, all of
4227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whom would make use of the library building.
4229 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We have over 12,000 books, periodicals, etc., gifts from our friends,
4230 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but we have no suitable place for them, and we have no suitable
4231 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reading-room.
4233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Our graduates go to work in every section of the South, and whatever
4234 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knowledge might be obtained in the library would serve to assist in the
4235 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu elevation of the whole Negro race.
4237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Such a building as we need could be erected for about $20,000. All
4238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the work for the building, such as brickmaking, brick-masonry,
4239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu carpentry, blacksmithing, etc., would be done by the students. The
4240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money which you would give would not only supply the building, but
4241 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the erection of the building would give a large number of students an
4242 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to learn the building trades, and the students would use the
4243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money paid to them to keep themselves in school. I do not believe that
4244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a similar amount of money often could be made go so far in uplifting a
4245 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whole race.
4247 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu If you wish further information, I shall be glad to furnish it.
4249 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Yours truly,
4251 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker T. Washington, Principal.
4254 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The next mail brought back the following reply: "I will be very glad
4255 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to pay the bills for the library building as they are incurred, to the
4256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu extent of twenty thousand dollars, and I am glad of this opportunity to
4257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu show the interest I have in your noble work."
4259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have found that strict business methods go a long way in securing
4260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the interest of rich people. It has been my constant aim at Tuskegee to
4261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu carry out, in our financial and other operations, such business methods
4262 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as would be approved of by any New York banking house.
4264 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have spoken of several large gifts to the school; but by far the
4265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greater proportion of the money that has built up the institution has
4266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu come in the form of small donations from persons of moderate means.
4267 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It is upon these small gifts, which carry with them the interest of
4268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundreds of donors, that any philanthropic work must depend largely for
4269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its support. In my efforts to get money I have often been surprised at
4270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the patience and deep interest of the ministers, who are besieged
4271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on every hand and at all hours of the day for help. If no other
4272 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the
4273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Christlike work which the Church of all denominations in America has
4274 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu done during the last thirty-five years for the elevation of the black
4275 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man would have made me a Christian. In a large degree it has been
4276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the pennies, the nickels, and the dimes which have come from the
4277 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Sunday-schools, the Christian Endeavour societies, and the missionary
4278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu societies, as well as from the church proper, that have helped to
4279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu elevate the Negro at so rapid a rate.
4281 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This speaking of small gifts reminds me to say that very few Tuskegee
4282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu graduates fail to send us an annual contribution. These contributions
4283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu range from twenty-five cents up to ten dollars.
4285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after beginning our third year's work we were surprised to receive
4286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money from three special sources, and up to the present time we have
4287 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu continued to receive help from them. First, the State Legislature of
4288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Alabama increased its annual appropriation from two thousand dollars to
4289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three thousand dollars; I might add that still later it increased this
4290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sum to four thousand five hundred dollars a year. The effort to secure
4291 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this increase was led by the Hon. M.F. Foster, the member of the
4292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Legislature from Tuskegee. Second, we received one thousand dollars from
4293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the John F. Slater Fund. Our work seemed to please the trustees of this
4294 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fund, as they soon began increasing their annual grant. This has been
4295 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu added to from time to time until at present we receive eleven thousand
4296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dollars annually from the Fund. The other help to which I have referred
4297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came in the shape of an allowance from the Peabody Fund. This was at
4298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first five hundred dollars, but it has since been increased to fifteen
4299 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred dollars.
4301 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The effort to secure help from the Slater and Peabody Funds brought me
4302 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu into contact with two rare men--men who have had much to do in shaping
4303 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the policy for the education of the Negro. I refer to the Hon. J.L.M.
4304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Curry, of Washington, who is the general agent for these two funds, and
4305 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Morris K. Jessup, of New York. Dr. Curry is a native of the South,
4306 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an ex-Confederate soldier, yet I do not believe there is any man in
4307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the country who is more deeply interested in the highest welfare of the
4308 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro than Dr. Curry, or one who is more free from race prejudice.
4309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu He enjoys the unique distinction of possessing to an equal degree the
4310 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu confidence of the black man and the Southern white man. I shall never
4311 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu forget the first time I met him. It was in Richmond, Va., where he was
4312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu then living. I had heard much about him. When I first went into his
4313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu presence, trembling because of my youth and inexperience, he took me
4314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by the hand so cordially, and spoke such encouraging words, and gave me
4315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu such helpful advice regarding the proper course to pursue, that I came
4316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to know him then, as I have known him ever since, as a high example
4317 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of one who is constantly and unselfishly at work for the betterment of
4320 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Morris K. Jessup, the treasurer of the Slater Fund, I refer to
4321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because I know of no man of wealth and large and complicated business
4322 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu responsibilities who gives not only money but his time and thought to
4323 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the subject of the proper method of elevating the Negro to the extent
4324 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that is true of Mr. Jessup. It is very largely through this effort
4325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and influence that during the last few years the subject of industrial
4326 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education has assumed the importance that it has, and been placed on its
4327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu present footing.
4331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XIII. Two Thousand Miles For A Five-Minute Speech
4333 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after the opening of our boarding department, quite a number of
4334 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students who evidently were worthy, but who were so poor that they did
4335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not have any money to pay even the small charges at the school, began
4336 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu applying for admission. This class was composed of both men and women.
4337 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was a great trial to refuse admission to these applicants, and in
4338 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu 1884 we established a night-school to accommodate a few of them.
4340 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The night-school was organized on a plan similar to the one which I
4341 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had helped to establish at Hampton. At first it was composed of about
4342 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a dozen students. They were admitted to the night-school only when they
4343 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had no money with which to pay any part of their board in the regular
4344 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day-school. It was further required that they must work for ten hours
4345 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during the day at some trade or industry, and study academic branches
4346 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for two hours during the evening. This was the requirement for the first
4347 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one or two years of their stay. They were to be paid something above the
4348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cost of their board, with the understanding that all of their earnings,
4349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu except a very small part, were to be reserved in the school's treasury,
4350 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to be used for paying their board in the regular day-school after they
4351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had entered that department. The night-school, started in this manner,
4352 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu has grown until there are at present four hundred and fifty-seven
4353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students enrolled in it alone.
4355 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There could hardly be a more severe test of a student's worth than this
4356 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu branch of the Institute's work. It is largely because it furnishes such
4357 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a good opportunity to test the backbone of a student that I place such
4358 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu high value upon our night-school. Any one who is willing to work ten
4359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hours a day at the brick-yard, or in the laundry, through one or two
4360 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years, in order that he or she may have the privilege of studying
4361 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu academic branches for two hours in the evening, has enough bottom to
4362 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu warrant being further educated.
4364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After the student has left the night-school he enters the day-school,
4365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu where he takes academic branches four days in a week, and works at his
4366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trade two days. Besides this he usually works at his trade during the
4367 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three summer months. As a rule, after a student has succeeded in going
4368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu through the night-school test, he finds a way to finish the regular
4369 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu course in industrial and academic training. No student, no matter how
4370 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu much money he may be able to command, is permitted to go through school
4371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without doing manual labour. In fact, the industrial work is now as
4372 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu popular as the academic branches. Some of the most successful men and
4373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu women who have graduated from the institution obtained their start in
4374 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the night-school.
4376 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While a great deal of stress is laid upon the industrial side of the
4377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work at Tuskegee, we do not neglect or overlook in any degree the
4378 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu religious and spiritual side. The school is strictly undenominational,
4379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but it is thoroughly Christian, and the spiritual training of the
4380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students is not neglected. Our preaching service, prayer-meetings,
4381 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Sunday-school, Christian Endeavour Society, Young Men's Christian
4382 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Association, and various missionary organizations, testify to this.
4384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In 1885, Miss Olivia Davidson, to whom I have already referred as being
4385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu largely responsible for the success of the school during its early
4386 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu history, and I were married. During our married life she continued
4387 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to divide her time and strength between our home and the work for the
4388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school. She not only continued to work in the school at Tuskegee, but
4389 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu also kept up her habit of going North to secure funds. In 1889 she died,
4390 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after four years of happy married life and eight years of hard and happy
4391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work for the school. She literally wore herself out in her never ceasing
4392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu efforts in behalf of the work that she so dearly loved. During our
4393 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu married life there were born to us two bright, beautiful boys, Booker
4394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Taliaferro and Ernest Davidson. The older of these, Booker, has already
4395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mastered the brick-maker's trade at Tuskegee.
4397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have often been asked how I began the practice of public speaking.
4398 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In answer I would say that I never planned to give any large part of my
4399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life to speaking in public. I have always had more of an ambition to DO
4400 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu things than merely to talk ABOUT doing them. It seems that when I went
4401 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu North with General Armstrong to speak at the series of public meetings
4402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to which I have referred, the President of the National Educational
4403 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Association, the Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell, was present at one of
4404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those meetings and heard me speak. A few days afterward he sent me an
4405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu invitation to deliver an address at the next meeting of the Educational
4406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Association. This meeting was to be held in Madison, Wis. I accepted the
4407 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu invitation. This was, in a sense, the beginning of my public-speaking
4410 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On the evening that I spoke before the Association there must have been
4411 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not far from four thousand persons present. Without my knowing it, there
4412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were a large number of people present from Alabama, and some from the
4413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu town of Tuskegee. These white people afterward frankly told me that they
4414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu went to this meeting expecting to hear the South roundly abused, but
4415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no word of abuse in
4416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my address. On the contrary, the South was given credit for all the
4417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu praiseworthy things that it had done. A white lady who was teacher in
4418 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a college in Tuskegee wrote back to the local paper that she was
4419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gratified, as well as surprised, to note the credit which I gave the
4420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white people of Tuskegee for their help in getting the school started.
4421 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This address at Madison was the first that I had delivered that in any
4422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large measure dealt with the general problem of the races. Those who
4423 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heard it seemed to be pleased with what I said and with the general
4424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu position that I took.
4426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When I first came to Tuskegee, I determined that I would make it my
4427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu home, that I would take as much pride in the right actions of the people
4428 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the town as any white man could do, and that I would, at the same
4429 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time, deplore the wrong-doing of the people as much as any white man. I
4430 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu determined never to say anything in a public address in the North that
4431 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I would not be willing to say in the South. I early learned that it is
4432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a hard matter to convert an individual by abusing him, and that this
4433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is more often accomplished by giving credit for all the praiseworthy
4434 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu actions performed than by calling attention alone to all the evil done.
4436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While pursuing this policy I have not failed, at the proper time and
4437 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the proper manner, to call attention, in no uncertain terms, to the
4438 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wrongs which any part of the South has been guilty of. I have found
4439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that there is a large element in the South that is quick to respond to
4440 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu straightforward, honest criticism of any wrong policy. As a rule, the
4441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu place to criticise the South, when criticism is necessary, is in the
4442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South--not in Boston. A Boston man who came to Alabama to criticise
4443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Boston would not effect so much good, I think, as one who had his word
4444 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of criticism to say in Boston.
4446 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In this address at Madison I took the ground that the policy to be
4447 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pursued with references to the races was, by every honourable means,
4448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to bring them together and to encourage the cultivation of friendly
4449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relations, instead of doing that which would embitter. I further
4450 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contended that, in relation to his vote, the Negro should more and more
4451 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consider the interests of the community in which he lived, rather than
4452 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seek alone to please some one who lived a thousand miles away from him
4453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and from his interests.
4455 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In this address I said that the whole future of the Negro rested largely
4456 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon the question as to whether or not he should make himself, through
4457 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his skill, intelligence, and character, of such undeniable value to the
4458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu community in which he lived that the community could not dispense with
4459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his presence. I said that any individual who learned to do something
4460 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu better than anybody else--learned to do a common thing in an uncommon
4461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu manner--had solved his problem, regardless of the colour of his skin,
4462 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that in proportion as the Negro learned to produce what other people
4463 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wanted and must have, in the same proportion would he be respected.
4465 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I spoke of an instance where one of our graduates had produced two
4466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred and sixty-six bushels of sweet potatoes from an acre of ground,
4467 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in a community where the average production had been only forty-nine
4468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bushels to the acre. He had been able to do this by reason of his
4469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knowledge of the chemistry of the soil and by his knowledge of improved
4470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu methods of agriculture. The white farmers in the neighbourhood respected
4471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him, and came to him for ideas regarding the raising of sweet potatoes.
4472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu These white farmers honoured and respected him because he, by his skill
4473 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and knowledge, had added something to the wealth and the comfort of the
4474 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu community in which he lived. I explained that my theory of education
4475 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the Negro would not, for example, confine him for all time to farm
4476 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life--to the production of the best and the most sweet potatoes--but
4477 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that, if he succeeded in this line of industry, he could lay the
4478 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu foundations upon which his children and grand-children could grow to
4479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu higher and more important things in life.
4481 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Such, in brief, were some of the views I advocated in this first address
4482 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dealing with the broad question of the relations of the two races, and
4483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu since that time I have not found any reason for changing my views on any
4484 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu important point.
4486 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In my early life I used to cherish a feeling of ill will toward any one
4487 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who spoke in bitter terms against the Negro, or who advocated measures
4488 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that tended to oppress the black man or take from him opportunities
4489 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for growth in the most complete manner. Now, whenever I hear any
4490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one advocating measures that are meant to curtail the development of
4491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu another, I pity the individual who would do this. I know that the one
4492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who makes this mistake does so because of his own lack of opportunity
4493 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the highest kind of growth. I pity him because I know that he is
4494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trying to stop the progress of the world, and because I know that in
4495 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time the development and the ceaseless advance of humanity will make him
4496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ashamed of his weak and narrow position. One might as well try to stop
4497 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the progress of a mighty railroad train by throwing his body across the
4498 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu track, as to try to stop the growth of the world in the direction
4499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of giving mankind more intelligence, more culture, more skill, more
4500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu liberty, and in the direction of extending more sympathy and more
4501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brotherly kindness.
4503 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The address which I delivered at Madison, before the National
4504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Educational Association, gave me a rather wide introduction in the
4505 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu North, and soon after that opportunities began offering themselves for
4506 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me to address audiences there.
4508 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was anxious, however, that the way might also be opened for me to
4509 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speak directly to a representative Southern white audience. A partial
4510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity of this kind, one that seemed to me might serve as an
4511 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entering wedge, presented itself in 1893, when the international meeting
4512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Christian Workers was held at Atlanta, Ga. When this invitation came
4513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to me, I had engagements in Boston that seemed to make it impossible for
4514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me to speak in Atlanta. Still, after looking over my list of dates and
4515 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu places carefully, I found that I could take a train from Boston that
4516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would get me into Atlanta about thirty minutes before my address was to
4517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be delivered, and that I could remain in that city before taking another
4518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu train for Boston. My invitation to speak in Atlanta stipulated that
4519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was to confine my address to five minutes. The question, then, was
4520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whether or not I could put enough into a five-minute address to make it
4521 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu worth while for me to make such a trip.
4523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I knew that the audience would be largely composed of the most
4524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu influential class of white men and women, and that it would be a
4525 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rare opportunity for me to let them know what we were trying to do at
4526 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee, as well as to speak to them about the relations of the races.
4527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu So I decided to make the trip. I spoke for five minutes to an audience
4528 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of two thousand people, composed mostly of Southern and Northern whites.
4529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu What I said seemed to be received with favour and enthusiasm. The
4530 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Atlanta papers of the next day commented in friendly terms on my
4531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address, and a good deal was said about it in different parts of the
4532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country. I felt that I had in some degree accomplished my object--that
4533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of getting a hearing from the dominant class of the South.
4535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The demands made upon me for public addresses continued to increase,
4536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coming in about equal numbers from my own people and from Northern
4537 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whites. I gave as much time to these addresses as I could spare from the
4538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu immediate work at Tuskegee. Most of the addresses in the North were
4539 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made for the direct purpose of getting funds with which to support the
4540 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school. Those delivered before the coloured people had for their
4541 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu main object the impressing upon them the importance of industrial and
4542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu technical education in addition to academic and religious training.
4544 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I now come to that one of the incidents in my life which seems to have
4545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu excited the greatest amount of interest, and which perhaps went further
4546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than anything else in giving me a reputation that in a sense might be
4547 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu called National. I refer to the address which I delivered at the opening
4548 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the Atlanta Cotton states and International Exposition, at Atlanta,
4549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ga., September 18, 1895.
4551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu So much has been said and written about this incident, and so many
4552 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu questions have been asked me concerning the address, that perhaps I may
4553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be excused for taking up the matter with some detail. The five-minute
4554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address in Atlanta, which I came from Boston to deliver, was possibly
4555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the prime cause for an opportunity being given me to make the second
4556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address there. In the spring of 1895 I received a telegram from
4557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prominent citizens in Atlanta asking me to accompany a committee from
4558 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that city to Washington for the purpose of appearing before a committee
4559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Congress in the interest of securing Government help for the
4560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Exposition. The committee was composed of about twenty-five of the most
4561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prominent and most influential white men of Georgia. All the members of
4562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this committee were white men except Bishop Grant, Bishop Gaines, and
4563 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu myself. The Mayor and several other city and state officials spoke
4564 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before the committee. They were followed by the two coloured bishops. My
4565 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu name was the last on the list of speakers. I had never before appeared
4566 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before such a committee, nor had I ever delivered any address in the
4567 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu capital of the Nation. I had many misgivings as to what I ought to say,
4568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and as to the impression that my address would make. While I cannot
4569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recall in detail what I said, I remember that I tried to impress upon
4570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the committee, with all the earnestness and plainness of any language
4571 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I could command, that if Congress wanted to do something which
4572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would assist in ridding the South of the race question and making
4573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu friends between the two races, it should, in every proper way, encourage
4574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the material and intellectual growth of both races. I said that the
4575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Atlanta Exposition would present an opportunity for both races to show
4576 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what advance they had made since freedom, and would at the same time
4577 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afford encouragement to them to make still greater progress.
4579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I tried to emphasize the fact that while the Negro should not be
4580 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu deprived by unfair means of the franchise, political agitation alone
4581 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would not save him, and that back of the ballot he must have property,
4582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu industry, skill, economy, intelligence, and character, and that no
4583 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race without these elements could permanently succeed. I said that in
4584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu granting the appropriation Congress could do something that would prove
4585 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to be of real and lasting value to both races, and that it was the first
4586 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu great opportunity of the kind that had been presented since the close of
4587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Civil War.
4589 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, and was surprised at the close
4590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of my address to receive the hearty congratulations of the Georgia
4591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu committee and of the members of Congress who were present. The Committee
4592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was unanimous in making a favourable report, and in a few days the
4593 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bill passed Congress. With the passing of this bill the success of the
4594 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Atlanta Exposition was assured.
4596 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after this trip to Washington the directors of the Exposition
4597 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu decided that it would be a fitting recognition of the coloured race to
4598 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu erect a large and attractive building which should be devoted wholly to
4599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu showing the progress of the Negro since freedom. It was further decided
4600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to have the building designed and erected wholly by Negro mechanics.
4601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This plan was carried out. In design, beauty, and general finish the
4602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro Building was equal to the others on the grounds.
4604 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After it was decided to have a separate Negro exhibit, the question
4605 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu arose as to who should take care of it. The officials of the Exposition
4606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were anxious that I should assume this responsibility, but I declined
4607 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to do so, on the plea that the work at Tuskegee at that time demanded
4608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my time and strength. Largely at my suggestion, Mr. I. Garland Penn, of
4609 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Lynchburg, Va., was selected to be at the head of the Negro department.
4610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I gave him all the aid that I could. The Negro exhibit, as a whole,
4611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was large and creditable. The two exhibits in this department which
4612 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attracted the greatest amount of attention were those from the Hampton
4613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute and the Tuskegee Institute. The people who seemed to be
4614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most surprised, as well as pleased, at what they saw in the Negro
4615 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Building were the Southern white people.
4617 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As the day for the opening of the Exposition drew near, the Board of
4618 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Directors began preparing the programme for the opening exercises.
4619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the discussion from day to day of the various features of this
4620 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu programme, the question came up as to the advisability of putting a
4621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu member of the Negro race on for one of the opening addresses, since the
4622 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negroes had been asked to take such a prominent part in the Exposition.
4623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was argued, further, that such recognition would mark the good
4624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feeling prevailing between the two races. Of course there were those who
4625 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were opposed to any such recognition of the rights of the Negro, but the
4626 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Board of Directors, composed of men who represented the best and most
4627 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu progressive element in the South, had their way, and voted to invite a
4628 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu black man to speak on the opening day. The next thing was to decide upon
4629 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the person who was thus to represent the Negro race. After the question
4630 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had been canvassed for several days, the directors voted unanimously to
4631 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ask me to deliver one of the opening-day addresses, and in a few days
4632 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after that I received the official invitation.
4634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The receiving of this invitation brought to me a sense of responsibility
4635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that it would be hard for any one not placed in my position to
4636 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu appreciate. What were my feelings when this invitation came to me? I
4637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remembered that I had been a slave; that my early years had been spent
4638 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the lowest depths of poverty and ignorance, and that I had had little
4639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to prepare me for such a responsibility as this. It was only
4640 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a few years before that time that any white man in the audience might
4641 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have claimed me as his slave; and it was easily possible that some of my
4642 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu former owners might be present to hear me speak.
4644 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I knew, too, that this was the first time in the entire history of the
4645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro that a member of my race had been asked to speak from the same
4646 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu platform with white Southern men and women on any important National
4647 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occasion. I was asked now to speak to an audience composed of the
4648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wealth and culture of the white South, the representatives of my former
4649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu masters. I knew, too, that while the greater part of my audience would
4650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be composed of Southern people, yet there would be present a large
4651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of Northern whites, as well as a great many men and women of my
4654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was determined to say nothing that I did not feel from the bottom of
4655 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my heart to be true and right. When the invitation came to me, there
4656 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was not one word of intimation as to what I should say or as to what
4657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I should omit. In this I felt that the Board of Directors had paid a
4658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tribute to me. They knew that by one sentence I could have blasted, in
4659 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a large degree, the success of the Exposition. I was also painfully
4660 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conscious of the fact that, while I must be true to my own race in my
4661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu utterances, I had it in my power to make such an ill-timed address as
4662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would result in preventing any similar invitation being extended to a
4663 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu black man again for years to come. I was equally determined to be true
4664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the North, as well as to the best element of the white South, in what
4665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had to say.
4667 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The papers, North and South, had taken up the discussion of my coming
4668 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speech, and as the time for it drew near this discussion became more and
4669 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more widespread. Not a few of the Southern white papers were unfriendly
4670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the idea of my speaking. From my own race I received many suggestions
4671 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as to what I ought to say. I prepared myself as best I could for the
4672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address, but as the eighteenth of September drew nearer, the heavier my
4673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heart became, and the more I feared that my effort would prove a failure
4674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and a disappointment.
4676 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The invitation had come at a time when I was very busy with my school
4677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work, as it was the beginning of our school year. After preparing my
4678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address, I went through it, as I usually do with those utterances
4679 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I consider particularly important, with Mrs. Washington, and she
4680 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu approved of what I intended to say. On the sixteenth of September, the
4681 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day before I was to start for Atlanta, so many of the Tuskegee teachers
4682 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expressed a desire to hear my address that I consented to read it to
4683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them in a body. When I had done so, and had heard their criticisms and
4684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comments, I felt somewhat relieved, since they seemed to think well of
4685 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what I had to say.
4687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On the morning of September 17, together with Mrs. Washington and my
4688 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three children, I started for Atlanta. I felt a good deal as I suppose
4689 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a man feels when he is on his way to the gallows. In passing through the
4690 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu town of Tuskegee I met a white farmer who lived some distance out in the
4691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country. In a jesting manner this man said: "Washington, you have spoken
4692 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before the Northern white people, the Negroes in the South, and to us
4693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country white people in the South; but Atlanta, to-morrow, you will have
4694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before you the Northern whites, the Southern whites, and the Negroes all
4695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu together. I am afraid that you have got yourself in a tight place." This
4696 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu farmer diagnosed the situation correctly, but his frank words did not
4697 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu add anything to my comfort.
4699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the course of the journey from Tuskegee to Atlanta both coloured
4700 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and white people came to the train to point me out, and discussed with
4701 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perfect freedom, in my hearings, what was going to take place the next
4702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day. We were met by a committee in Atlanta. Almost the first thing
4703 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I heard when I got off the train in that city was an expression
4704 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something like this, from an old coloured man near by: "Dat's de man of
4705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my race what's gwine to make a speech at de Exposition to-morrow. I'se
4706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sho' gwine to hear him."
4708 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Atlanta was literally packed, at the time, with people from all parts of
4709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the country, and with representatives of foreign governments, as well
4710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as with military and civic organizations. The afternoon papers had
4711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu forecasts of the next day's proceedings in flaring headlines. All this
4712 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tended to add to my burden. I did not sleep much that night. The next
4713 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu morning, before day, I went carefully over what I planned to say. I
4714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu also kneeled down and asked God's blessing upon my effort. Right here,
4715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu perhaps, I ought to add that I make it a rule never to go before an
4716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audience, on any occasion, without asking the blessing of God upon what
4717 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I want to say.
4719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I always make it a rule to make especial preparation for each separate
4720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address. No two audiences are exactly alike. It is my aim to reach
4721 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and talk to the heart of each individual audience, taking it into my
4722 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu confidence very much as I would a person. When I am speaking to an
4723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audience, I care little for how what I am saying is going to sound in
4724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the newspapers, or to another audience, or to an individual. At the
4725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time, the audience before me absorbs all my sympathy, thought, and
4728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Early in the morning a committee called to escort me to my place in
4729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the procession which was to march to the Exposition grounds. In this
4730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu procession were prominent coloured citizens in carriages, as well
4731 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as several Negro military organizations. I noted that the Exposition
4732 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu officials seemed to go out of their way to see that all of the coloured
4733 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people in the procession were properly placed and properly treated. The
4734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu procession was about three hours in reaching the Exposition grounds, and
4735 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during all of this time the sun was shining down upon us disagreeably
4736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hot. When we reached the grounds, the heat, together with my nervous
4737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anxiety, made me feel as if I were about ready to collapse, and to
4738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feel that my address was not going to be a success. When I entered the
4739 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audience-room, I found it packed with humanity from bottom to top, and
4740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there were thousands outside who could not get in.
4742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The room was very large, and well suited to public speaking. When I
4743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entered the room, there were vigorous cheers from the coloured portion
4744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the audience, and faint cheers from some of the white people. I had
4745 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been told, while I had been in Atlanta, that while many white people
4746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were going to be present to hear me speak, simply out of curiosity,
4747 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that others who would be present would be in full sympathy with me,
4748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there was a still larger element of the audience which would consist of
4749 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those who were going to be present for the purpose of hearing me make
4750 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a fool of myself, or, at least, of hearing me say some foolish thing
4751 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so that they could say to the officials who had invited me to speak, "I
4752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu told you so!"
4754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One of the trustees of the Tuskegee Institute, as well as my personal
4755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu friend, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Jr. was at the time General Manager of
4756 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Southern Railroad, and happened to be in Atlanta on that day. He was
4757 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so nervous about the kind of reception that I would have, and the effect
4758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that my speech would produce, that he could not persuade himself to
4759 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu go into the building, but walked back and forth in the grounds outside
4760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu until the opening exercises were over.
4764 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XIV. The Atlanta Exposition Address
4766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Atlanta Exposition, at which I had been asked to make an address as
4767 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a representative of the Negro race, as stated in the last chapter,
4768 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was opened with a short address from Governor Bullock. After other
4769 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu interesting exercises, including an invocation from Bishop Nelson, of
4770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Georgia, a dedicatory ode by Albert Howell, Jr., and addresses by the
4771 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President of the Exposition and Mrs. Joseph Thompson, the President of
4772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Woman's Board, Governor Bullock introduce me with the words, "We
4773 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have with us to-day a representative of Negro enterprise and Negro
4774 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu civilization."
4776 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When I arose to speak, there was considerable cheering, especially from
4777 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured people. As I remember it now, the thing that was uppermost
4778 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in my mind was the desire to say something that would cement the
4779 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu friendship of the races and bring about hearty cooperation between them.
4780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu So far as my outward surroundings were concerned, the only thing that
4781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I recall distinctly now is that when I got up, I saw thousands of eyes
4782 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu looking intently into my face. The following is the address which I
4783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu delivered:--
4785 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and Citizens.
4787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. No
4788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this section
4789 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest
4790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment
4791 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value
4792 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously
4793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recognized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every
4794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stage of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement
4795 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the friendship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of
4796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our freedom.
4798 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among us
4799 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is
4800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the
4801 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the state
4802 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that
4803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than
4804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu starting a dairy farm or truck garden.
4806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel.
4807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, "Water,
4808 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu water; we die of thirst!" The answer from the friendly vessel at once
4809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came back, "Cast down your bucket where you are." A second time the
4810 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu signal, "Water, water; send us water!" ran up from the distressed
4811 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vessel, and was answered, "Cast down your bucket where you are." And a
4812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu third and fourth signal for water was answered, "Cast down your bucket
4813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu where you are." The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heading
4814 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh,
4815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my
4816 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who
4817 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the
4818 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: "Cast
4819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down your bucket where you are"--cast it down in making friends in every
4820 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.
4822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic
4823 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu service, and in the professions. And in this connection it is well to
4824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bear in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear,
4825 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the
4826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing
4827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our
4828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may
4829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions
4830 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in
4831 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour and put
4832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in
4833 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the
4834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can
4835 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field
4836 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and
4837 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not at the top. Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our
4838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunities.
4840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign
4841 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu birth and strange tongue and habits of the prosperity of the South, were
4842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race: "Cast down your
4843 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bucket where you are." Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes
4844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days
4845 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast
4846 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour
4847 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads
4848 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth,
4849 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress
4850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and
4851 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education
4852 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus
4853 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your
4854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the
4855 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient,
4856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen.
4857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, nursing your children,
4858 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often
4859 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future,
4860 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no
4861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in
4862 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu defence of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and
4863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both
4864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate
4865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual
4868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There is no defence or security for any of us except in the highest
4869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts
4870 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tending to curtail the fullest growth of the Negro, let these efforts be
4871 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu turned into stimulating, encouraging, and making him the most useful and
4872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intelligent citizen. Effort or means so invested will pay a thousand per
4873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cent interest. These efforts will be twice blessed--"blessing him that
4874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gives and him that takes."
4876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable:--
4878 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The laws of changeless justice bind
4879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Oppressor with oppressed;
4880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu And close as sin and suffering joined
4881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We march to fate abreast.
4883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in pulling the load
4884 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upward, or they will pull against you the load downward. We shall
4885 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constitute one-third and more of the ignorance and crime of the
4886 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South, or one-third its intelligence and progress; we shall contribute
4887 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one-third to the business and industrial prosperity of the South, or we
4888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating, depressing, retarding
4889 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every effort to advance the body politic.
4891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Gentlemen of the Exposition, as we present to you our humble effort at
4892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an exhibition of our progress, you must not expect overmuch. Starting
4893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thirty years ago with ownership here and there in a few quilts and
4894 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pumpkins and chickens (gathered from miscellaneous sources), remember
4895 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the path that has led from these to the inventions and production of
4896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu agricultural implements, buggies, steam-engines, newspapers, books,
4897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug-stores and banks,
4898 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we
4899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we
4900 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall
4901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far short of your expectations but for the constant help that has come
4902 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to our education life, not only from the Southern states, but especially
4903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from Northern philanthropists, who have made their gifts a constant
4904 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stream of blessing and encouragement.
4906 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions
4907 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the
4908 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result
4909 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No
4910 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long
4911 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all privileges
4912 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared
4913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the exercises of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar
4914 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to
4915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spend a dollar in an opera-house.
4917 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In conclusion, may I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us
4918 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white
4919 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition; and here bending,
4920 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles
4921 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of your race and mine, both starting practically empty-handed three
4922 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu decades ago, I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and
4923 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you
4924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race; only
4925 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu let this be constantly in mind, that, while from representations in
4926 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these buildings of the product of field, of forest, of mine, of factory,
4927 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu letters, and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond material
4928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu benefits will be that higher good, that, let us pray God, will come,
4929 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in a blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and
4930 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a
4931 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This, this,
4932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South
4933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a new heaven and a new earth.
4936 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The first thing that I remember, after I had finished speaking, was that
4937 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Governor Bullock rushed across the platform and took me by the hand,
4938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that others did the same. I received so many and such hearty
4939 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu congratulations that I found it difficult to get out of the building.
4940 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I did not appreciate to any degree, however, the impression which my
4941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address seemed to have made, until the next morning, when I went into
4942 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the business part of the city. As soon as I was recognized, I was
4943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surprised to find myself pointed out and surrounded by a crowd of men
4944 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who wished to shake hands with me. This was kept up on every street on
4945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to which I went, to an extent which embarrassed me so much that I went
4946 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu back to my boarding-place. The next morning I returned to Tuskegee. At
4947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the station in Atlanta, and at almost all of the stations at which the
4948 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu train stopped between that city and Tuskegee, I found a crowd of people
4949 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anxious to shake hands with me.
4951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The papers in all parts of the United States published the address
4952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in full, and for months afterward there were complimentary editorial
4953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu references to it. Mr. Clark Howell, the editor of the Atlanta
4954 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Constitution, telegraphed to a New York paper, among other words, the
4955 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu following, "I do not exaggerate when I say that Professor Booker T.
4956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington's address yesterday was one of the most notable speeches,
4957 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu both as to character and as to the warmth of its reception, ever
4958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu delivered to a Southern audience. The address was a revelation. The
4959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whole speech is a platform upon which blacks and whites can stand with
4960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu full justice to each other."
4962 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Boston Transcript said editorially: "The speech of Booker T.
4963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington at the Atlanta Exposition, this week, seems to have dwarfed
4964 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all the other proceedings and the Exposition itself. The sensation that
4965 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it has caused in the press has never been equalled."
4967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I very soon began receiving all kinds of propositions from lecture
4968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bureaus, and editors of magazines and papers, to take the lecture
4969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu platform, and to write articles. One lecture bureau offered me fifty
4970 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thousand dollars, or two hundred dollars a night and expenses, if I
4971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would place my services at its disposal for a given period. To all these
4972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu communications I replied that my life-work was at Tuskegee; and that
4973 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whenever I spoke it must be in the interests of Tuskegee school and my
4974 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race, and that I would enter into no arrangements that seemed to place a
4975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mere commercial value upon my services.
4977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Some days after its delivery I sent a copy of my address to the
4978 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President of the United States, the Hon. Grover Cleveland. I received
4979 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from him the following autograph reply:--
4982 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Gray Gables, Buzzard's Bay, Mass.,
4984 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu October 6, 1895.
4986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker T. Washington, Esq.:
4988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My Dear Sir: I thank you for sending me a copy of your address delivered
4989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the Atlanta Exposition.
4991 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I thank you with much enthusiasm for making the address. I have read
4992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it with intense interest, and I think the Exposition would be fully
4993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu justified if it did not do more than furnish the opportunity for its
4994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu delivery. Your words cannot fail to delight and encourage all who wish
4995 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu well for your race; and if our coloured fellow-citizens do not from your
4996 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu utterances gather new hope and form new determinations to gain every
4997 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu valuable advantage offered them by their citizenship, it will be strange
5000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Yours very truly,
5002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Grover Cleveland.
5005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Later I met Mr. Cleveland, for the first time, when, as President, he
5006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu visited the Atlanta Exposition. At the request of myself and others he
5007 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consented to spend an hour in the Negro Building, for the purpose
5008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of inspecting the Negro exhibit and of giving the coloured people in
5009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attendance an opportunity to shake hands with him. As soon as I met Mr.
5010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Cleveland I became impressed with his simplicity, greatness, and rugged
5011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honesty. I have met him many times since then, both at public functions
5012 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and at his private residence in Princeton, and the more I see of him
5013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the more I admire him. When he visited the Negro Building in Atlanta he
5014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to give himself up wholly, for that hour, to the coloured
5015 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people. He seemed to be as careful to shake hands with some old coloured
5016 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "auntie" clad partially in rags, and to take as much pleasure in doing
5017 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so, as if he were greeting some millionaire. Many of the coloured people
5018 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu took advantage of the occasion to get him to write his name in a book or
5019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on a slip of paper. He was as careful and patient in doing this as if he
5020 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were putting his signature to some great state document.
5022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Cleveland has not only shown his friendship for me in many personal
5023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ways, but has always consented to do anything I have asked of him for
5024 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our school. This he has done, whether it was to make a personal donation
5025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or to use his influence in securing the donations of others. Judging
5026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from my personal acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland, I do not believe that
5027 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he is conscious of possessing any colour prejudice. He is too great for
5028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that. In my contact with people I find that, as a rule, it is only
5029 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the little, narrow people who live for themselves, who never read good
5030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu books, who do not travel, who never open up their souls in a way to
5031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permit them to come into contact with other souls--with the great
5032 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu outside world. No man whose vision is bounded by colour can come into
5033 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contact with what is highest and best in the world. In meeting men, in
5034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many places, I have found that the happiest people are those who do the
5035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most for others; the most miserable are those who do the least. I have
5036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu also found that few things, if any, are capable of making one so blind
5037 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and narrow as race prejudice. I often say to our students, in the course
5038 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of my talks to them on Sunday evenings in the chapel, that the longer
5039 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I live and the more experience I have of the world, the more I am
5040 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu convinced that, after all, the one thing that is most worth living
5041 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for--and dying for, if need be--is the opportunity of making some one
5042 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu else more happy and more useful.
5044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The coloured people and the coloured newspapers at first seemed to be
5045 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatly pleased with the character of my Atlanta address, as well as
5046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with its reception. But after the first burst of enthusiasm began to
5047 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu die away, and the coloured people began reading the speech in cold type,
5048 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some of them seemed to feel that they had been hypnotized. They seemed
5049 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to feel that I had been too liberal in my remarks toward the Southern
5050 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whites, and that I had not spoken out strongly enough for what they
5051 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu termed the "rights" of my race. For a while there was a reaction, so
5052 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far as a certain element of my own race was concerned, but later these
5053 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reactionary ones seemed to have been won over to my way of believing and
5056 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While speaking of changes in public sentiment, I recall that about ten
5057 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu years after the school at Tuskegee was established, I had an experience
5058 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I shall never forget. Dr. Lyman Abbott, then the pastor of Plymouth
5059 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Church, and also editor of the Outlook (then the Christian Union),
5060 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu asked me to write a letter for his paper giving my opinion of the exact
5061 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu condition, mental and moral, of the coloured ministers in the South, as
5062 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu based upon my observations. I wrote the letter, giving the exact facts
5063 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as I conceived them to be. The picture painted was a rather black
5064 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one--or, since I am black, shall I say "white"? It could not be
5065 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu otherwise with a race but a few years out of slavery, a race which had
5066 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not had time or opportunity to produce a competent ministry.
5068 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu What I said soon reached every Negro minister in the country, I think,
5069 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the letters of condemnation which I received from them were not
5070 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu few. I think that for a year after the publication of this article every
5071 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu association and every conference or religious body of any kind, of my
5072 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race, that met, did not fail before adjourning to pass a resolution
5073 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu condemning me, or calling upon me to retract or modify what I had said.
5074 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Many of these organizations went so far in their resolutions as
5075 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to advise parents to cease sending their children to Tuskegee. One
5076 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu association even appointed a "missionary" whose duty it was to warn the
5077 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people against sending their children to Tuskegee. This missionary had
5078 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a son in the school, and I noticed that, whatever the "missionary" might
5079 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have said or done with regard to others, he was careful not to take his
5080 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu son away from the institution. Many of the coloured papers, especially
5081 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those that were the organs of religious bodies, joined in the general
5082 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chorus of condemnation or demands for retraction.
5084 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the whole time of the excitement, and through all the criticism,
5085 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I did not utter a word of explanation or retraction. I knew that I was
5086 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu right, and that time and the sober second thought of the people would
5087 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vindicate me. It was not long before the bishops and other church
5088 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu leaders began to make careful investigation of the conditions of the
5089 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ministry, and they found out that I was right. In fact, the oldest and
5090 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most influential bishop in one branch of the Methodist Church said that
5091 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my words were far too mild. Very soon public sentiment began making
5092 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu itself felt, in demanding a purifying of the ministry. While this is
5093 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not yet complete by any means, I think I may say, without egotism, and I
5094 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have been told by many of our most influential ministers, that my words
5095 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had much to do with starting a demand for the placing of a higher type
5096 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of men in the pulpit. I have had the satisfaction of having many who
5097 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu once condemned me thank me heartily for my frank words.
5099 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The change of the attitude of the Negro ministry, so far as regards
5100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu myself, is so complete that at the present time I have no warmer friends
5101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among any class than I have among the clergymen. The improvement in the
5102 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu character and life of the Negro ministers is one of the most gratifying
5103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu evidences of the progress of the race. My experience with them, as well
5104 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as other events in my life, convince me that the thing to do, when one
5105 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feels sure that he has said or done the right thing, and is condemned,
5106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.
5108 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the midst of the discussion which was going on concerning my Atlanta
5109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speech, I received the letter which I give below, from Dr. Gilman, the
5110 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President of Johns Hopkins University, who had been made chairman of the
5111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu judges of award in connection with the Atlanta Exposition:--
5113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
5115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President's Office, September 30, 1895.
5117 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dear Mr. Washington: Would it be agreeable to you to be one of the
5118 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Judges of Award in the Department of Education at Atlanta? If so, I
5119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu shall be glad to place your name upon the list. A line by telegraph will
5120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be welcomed.
5122 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Yours very truly,
5124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu D.C. Gilman
5127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I think I was even more surprised to receive this invitation than I
5128 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had been to receive the invitation to speak at the opening of the
5129 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Exposition. It was to be a part of my duty, as one of the jurors, to
5130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pass not only upon the exhibits of the coloured schools, but also upon
5131 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those of the white schools. I accepted the position, and spent a month
5132 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in Atlanta in performance of the duties which it entailed. The board of
5133 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu jurors was a large one, containing in all of sixty members. It was about
5134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu equally divided between Southern white people and Northern white people.
5135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Among them were college presidents, leading scientists and men of
5136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu letters, and specialists in many subjects. When the group of jurors to
5137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I was assigned met for organization, Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, who
5138 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was one of the number, moved that I be made secretary of that division,
5139 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the motion was unanimously adopted. Nearly half of our division
5140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were Southern people. In performing my duties in the inspection of the
5141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exhibits of white schools I was in every case treated with respect, and
5142 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the close of our labours I parted from my associates with regret.
5144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am often asked to express myself more freely than I do upon the
5145 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu political condition and the political future of my race. These
5146 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recollections of my experience in Atlanta give me the opportunity to do
5147 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so briefly. My own belief is, although I have never before said so in so
5148 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many words, that the time will come when the Negro in the South will
5149 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be accorded all the political rights which his ability, character,
5150 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and material possessions entitle him to. I think, though, that the
5151 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in
5152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be
5153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that
5154 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they will protect him in the exercise of those rights. Just as soon
5155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the South gets over the old feeling that it is being forced by
5156 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "foreigners," or "aliens," to do something which it does not want to
5157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu do, I believe that the change in the direction that I have indicated
5158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is going to begin. In fact, there are indications that it is already
5159 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu beginning in a slight degree.
5161 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Let me illustrate my meaning. Suppose that some months before the
5162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opening of the Atlanta Exposition there had been a general demand from
5163 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the press and public platform outside the South that a Negro be given
5164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a place on the opening programme, and that a Negro be placed upon the
5165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu board of jurors of award. Would any such recognition of the race have
5166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taken place? I do not think so. The Atlanta officials went as far as
5167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they did because they felt it to be a pleasure, as well as a duty, to
5168 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reward what they considered merit in the Negro race. Say what we will,
5169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there is something in human nature which we cannot blot out, which makes
5170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one man, in the end, recognize and reward merit in another, regardless
5171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of colour or race.
5173 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I believe it is the duty of the Negro--as the greater part of the race
5174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is already doing--to deport himself modestly in regard to political
5175 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu claims, depending upon the slow but sure influences that proceed from
5176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the possession of property, intelligence, and high character for the
5177 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu full recognition of his political rights. I think that the according
5178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the full exercise of political rights is going to be a matter of
5179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu natural, slow growth, not an over-night, gourd-vine affair. I do not
5180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu believe that the Negro should cease voting, for a man cannot learn the
5181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exercise of self-government by ceasing to vote, any more than a boy can
5182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learn to swim by keeping out of the water, but I do believe that in his
5183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu voting he should more and more be influenced by those of intelligence
5184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and character who are his next-door neighbours.
5186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I know coloured men who, through the encouragement, help, and advice of
5187 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern white people, have accumulated thousands of dollars' worth of
5188 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu property, but who, at the same time, would never think of going to those
5189 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu same persons for advice concerning the casting of their ballots. This,
5190 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it seems to me, is unwise and unreasonable, and should cease. In saying
5191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this I do not mean that the Negro should truckle, or not vote from
5192 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu principle, for the instant he ceases to vote from principle he loses the
5193 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu confidence and respect of the Southern white man even.
5195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I do not believe that any state should make a law that permits an
5196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ignorant and poverty-stricken white man to vote, and prevents a black
5197 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu man in the same condition from voting. Such a law is not only unjust,
5198 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but it will react, as all unjust laws do, in time; for the effect of
5199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu such a law is to encourage the Negro to secure education and property,
5200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and at the same time it encourages the white man to remain in
5201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ignorance and poverty. I believe that in time, through the operation of
5202 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu intelligence and friendly race relations, all cheating at the ballot-box
5203 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the South will cease. It will become apparent that the white man
5204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who begins by cheating a Negro out of his ballot soon learns to cheat a
5205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white man out of his, and that the man who does this ends his career of
5206 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dishonesty by the theft of property or by some equally serious crime. In
5207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my opinion, the time will come when the South will encourage all of
5208 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its citizens to vote. It will see that it pays better, from every
5209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu standpoint, to have healthy, vigorous life than to have that political
5210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stagnation which always results when one-half of the population has no
5211 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu share and no interest in the Government.
5213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As a rule, I believe in universal, free suffrage, but I believe that in
5214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the South we are confronted with peculiar conditions that justify the
5215 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu protection of the ballot in many of the states, for a while at least,
5216 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu either by an education test, a property test, or by both combined; but
5217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whatever tests are required, they should be made to apply with equal and
5218 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exact justice to both races.
5222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XV. The Secret Of Success In Public Speaking
5224 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As to how my address at Atlanta was received by the audience in the
5225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Exposition building, I think I prefer to let Mr. James Creelman, the
5226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu noted war correspondent, tell. Mr. Creelman was present, and telegraphed
5227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the following account to the New York World:--
5229 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Atlanta, September 18.
5231 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While President Cleveland was waiting at Gray Gables to-day, to send the
5232 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta Exposition, a
5233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro Moses stood before a great audience of white people and delivered
5234 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an oration that marks a new epoch in the history of the South; and a
5235 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu body of Negro troops marched in a procession with the citizen soldiery
5236 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Georgia and Louisiana. The whole city is thrilling to-night with a
5237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu realization of the extraordinary significance of these two unprecedented
5238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu events. Nothing has happened since Henry Grady's immortal speech before
5239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the New England society in New York that indicates so profoundly the
5240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spirit of the New South, except, perhaps, the opening of the Exposition
5243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When Professor Booker T. Washington, Principal of an industrial school
5244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for coloured people in Tuskegee, Ala. stood on the platform of the
5245 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Auditorium, with the sun shining over the heads of his auditors into his
5246 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu eyes, and with his whole face lit up with the fire of prophecy, Clark
5247 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Howell, the successor of Henry Grady, said to me, "That man's speech is
5248 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the beginning of a moral revolution in America."
5250 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It is the first time that a Negro has made a speech in the South on any
5251 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu important occasion before an audience composed of white men and women.
5252 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It electrified the audience, and the response was as if it had come from
5253 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the throat of a whirlwind.
5255 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Thompson had hardly taken her seat when all eyes were turned on
5256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a tall tawny Negro sitting in the front row of the platform. It was
5257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Professor Booker T. Washington, President of the Tuskegee (Alabama)
5258 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Normal and Industrial Institute, who must rank from this time forth
5259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the foremost man of his race in America. Gilmore's Band played the
5260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Star-Spangled Banner," and the audience cheered. The tune changed to
5261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Dixie" and the audience roared with shrill "hi-yis." Again the music
5262 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu changed, this time to "Yankee Doodle," and the clamour lessened.
5264 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All this time the eyes of the thousands present looked straight at the
5265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Negro orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man was to speak
5266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for his people, with none to interrupt him. As Professor Washington
5267 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strode to the edge of the stage, the low, descending sun shot fiery rays
5268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu through the windows into his face. A great shout greeted him. He turned
5269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his head to avoid the blinding light, and moved about the platform for
5270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relief. Then he turned his wonderful countenance to the sun without a
5271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu blink of the eyelids, and began to talk.
5273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There was a remarkable figure; tall, bony, straight as a Sioux chief,
5274 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu high forehead, straight nose, heavy jaws, and strong, determined mouth,
5275 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with big white teeth, piercing eyes, and a commanding manner. The sinews
5276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stood out on his bronzed neck, and his muscular right arm swung high in
5277 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the air, with a lead-pencil grasped in the clinched brown fist. His big
5278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feet were planted squarely, with the heels together and the toes turned
5279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out. His voice range out clear and true, and he paused impressively as
5280 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he made each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in an uproar of
5281 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enthusiasm--handkerchiefs were waved, canes were flourished, hats were
5282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tossed in the air. The fairest women of Georgia stood up and cheered. It
5283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was as if the orator had bewitched them.
5285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu And when he held his dusky hand high above his head, with the fingers
5286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stretched wide apart, and said to the white people of the South on
5287 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu behalf of his race, "In all things that are purely social we can be as
5288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential
5289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to mutual progress," the great wave of sound dashed itself against the
5290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu walls, and the whole audience was on its feet in a delirium of applause,
5291 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and I thought at that moment of the night when Henry Grady stood among
5292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the curling wreaths of tobacco-smoke in Delmonico's banquet-hall and
5293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu said, "I am a Cavalier among Roundheads."
5295 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have heard the great orators of many countries, but not even Gladstone
5296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu himself could have pleased a cause with most consummate power than did
5297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this angular Negro, standing in a nimbus of sunshine, surrounded by the
5298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men who once fought to keep his race in bondage. The roar might swell
5299 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever so high, but the expression of his earnest face never changed.
5301 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu A ragged, ebony giant, squatted on the floor in one of the aisles,
5302 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu watched the orator with burning eyes and tremulous face until the
5303 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu supreme burst of applause came, and then the tears ran down his face.
5304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Most of the Negroes in the audience were crying, perhaps without knowing
5307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At the close of the speech Governor Bullock rushed across the stage and
5308 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seized the orator's hand. Another shout greeted this demonstration, and
5309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for a few minutes the two men stood facing each other, hand in hand.
5312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu So far as I could spare the time from the immediate work at Tuskegee,
5313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after my Atlanta address, I accepted some of the invitations to speak
5314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in public which came to me, especially those that would take me into
5315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu territory where I thought it would pay to plead the cause of my race,
5316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but I always did this with the understanding that I was to be free
5317 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to talk about my life-work and the needs of my people. I also had it
5318 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu understood that I was not to speak in the capacity of a professional
5319 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lecturer, or for mere commercial gain.
5321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In my efforts on the public platform I never have been able to
5322 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu understand why people come to hear me speak. This question I never can
5323 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rid myself of. Time and time again, as I have stood in the street in
5324 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu front of a building and have seen men and women passing in large numbers
5325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu into the audience room where I was to speak, I have felt ashamed that
5326 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I should be the cause of people--as it seemed to me--wasting a valuable
5327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hour of their time. Some years ago I was to deliver an address before a
5328 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu literary society in Madison, Wis. An hour before the time set for me
5329 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to speak, a fierce snow-storm began, and continued for several hours. I
5330 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made up my mind that there would be no audience, and that I should not
5331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have to speak, but, as a matter of duty, I went to the church, and
5332 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu found it packed with people. The surprise gave me a shock that I did not
5333 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recover from during the whole evening.
5335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu People often ask me if I feel nervous before speaking, or else they
5336 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu suggest that, since I speak often, they suppose that I get used to it.
5337 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In answer to this question I have to say that I always suffer intensely
5338 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from nervousness before speaking. More than once, just before I was to
5339 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu make an important address, this nervous strain has been so great that
5340 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have resolved never again to speak in public. I not only feel nervous
5341 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before speaking, but after I have finished I usually feel a sense of
5342 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regret, because it seems to me as if I had left out of my address the
5343 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu main thing and the best thing that I had meant to say.
5345 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There is a great compensation, though, for this preliminary nervous
5346 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu suffering, that comes to me after I have been speaking for about ten
5347 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu minutes, and have come to feel that I have really mastered my audience,
5348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that we have gotten into full and complete sympathy with each other.
5349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It seems to me that there is rarely such a combination of mental and
5350 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu physical delight in any effort as that which comes to a public speaker
5351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when he feels that he has a great audience completely within his
5352 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu control. There is a thread of sympathy and oneness that connects a
5353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu public speaker with his audience, that is just as strong as though it
5354 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was something tangible and visible. If in an audience of a thousand
5355 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people there is one person who is not in sympathy with my views, or is
5356 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inclined to be doubtful, cold, or critical, I can pick him out. When
5357 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have found him I usually go straight at him, and it is a great
5358 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfaction to watch the process of his thawing out. I find that the
5359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu most effective medicine for such individuals is administered at first
5360 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the form of a story, although I never tell an anecdote simply for the
5361 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sake of telling one. That kind of thing, I think, is empty and hollow,
5362 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and an audience soon finds it out.
5364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I believe that one always does himself and his audience an injustice
5365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that
5366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that
5367 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he has a message to deliver. When one feels, from the bottom of his feet
5368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going
5369 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to help some individual or some cause, then let him say it; and in
5370 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu delivering his message I do not believe that many of the artificial
5371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rules of elocution can, under such circumstances, help him very much.
5372 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Although there are certain things, such as pauses, breathing, and pitch
5373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of voice, that are very important, none of these can take the place of
5374 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu soul in an address. When I have an address to deliver, I like to forget
5375 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all about the rules for the proper use of the English language, and all
5376 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about rhetoric and that sort of thing, and I like to make the audience
5377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu forget all about these things, too.
5379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nothing tends to throw me off my balance so quickly, when I am speaking,
5380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as to have some one leave the room. To prevent this, I make up my mind,
5381 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as a rule, that I will try to make my address so interesting, will try
5382 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to state so many interesting facts one after another, that no one can
5383 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu leave. The average audience, I have come to believe, wants facts rather
5384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than generalities or sermonizing. Most people, I think, are able to draw
5385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proper conclusions if they are given the facts in an interesting form on
5386 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which to base them.
5388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As to the kind of audience that I like best to talk to, I would put at
5389 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the top of the list an organization of strong, wide-awake, business
5390 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men, such, for example, as is found in Boston, New York, Chicago, and
5391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Buffalo. I have found no other audience so quick to see a point, and
5392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so responsive. Within the last few years I have had the privilege of
5393 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speaking before most of the leading organizations of this kind in the
5394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large cities of the United States. The best time to get hold of an
5395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu organization of business men is after a good dinner, although I think
5396 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that one of the worst instruments of torture that was ever invented
5397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is the custom which makes it necessary for a speaker to sit through a
5398 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fourteen-course dinner, every minute of the time feeling sure that his
5399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speech is going to prove a dismal failure and disappointment.
5401 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I rarely take part in one of these long dinners that I do not wish that
5402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I could put myself back in the little cabin where I was a slave boy, and
5403 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu again go through the experience there--one that I shall never forget--of
5404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu getting molasses to eat once a week from the "big house." Our usual
5405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu diet on the plantation was corn bread and pork, but on Sunday morning
5406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my mother was permitted to bring down a little molasses from the "big
5407 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu house" for her three children, and when it was received how I did wish
5408 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that every day was Sunday! I would get my tin plate and hold it up for
5409 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the sweet morsel, but I would always shut my eyes while the molasses was
5410 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being poured out into the plate, with the hope that when I opened them
5411 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I would be surprised to see how much I had got. When I opened my eyes
5412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I would tip the plate in one direction and another, so as to make the
5413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu molasses spread all over it, in the full belief that there would be more
5414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of it and that it would last longer if spread out in this way. So strong
5415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are my childish impressions of those Sunday morning feasts that it
5416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would be pretty hard for any one to convince me that there is not more
5417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu molasses on a plate when it is spread all over the plate than when it
5418 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occupies a little corner--if there is a corner in a plate. At any rate,
5419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have never believed in "cornering" syrup. My share of the syrup was
5420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usually about two tablespoonfuls, and those two spoonfuls of molasses
5421 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were much more enjoyable to me than is a fourteen-course dinner after
5422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which I am to speak.
5424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Next to a company of business men, I prefer to speak to an audience of
5425 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern people, of either race, together or taken separately. Their
5426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enthusiasm and responsiveness are a constant delight. The "amens" and
5427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "dat's de truf" that come spontaneously from the coloured individuals
5428 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are calculated to spur any speaker on to his best efforts. I think that
5429 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu next in order of preference I would place a college audience. It has
5430 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been my privilege to deliver addresses at many of our leading colleges
5431 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu including Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, Fisk University, the
5432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley, the University of Michigan,
5433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Trinity College in North Carolina, and many others.
5435 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It has been a matter of deep interest to me to note the number of people
5436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who have come to shake hands with me after an address, who say that this
5437 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is the first time they have ever called a Negro "Mister."
5439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When speaking directly in the interests of the Tuskegee Institute, I
5440 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usually arrange, some time in advance, a series of meetings in important
5441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu centres. This takes me before churches, Sunday-schools, Christian
5442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Endeavour Societies, and men's and women's clubs. When doing this I
5443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sometimes speak before as many as four organizations in a single day.
5445 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Three years ago, at the suggestion of Mr. Morris K. Jessup, of New York,
5446 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and Dr. J.L.M. Curry, the general agent of the fund, the trustees of
5447 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the John F. Slater Fund voted a sum of money to be used in paying
5448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the expenses of Mrs. Washington and myself while holding a series
5449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of meetings among the coloured people in the large centres of Negro
5450 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu population, especially in the large cities of the ex-slaveholding
5451 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu states. Each year during the last three years we have devoted some weeks
5452 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to this work. The plan that we have followed has been for me to speak
5453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the morning to the ministers, teachers, and professional men. In the
5454 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afternoon Mrs. Washington would speak to the women alone, and in the
5455 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu evening I spoke to a large mass-meeting. In almost every case the
5456 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meetings have been attended not only by the coloured people in large
5457 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu numbers, but by the white people. In Chattanooga, Tenn., for example,
5458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there was present at the mass-meeting an audience of not less than three
5459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thousand persons, and I was informed that eight hundred of these were
5460 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white. I have done no work that I really enjoyed more than this, or that
5461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I think has accomplished more good.
5463 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu These meetings have given Mrs. Washington and myself an opportunity to
5464 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu get first-hand, accurate information as to the real condition of
5465 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the race, by seeing the people in their homes, their churches, their
5466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Sunday-schools, and their places of work, as well as in the prisons and
5467 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dens of crime. These meetings also gave us an opportunity to see the
5468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu relations that exist between the races. I never feel so hopeful about
5469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the race as I do after being engaged in a series of these meetings. I
5470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu know that on such occasions there is much that comes to the surface that
5471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is superficial and deceptive, but I have had experience enough not to be
5472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu deceived by mere signs and fleeting enthusiasms. I have taken pains
5473 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to go to the bottom of things and get facts, in a cold, business-like
5476 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have seen the statement made lately, by one who claims to know what he
5477 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is talking about, that, taking the whole Negro race into account, ninety
5478 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu per cent of the Negro women are not virtuous. There never was a baser
5479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu falsehood uttered concerning a race, or a statement made that was less
5480 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu capable of being proved by actual facts.
5482 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu No one can come into contact with the race for twenty years, as I have
5483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu done in the heart of the South, without being convinced that the race is
5484 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu constantly making slow but sure progress materially, educationally, and
5485 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu morally. One might take up the life of the worst element in New
5486 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu York City, for example, and prove almost anything he wanted to prove
5487 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu concerning the white man, but all will agree that this is not a fair
5490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Early in the year 1897 I received a letter inviting me to deliver an
5491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address at the dedication of the Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston.
5492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I accepted the invitation. It is not necessary for me, I am sure, to
5493 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu explain who Robert Gould Shaw was, and what he did. The monument to
5494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his memory stands near the head of the Boston Common, facing the State
5495 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu House. It is counted to be the most perfect piece of art of the kind to
5496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be found in the country.
5498 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The exercises connected with the dedication were held in Music Hall, in
5499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Boston, and the great hall was packed from top to bottom with one of
5500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most distinguished audiences that ever assembled in the city. Among
5501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those present were more persons representing the famous old anti-slavery
5502 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu element that it is likely will ever be brought together in the country
5503 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu again. The late Hon. Roger Wolcott, then Governor of Massachusetts,
5504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was the presiding officer, and on the platform with him were many other
5505 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu officials and hundreds of distinguished men. A report of the meeting
5506 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which appeared in the Boston Transcript will describe it better than any
5507 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu words of mine could do:--
5509 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The core and kernel of yesterday's great noon meeting, in honour of the
5510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Brotherhood of Man, in Music Hall, was the superb address of the Negro
5511 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President of Tuskegee. "Booker T. Washington received his Harvard A.M.
5512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu last June, the first of his race," said Governor Wolcott, "to receive an
5513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honorary degree from the oldest university in the land, and this for
5514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the wise leadership of his people." When Mr. Washington rose in the
5515 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu flag-filled, enthusiasm-warmed, patriotic, and glowing atmosphere of
5516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Music Hall, people felt keenly that here was the civic justification of
5517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the old abolition spirit of Massachusetts; in his person the proof
5518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of her ancient and indomitable faith; in his strong thought and rich
5519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu oratory, the crown and glory of the old war days of suffering and
5520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strife. The scene was full of historic beauty and deep significance.
5521 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "Cold" Boston was alive with the fire that is always hot in her heart
5522 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for righteousness and truth. Rows and rows of people who are seldom seen
5523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at any public function, whole families of those who are certain to be
5524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu out of town on a holiday, crowded the place to overflowing. The city was
5525 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at her birthright _fête_ in the persons of hundreds of her best citizens,
5526 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men and women whose names and lives stand for the virtues that make for
5527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honourable civic pride.
5529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Battle-music had filled the air. Ovation after ovation, applause warm
5530 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and prolonged, had greeted the officers and friends of Colonel Shaw,
5531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the sculptor, St. Gaudens, the memorial Committee, the Governor and his
5532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu staff, and the Negro soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts as
5533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu they came upon the platform or entered the hall. Colonel Henry Lee,
5534 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Governor Andrew's old staff, had made a noble, simple presentation
5535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speech for the committee, paying tribute to Mr. John M. Forbes, in whose
5536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stead he served. Governor Wolcott had made his short, memorable speech,
5537 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu saying, "Fort Wagner marked an epoch in the history of a race, and
5538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu called it into manhood." Mayor Quincy had received the monument for the
5539 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu city of Boston. The story of Colonel Shaw and his black regiment had
5540 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been told in gallant words, and then, after the singing of
5542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mine eyes have seen the glory
5543 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Of the coming of the Lord,
5545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker Washington arose. It was, of course, just the moment for him. The
5546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu multitude, shaken out of its usual symphony-concert calm, quivered with
5547 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an excitement that was not suppressed. A dozen times it had sprung to
5548 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its feet to cheer and wave and hurrah, as one person. When this man of
5549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu culture and voice and power, as well as a dark skin, began, and uttered
5550 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the names of Stearns and of Andrew, feeling began to mount. You could
5551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu see tears glisten in the eyes of soldiers and civilians. When the orator
5552 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu turned to the coloured soldiers on the platform, to the colour-bearer of
5553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Fort Wagner, who smilingly bore still the flag he had never lowered even
5554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when wounded, and said, "To you, to the scarred and scattered remnants
5555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the Fifty-fourth, who, with empty sleeve and wanting leg, have
5556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honoured this occasion with your presence, to you, your commander is not
5557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dead. Though Boston erected no monument and history recorded no story,
5558 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in you and in the loyal race which you represent, Robert Gould Shaw
5559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would have a monument which time could not wear away," then came the
5560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu climax of the emotion of the day and the hour. It was Roger Wolcott, as
5561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu well as the Governor of Massachusetts, the individual representative of
5562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the people's sympathy as well as the chief magistrate, who had sprung
5563 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first to his feet and cried, "Three cheers to Booker T. Washington!"
5566 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Among those on the platform was Sergeant William H. Carney, of New
5567 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Bedford, Mass., the brave coloured officer who was the colour-bearer
5568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Fort Wagner and held the American flag. In spite of the fact that a
5569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large part of his regiment was killed, he escaped, and exclaimed, after
5570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the battle was over, "The old flag never touched the ground."
5572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This flag Sergeant Carney held in his hands as he sat on the platform,
5573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and when I turned to address the survivors of the coloured regiment
5574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who were present, and referred to Sergeant Carney, he rose, as if by
5575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu instinct, and raised the flag. It has been my privilege to witness
5576 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a good many satisfactory and rather sensational demonstrations in
5577 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu connection with some of my public addresses, but in dramatic effect
5578 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have never seen or experienced anything which equalled this. For
5579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a number of minutes the audience seemed to entirely lose control of
5582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the general rejoicing throughout the country which followed the close
5583 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the Spanish-American war, peace celebrations were arranged in several
5584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the large cities. I was asked by President William R. Harper, of the
5585 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu University of Chicago, who was chairman of the committee of invitations
5586 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the celebration to be held in the city of Chicago, to deliver one of
5587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the addresses at the celebration there. I accepted the invitation, and
5588 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu delivered two addresses there during the Jubilee week. The first of
5589 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these, and the principal one, was given in the Auditorium, on the
5590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu evening of Sunday, October 16. This was the largest audience that I have
5591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever addressed, in any part of the country; and besides speaking in
5592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the main Auditorium, I also addressed, that same evening, two overflow
5593 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audiences in other parts of the city.
5595 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was said that there were sixteen thousand persons in the Auditorium,
5596 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and it seemed to me as if there were as many more on the outside trying
5597 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get in. It was impossible for any one to get near the entrance
5598 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu without the aid of a policeman. President William McKinley attended this
5599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meeting, as did also the members of his Cabinet, many foreign ministers,
5600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and a large number of army and navy officers, many of whom had
5601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distinguished themselves in the war which had just closed. The speakers,
5602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu besides myself, on Sunday evening, were Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Father
5603 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Thomas P. Hodnett, and Dr. John H. Barrows.
5605 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Chicago Times-Herald, in describing the meeting, said of my
5606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address:--
5608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu He pictured the Negro choosing slavery rather than extinction; recalled
5609 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Crispus Attucks shedding his blood at the beginning of the American
5610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Revolution, that white Americans might be free, while black Americans
5611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remained in slavery; rehearsed the conduct of the Negroes with Jackson
5612 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at New Orleans; drew a vivid and pathetic picture of the Southern slaves
5613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu protecting and supporting the families of their masters while the latter
5614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were fighting to perpetuate black slavery; recounted the bravery of
5615 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coloured troops at Port Hudson and Forts Wagner and Pillow, and praised
5616 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the heroism of the black regiments that stormed El Caney and Santiago
5617 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to give freedom to the enslaved people of Cuba, forgetting, for the time
5618 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being, the unjust discrimination that law and custom make against them
5619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in their own country.
5621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In all of these things, the speaker declared, his race had chosen the
5622 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu better part. And then he made his eloquent appeal to the consciences of
5623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the white Americans: "When you have gotten the full story of the heroic
5624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conduct of the Negro in the Spanish-American war, have heard it from the
5625 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu lips of Northern soldier and Southern soldier, from ex-abolitionist and
5626 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ex-masters, then decide within yourselves whether a race that is
5627 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thus willing to die for its country should not be given the highest
5628 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to live for its country."
5631 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The part of the speech which seems to arouse the wildest and most
5632 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sensational enthusiasm was that in which I thanked the President for his
5633 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recognition of the Negro in his appointments during the Spanish-American
5634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu war. The President was sitting in a box at the right of the stage. When
5635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I addressed him I turned toward the box, and as I finished the sentence
5636 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thanking him for his generosity, the whole audience rose and cheered
5637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu again and again, waving handkerchiefs and hats and canes, until the
5638 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President arose in the box and bowed his acknowledgements. At that
5639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the enthusiasm broke out again, and the demonstration was almost
5640 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu indescribable.
5642 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One portion of my address at Chicago seemed to have been misunderstood
5643 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by the Southern press, and some of the Southern papers took occasion
5644 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to criticise me rather strongly. These criticisms continued for
5645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several weeks, until I finally received a letter from the editor of the
5646 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Age-Herald, published in Birmingham, Ala., asking me if I would say just
5647 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what I meant by this part of the address. I replied to him in a letter
5648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which seemed to satisfy my critics. In this letter I said that I had
5649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made it a rule never to say before a Northern audience anything that
5650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I would not say before an audience in the South. I said that I did not
5651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu think it was necessary for me to go into extended explanations; if
5652 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my seventeen years of work in the heart of the South had not been
5653 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu explanation enough, I did not see how words could explain. I said that
5654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I made the same plea that I had made in my address at Atlanta, for the
5655 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu blotting out of race prejudice in "commercial and civil relations." I
5656 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu said that what is termed social recognition was a question which I never
5657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discussed, and then I quoted from my Atlanta address what I had said
5658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there in regard to that subject.
5660 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In meeting crowds of people at public gatherings, there is one type of
5661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual that I dread. I mean the crank. I have become so accustomed
5662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to these people now that I can pick them out at a distance when I see
5663 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu them elbowing their way up to me. The average crank has a long beard,
5664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu poorly cared for, a lean, narrow face, and wears a black coat. The front
5665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of his vest and coat are slick with grease, and his trousers bag at the
5668 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In Chicago, after I had spoken at a meeting, I met one of these fellows.
5669 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu They usually have some process for curing all of the ills of the world
5670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at once. This Chicago specimen had a patent process by which he said
5671 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Indian corn could be kept through a period of three or four years, and
5672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he felt sure that if the Negro race in the South would, as a whole,
5673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu adopt his process, it would settle the whole race question. It mattered
5674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nothing that I tried to convince him that our present problem was to
5675 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teach the Negroes how to produce enough corn to last them through one
5676 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu year. Another Chicago crank had a scheme by which he wanted me to join
5677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him in an effort to close up all the National banks in the country. If
5678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that was done, he felt sure it would put the Negro on his feet.
5680 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The number of people who stand ready to consume one's time, to no
5681 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purpose, is almost countless. At one time I spoke before a large
5682 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audience in Boston in the evening. The next morning I was awakened by
5683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu having a card brought to my room, and with it a message that some
5684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one was anxious to see me. Thinking that it must be something very
5685 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu important, I dressed hastily and went down. When I reached the hotel
5686 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu office I found a blank and innocent-looking individual waiting for me,
5687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu who coolly remarked: "I heard you talk at a meeting last night. I rather
5688 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu liked your talk, and so I came in this morning to hear you talk some
5691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am often asked how it is possible for me to superintend the work
5692 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Tuskegee and at the same time be so much away from the school. In
5693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu partial answer to this I would say that I think I have learned, in some
5694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu degree at least, to disregard the old maxim which says, "Do not get
5695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu others to do that which you can do yourself." My motto, on the other
5696 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hand, is, "Do not do that which others can do as well."
5698 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu One of the most encouraging signs in connection with the Tuskegee school
5699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is found in the fact that the organization is so thorough that the
5700 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu daily work of the school is not dependent upon the presence of any one
5701 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual. The whole executive force, including instructors and clerks,
5702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu now numbers eighty-six. This force is so organized and subdivided that
5703 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the machinery of the school goes on day by day like clockwork. Most of
5704 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our teachers have been connected with the institutions for a number
5705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of years, and are as much interested in it as I am. In my absence, Mr.
5706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Warren Logan, the treasurer, who has been at the school seventeen years,
5707 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is the executive. He is efficiently supported by Mrs. Washington, and by
5708 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my faithful secretary, Mr. Emmett J. Scott, who handles the bulk of my
5709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu correspondence and keeps me in daily touch with the life of the school,
5710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and who also keeps me informed of whatever takes place in the South that
5711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu concerns the race. I owe more to his tact, wisdom, and hard work than I
5712 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu can describe.
5714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The main executive work of the school, whether I am at Tuskegee or not,
5715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu centres in what we call the executive council. This council meets twice
5716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a week, and is composed of the nine persons who are at the head of the
5717 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nine departments of the school. For example: Mrs. B.K. Bruce, the Lady
5718 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Principal, the widow of the late ex-senator Bruce, is a member of the
5719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu council, and represents in it all that pertains to the life of the girls
5720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the school. In addition to the executive council there is a
5721 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu financial committee of six, that meets every week and decides upon the
5722 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expenditures for the week. Once a month, and sometimes oftener, there
5723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is a general meeting of all the instructors. Aside from these there are
5724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu innumerable smaller meetings, such as that of the instructors in
5725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, or of the instructors in the
5726 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu agricultural department.
5728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In order that I may keep in constant touch with the life of the
5729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu institution, I have a system of reports so arranged that a record of the
5730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school's work reaches me every day of the year, no matter in what part
5731 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the country I am. I know by these reports even what students are
5732 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu excused from school, and why they are excused--whether for reasons of
5733 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ill health or otherwise. Through the medium of these reports I know each
5734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day what the income of the school in money is; I know how many gallons
5735 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of milk and how many pounds of butter come from the dairy; what the bill
5736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of fare for the teachers and students is; whether a certain kind of meat
5737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was boiled or baked, and whether certain vegetables served in the dining
5738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu room were bought from a store or procured from our own farm. Human
5739 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nature I find to be very much the same the world over, and it is
5740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sometimes not hard to yield to the temptation to go to a barrel of rice
5741 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that has come from the store--with the grain all prepared to go in the
5742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pot--rather than to take the time and trouble to go to the field and dig
5743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and wash one's own sweet potatoes, which might be prepared in a manner
5744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to take the place of the rice.
5746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am often asked how, in the midst of so much work, a large part of
5747 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which is for the public, I can find time for any rest or recreation,
5748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and what kind of recreation or sports I am fond of. This is rather
5749 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a difficult question to answer. I have a strong feeling that every
5750 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu individual owes it to himself, and to the cause which he is serving,
5751 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to keep a vigorous, healthy body, with the nerves steady and strong,
5752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prepared for great efforts and prepared for disappointments and trying
5753 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu positions. As far as I can, I make it a rule to plan for each day's
5754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work--not merely to go through with the same routine of daily duties,
5755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but to get rid of the routine work as early in the day as possible, and
5756 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu then to enter upon some new or advance work. I make it a rule to clear
5757 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my desk every day, before leaving my office, of all correspondence and
5758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu memoranda, so that on the morrow I can begin a NEW day of work. I make
5759 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it a rule never to let my work drive me, but to so master it, and keep
5760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it in such complete control, and to keep so far ahead of it, that I will
5761 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be the master instead of the servant. There is a physical and mental
5762 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and spiritual enjoyment that comes from a consciousness of being
5763 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the absolute master of one's work, in all its details, that is very
5764 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu satisfactory and inspiring. My experience teaches me that, if one learns
5765 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to follow this plan, he gets a freshness of body and vigour of mind out
5766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of work that goes a long way toward keeping him strong and healthy. I
5767 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu believe that when one can grow to the point where he loves his work,
5768 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this gives him a kind of strength that is most valuable.
5770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When I begin my work in the morning, I expect to have a successful and
5771 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pleasant day of it, but at the same time I prepare myself for unpleasant
5772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and unexpected hard places. I prepared myself to hear that one of our
5773 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school buildings is on fire, or has burned, or that some disagreeable
5774 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu accident has occurred, or that some one has abused me in a public
5775 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu address or printed article, for something that I have done or omitted
5776 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to do, or for something that he had heard that I had said--probably
5777 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something that I had never thought of saying.
5779 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In nineteen years of continuous work I have taken but one vacation. That
5780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was two years ago, when some of my friends put the money into my hands
5781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and forced Mrs. Washington and myself to spend three months in Europe. I
5782 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have said that I believe it is the duty of every one to keep his body in
5783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu good condition. I try to look after the little ills, with the idea that
5784 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu if I take care of the little ills the big ones will not come. When I
5785 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu find myself unable to sleep well, I know that something is wrong. If I
5786 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu find any part of my system the least weak, and not performing its duty,
5787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I consult a good physician. The ability to sleep well, at any time and
5788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in any place, I find of great advantage. I have so trained myself that
5789 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I can lie down for a nap of fifteen or twenty minutes, and get up
5790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu refreshed in body and mind.
5792 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have said that I make it a rule to finish up each day's work before
5793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu leaving it. There is, perhaps, one exception to this. When I have an
5794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unusually difficult question to decide--one that appeals strongly to the
5795 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu emotions--I find it a safe rule to sleep over it for a night, or to
5796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wait until I have had an opportunity to talk it over with my wife and
5799 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As to my reading; the most time I get for solid reading is when I am
5800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on the cars. Newspapers are to me a constant source of delight and
5801 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recreation. The only trouble is that I read too many of them. Fiction
5802 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I care little for. Frequently I have to almost force myself to read a
5803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu novel that is on every one's lips. The kind of reading that I have the
5804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatest fondness for is biography. I like to be sure that I am reading
5805 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about a real man or a real thing. I think I do not go too far when I say
5806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that I have read nearly every book and magazine article that has been
5807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu written about Abraham Lincoln. In literature he is my patron saint.
5809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Out of the twelve months in a year I suppose that, on an average, I
5810 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spend six months away from Tuskegee. While my being absent from the
5811 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school so much unquestionably has its disadvantages, yet there are at
5812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the same time some compensations. The change of work brings a certain
5813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu kind of rest. I enjoy a ride of a long distance on the cars, when I am
5814 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu permitted to ride where I can be comfortable. I get rest on the cars,
5815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu except when the inevitable individual who seems to be on every
5816 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu train approaches me with the now familiar phrase: "Isn't this Booker
5817 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington? I want to introduce myself to you." Absence from the school
5818 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enables me to lose sight of the unimportant details of the work, and
5819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu study it in a broader and more comprehensive manner than I could do on
5820 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the grounds. This absence also brings me into contact with the best
5821 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work being done in educational lines, and into contact with the best
5822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu educators in the land.
5824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But, after all this is said, the time when I get the most solid rest and
5825 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu recreation is when I can be at Tuskegee, and, after our evening meal is
5826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over, can sit down, as is our custom, with my wife and Portia and Baker
5827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and Davidson, my three children, and read a story, or each take turns in
5828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu telling a story. To me there is nothing on earth equal to that, although
5829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what is nearly equal to it is to go with them for an hour or more, as we
5830 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu like to do on Sunday afternoons, into the woods, where we can live for
5831 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a while near the heart of nature, where no one can disturb or vex us,
5832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surrounded by pure air, the trees, the shrubbery, the flowers, and the
5833 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sweet fragrance that springs from a hundred plants, enjoying the chirp
5834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the crickets and the songs of the birds. This is solid rest.
5836 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My garden, also, what little time I can be at Tuskegee, is another
5837 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu source of rest and enjoyment. Somehow I like, as often as possible, to
5838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu touch nature, not something that is artificial or an imitation, but
5839 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the real thing. When I can leave my office in time so that I can spend
5840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thirty or forty minutes in spading the ground, in planting seeds, in
5841 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu digging about the plants, I feel that I am coming into contact with
5842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu something that is giving me strength for the many duties and hard places
5843 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that await me out in the big world. I pity the man or woman who has
5844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu never learned to enjoy nature and to get strength and inspiration out of
5847 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Aside from the large number of fowls and animals kept by the school, I
5848 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu keep individually a number of pigs and fowls of the best grades, and
5849 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in raising these I take a great deal of pleasure. I think the pig is
5850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my favourite animal. Few things are more satisfactory to me than a
5851 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu high-grade Berkshire or Poland China pig.
5853 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Games I care little for. I have never seen a game of football. In cards
5854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I do not know one card from another. A game of old-fashioned marbles
5855 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with my two boys, once in a while, is all I care for in this direction.
5856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I suppose I would care for games now if I had had any time in my youth
5857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to give to them, but that was not possible.
5861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XVI. Europe
5863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In 1893 I was married to Miss Margaret James Murray, a native of
5864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mississippi, and a graduate of Fisk University, in Nashville, Tenn., who
5865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had come to Tuskegee as a teacher several years before, and at the time
5866 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were married was filling the position of Lady Principal. Not only is
5867 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Washington completely one with me in the work directly connected
5868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with the school, relieving me of many burdens and perplexities, but
5869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu aside from her work on the school grounds, she carries on a mothers'
5870 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meeting in the town of Tuskegee, and a plantation work among the women,
5871 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu children, and men who live in a settlement connected with a large
5872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantation about eight miles from Tuskegee. Both the mothers' meeting
5873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the plantation work are carried on, not only with a view to helping
5874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those who are directly reached, but also for the purpose of furnishing
5875 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu object-lessons in these two kinds of work that may be followed by our
5876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students when they go out into the world for their own life-work.
5878 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Aside from these two enterprises, Mrs. Washington is also largely
5879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu responsible for a woman's club at the school which brings together,
5880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu twice a month, the women who live on the school grounds and those who
5881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu live near, for the discussion of some important topic. She is also
5882 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the President of what is known as the Federation of Southern Coloured
5883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Women's Clubs, and is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
5884 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu National Federation of Coloured Women's Clubs.
5886 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Portia, the oldest of my three children, has learned dressmaking. She
5887 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu has unusual ability in instrumental music. Aside from her studies at
5888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee, she has already begun to teach there.
5890 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker Taliaferro is my next oldest child. Young as he is, he has
5891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu already nearly mastered the brickmason's trade. He began working at this
5892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trade when he was quite small, dividing his time between this and class
5893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work; and he has developed great skill in the trade and a fondness for
5894 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it. He says that he is going to be an architect and brickmason. One of
5895 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the most satisfactory letters that I have ever received from any one
5896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came to me from Booker last summer. When I left home for the summer, I
5897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu told him that he must work at his trade half of each day, and that the
5898 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other half of the day he could spend as he pleased. When I had been away
5899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from home two weeks, I received the following letter from him:
5901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee, Alabama.
5903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My dear Papa: Before you left home you told me to work at my trade half
5904 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of each day. I like my work so much that I want to work at my trade all
5905 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu day. Besides, I want to earn all the money I can, so that when I go to
5906 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu another school I shall have money to pay my expenses.
5913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My youngest child, Ernest Davidson Washington, says that he is going to
5914 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be a physician. In addition to going to school, where he studies books
5915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and has manual training, he regularly spends a portion of his time in
5916 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the office of our resident physician, and has already learned to do many
5917 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the duties which pertain to a doctor's office.
5919 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The thing in my life which brings me the keenest regret is that my work
5920 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in connection with public affairs keeps me for so much of the time away
5921 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from my family, where, of all places in the world, I delight to be. I
5922 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu always envy the individual whose life-work is so laid that he can spend
5923 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his evenings at home. I have sometimes thought that people who have this
5924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rare privilege do not appreciate it as they should. It is such a rest
5925 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and relief to get away from crowds of people, and handshaking, and
5926 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu travelling, to get home, even if it be for but a very brief while.
5928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Another thing at Tuskegee out of which I get a great deal of pleasure
5929 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and satisfaction is in the meeting with our students, and teachers, and
5930 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their families, in the chapel for devotional exercises every evening at
5931 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu half-past eight, the last thing before retiring for the night. It is an
5932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu inspiring sight when one stands on the platform there and sees before
5933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu him eleven or twelve hundred earnest young men and women; and one cannot
5934 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but feel that it is a privilege to help to guide them to a higher and
5935 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more useful life.
5937 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the spring of 1899 there came to me what I might describe as almost
5938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the greatest surprise of my life. Some good ladies in Boston arranged
5939 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a public meeting in the interests of Tuskegee, to be held in the Hollis
5940 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Street Theatre. This meeting was attended by large numbers of the best
5941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people of Boston, of both races. Bishop Lawrence presided. In addition
5942 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to an address made by myself, Mr. Paul Lawrence Dunbar read from his
5943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu poems, and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois read an original sketch.
5945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Some of those who attended this meeting noticed that I seemed unusually
5946 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu tired, and some little time after the close of the meeting, one of the
5947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ladies who had been interested in it asked me in a casual way if I had
5948 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever been to Europe. I replied that I never had. She asked me if I had
5949 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever thought of going, and I told her no; that it was something entirely
5950 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu beyond me. This conversation soon passed out of my mind, but a few days
5951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu afterward I was informed that some friends in Boston, including Mr.
5952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Francis J. Garrison, had raised a sum of money sufficient to pay all the
5953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu expenses of Mrs. Washington and myself during a three or four months'
5954 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu trip to Europe. It was added with emphasis that we MUST go. A year
5955 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu previous to this Mr. Garrison had attempted to get me to promise to go
5956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to Europe for a summer's rest, with the understanding that he would be
5957 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu responsible for raising the money among his friends for the expenses
5958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the trip. At that time such a journey seemed so entirely foreign to
5959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anything that I should ever be able to undertake that I did confess I
5960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu did not give the matter very serious attention; but later Mr. Garrison
5961 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu joined his efforts to those of the ladies whom I have mentioned, and
5962 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when their plans were made known to me Mr. Garrison not only had the
5963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu route mapped out, but had, I believe, selected the steamer upon which we
5964 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were to sail.
5966 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The whole thing was so sudden and so unexpected that I was completely
5967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taken off my feet. I had been at work steadily for eighteen years in
5968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu connection with Tuskegee, and I had never thought of anything else but
5969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ending my life in that way. Each day the school seemed to depend upon
5970 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me more largely for its daily expenses, and I told these Boston friends
5971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that, while I thanked them sincerely for their thoughtfulness and
5972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu generosity, I could not go to Europe, for the reason that the school
5973 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu could not live financially while I was absent. They then informed me
5974 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that Mr. Henry L. Higginson, and some other good friends who I know do
5975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not want their names made public, were then raising a sum of money which
5976 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would be sufficient to keep the school in operation while I was away. At
5977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this point I was compelled to surrender. Every avenue of escape had been
5980 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Deep down in my heart the whole thing seemed more like a dream than
5981 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu like reality, and for a long time it was difficult for me to make myself
5982 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu believe that I was actually going to Europe. I had been born and largely
5983 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reared in the lowest depths of slavery, ignorance, and poverty. In my
5984 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu childhood I had suffered for want of a place to sleep, for lack of food,
5985 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu clothing, and shelter. I had not had the privilege of sitting down to a
5986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dining-table until I was quite well grown. Luxuries had always seemed to
5987 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me to be something meant for white people, not for my race. I had always
5988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu regarded Europe, and London, and Paris, much as I regarded heaven. And
5989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu now could it be that I was actually going to Europe? Such thoughts as
5990 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these were constantly with me.
5992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Two other thoughts troubled me a good deal. I feared that people who
5993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heard that Mrs. Washington and I were going to Europe might not know all
5994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the circumstances, and might get the idea that we had become, as some
5995 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu might say, "stuck up," and were trying to "show off." I recalled that
5996 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from my youth I had heard it said that too often, when people of my
5997 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu race reached any degree of success, they were inclined to unduly exalt
5998 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu themselves; to try and ape the wealthy, and in so doing to lose their
5999 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heads. The fear that people might think this of us haunted me a good
6000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu deal. Then, too, I could not see how my conscience would permit me to
6001 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spare the time from my work and be happy. It seemed mean and selfish in
6002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me to be taking a vacation while others were at work, and while there
6003 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was so much that needed to be done. From the time I could remember, I
6004 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had always been at work, and I did not see how I could spend three or
6005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu four months in doing nothing. The fact was that I did not know how to
6006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu take a vacation.
6008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Washington had much the same difficulty in getting away, but she
6009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was anxious to go because she thought that I needed the rest. There
6010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were many important National questions bearing upon the life of the race
6011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which were being agitated at that time, and this made it all the harder
6012 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for us to decide to go. We finally gave our Boston friends our promise
6013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that we would go, and then they insisted that the date of our departure
6014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu be set as soon as possible. So we decided upon May 10. My good friend
6015 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Garrison kindly took charge of all the details necessary for the
6016 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu success of the trip, and he, as well as other friends, gave us a great
6017 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of letters of introduction to people in France and England, and
6018 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu made other arrangements for our comfort and convenience abroad. Good-bys
6019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were said at Tuskegee, and we were in New York May 9, ready to sail
6020 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the next day. Our daughter Portia, who was then studying in South
6021 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Framingham, Mass., came to New York to see us off. Mr. Scott, my
6022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu secretary, came with me to New York, in order that I might clear up the
6023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu last bit of business before I left. Other friends also came to New York
6024 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to see us off. Just before we went on board the steamer another pleasant
6025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surprise came to us in the form of a letter from two generous ladies,
6026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stating that they had decided to give us the money with which to erect a
6027 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu new building to be used in properly housing all our industries for girls
6028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at Tuskegee.
6030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We were to sail on the Friesland, of the Red Star Line, and a beautiful
6031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu vessel she was. We went on board just before noon, the hour of sailing.
6032 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had never before been on board a large ocean steamer, and the feeling
6033 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which took possession of me when I found myself there is rather hard
6034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to describe. It was a feeling, I think, of awe mingled with delight. We
6035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were agreeably surprised to find that the captain, as well as several of
6036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the other officers, not only knew who we were, but was expecting us and
6037 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gave us a pleasant greeting. There were several passengers whom we
6038 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu knew, including Senator Sewell, of New Jersey, and Edward Marshall, the
6039 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu newspaper correspondent. I had just a little fear that we would not be
6040 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu treated civilly by some of the passengers. This fear was based upon
6041 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu what I had heard other people of my race, who had crossed the ocean, say
6042 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about unpleasant experiences in crossing the ocean in American vessels.
6043 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu But in our case, from the captain down to the most humble servant, we
6044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were treated with the greatest kindness. Nor was this kindness confined
6045 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to those who were connected with the steamer; it was shown by all the
6046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu passengers also. There were not a few Southern men and women on board,
6047 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and they were as cordial as those from other parts of the country.
6049 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As soon as the last good-bys were said, and the steamer had cut loose
6050 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from the wharf, the load of care, anxiety, and responsibility which I
6051 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had carried for eighteen years began to lift itself from my shoulders at
6052 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the rate, it seemed to me, of a pound a minute. It was the first time in
6053 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all those years that I had felt, even in a measure, free from care; and
6054 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my feeling of relief it is hard to describe on paper. Added to this was
6055 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the delightful anticipation of being in Europe soon. It all seemed more
6056 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu like a dream than like a reality.
6058 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mr. Garrison had thoughtfully arranged to have us have one of the most
6059 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comfortable rooms on the ship. The second or third day out I began
6060 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to sleep, and I think that I slept at the rate of fifteen hours a day
6061 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu during the remainder of the ten days' passage. Then it was that I began
6062 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to understand how tired I really was. These long sleeps I kept up for a
6063 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu month after we landed on the other side. It was such an unusual feeling
6064 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to wake up in the morning and realize that I had no engagements; did not
6065 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have to take a train at a certain hour; did not have an appointment to
6066 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu meet some one, or to make an address, at a certain hour. How different
6067 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all this was from the experiences that I have been through when
6068 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu travelling, when I have sometimes slept in three different beds in a
6069 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu single night!
6071 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When Sunday came, the captain invited me to conduct the religious
6072 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu services, but, not being a minister, I declined. The passengers,
6073 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu however, began making requests that I deliver an address to them in the
6074 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dining-saloon some time during the voyage, and this I consented to do.
6075 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Senator Sewell presided at this meeting. After ten days of delightful
6076 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu weather, during which I was not seasick for a day, we landed at the
6077 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu interesting old city of Antwerp, in Belgium.
6079 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The next day after we landed happened to be one of those numberless
6080 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu holidays which the people of those countries are in the habit of
6081 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu observing. It was a bright, beautiful day. Our room in the hotel faced
6082 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the main public square, and the sights there--the people coming in
6083 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from the country with all kinds of beautiful flowers to sell, the women
6084 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coming in with their dogs drawing large, brightly polished cans filled
6085 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with milk, the people streaming into the cathedral--filled me with a
6086 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sense of newness that I had never before experienced.
6088 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After spending some time in Antwerp, we were invited to go with a part
6089 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of a half-dozen persons on a trip through Holland. This party included
6090 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Edward Marshall and some American artists who had come over on the
6091 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu same steamer with us. We accepted the invitation, and enjoyed the trip
6092 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatly. I think it was all the more interesting and instructive
6093 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because we went for most of the way on one of the slow, old-fashioned
6094 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu canal-boats. This gave us an opportunity of seeing and studying the real
6095 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life of the people in the country districts. We went in this way as far
6096 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as Rotterdam, and later went to The Hague, where the Peace Conference
6097 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was then in session, and where we were kindly received by the American
6098 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu representatives.
6100 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The thing that impressed itself most on me in Holland was the
6101 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thoroughness of the agriculture and the excellence of the Holstein
6102 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cattle. I never knew, before visiting Holland, how much it was possible
6103 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for people to get out of a small plot of ground. It seemed to me that
6104 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu absolutely no land was wasted. It was worth a trip to Holland, too, just
6105 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to get a sight of three or four hundred fine Holstein cows grazing in
6106 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one of those intensely green fields.
6108 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From Holland we went to Belgium, and made a hasty trip through that
6109 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country, stopping at Brussels, where we visited the battlefield of
6110 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Waterloo. From Belgium we went direct to Paris, where we found that Mr.
6111 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Theodore Stanton, the son of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had kindly
6112 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provided accommodations for us. We had barely got settled in Paris
6113 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu before an invitation came to me from the University Club of Paris to be
6114 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu its guest at a banquet which was soon to be given. The other guests were
6115 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ex-President Benjamin Harrison and Archbishop Ireland, who were in Paris
6116 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at the time. The American Ambassador, General Horace Porter, presided at
6117 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the banquet. My address on this occasion seemed to give satisfaction to
6118 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu those who heard it. General Harrison kindly devoted a large portion
6119 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of his remarks at dinner to myself and to the influence of the work at
6120 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee on the American race question. After my address at this banquet
6121 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other invitations came to me, but I declined the most of them, knowing
6122 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that if I accepted them all, the object of my visit would be defeated.
6123 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I did, however, consent to deliver an address in the American chapel the
6124 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu following Sunday morning, and at this meeting General Harrison, General
6125 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Porter, and other distinguished Americans were present.
6127 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Later we received a formal call from the American Ambassador, and were
6128 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu invited to attend a reception at his residence. At this reception we
6129 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu met many Americans, among them Justices Fuller and Harlan, of the United
6130 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu States Supreme Court. During our entire stay of a month in Paris,
6131 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu both the American Ambassador and his wife, as well as several other
6132 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Americans, were very kind to us.
6134 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While in Paris we saw a good deal of the now famous American Negro
6135 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu painter, Mr. Henry O. Tanner, whom we had formerly known in America. It
6136 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was very satisfactory to find how well known Mr. Tanner was in the field
6137 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of art, and to note the high standing which all classes accorded to him.
6138 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When we told some Americans that we were going to the Luxembourg Palace
6139 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to see a painting by an American Negro, it was hard to convince them
6140 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that a Negro had been thus honoured. I do not believe that they were
6141 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu really convinced of the fact until they saw the picture for themselves.
6142 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My acquaintance with Mr. Tanner reenforced in my mind the truth which
6143 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I am constantly trying to impress upon our students at Tuskegee--and on
6144 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our people throughout the country, as far as I can reach them with
6145 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my voice--that any man, regardless of colour, will be recognized and
6146 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well--learns to
6147 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu do it better than some one else--however humble the thing may be. As
6148 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have said, I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it
6149 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns to do a thing
6150 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so thoroughly that no one can improve upon what it has done; learns
6151 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to make its services of indispensable value. This was the spirit
6152 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that inspired me in my first effort at Hampton, when I was given the
6153 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to sweep and dust that schoolroom. In a degree I felt that
6154 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my whole future life depended upon the thoroughness with which I cleaned
6155 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that room, and I was determined to do it so well that no one could find
6156 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu any fault with the job. Few people ever stopped, I found, when looking
6157 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at his pictures, to inquire whether Mr. Tanner was a Negro painter, a
6158 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu French painter, or a German painter. They simply knew that he was able
6159 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to produce something which the world wanted--a great painting--and the
6160 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu matter of his colour did not enter into their minds. When a Negro girl
6161 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, or write a book, or a Negro boy
6162 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter,
6163 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or to build a house, or to be able to practise medicine, as well or
6164 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu better than some one else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or
6165 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu colour. In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any
6166 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu difference in race, religion, or previous history will not long keep the
6167 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu world from what it wants.
6169 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I think that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to
6170 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the
6171 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our
6172 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community.
6173 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual,
6174 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without
6175 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu proper reward. This is a great human law which cannot be permanently
6176 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nullified.
6178 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The love of pleasure and excitement which seems in a large measure to
6179 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu possess the French people impressed itself upon me. I think they are
6180 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu more noted in this respect than is true of the people of my own race. In
6181 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu point of morality and moral earnestness I do not believe that the French
6182 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are ahead of my own race in America. Severe competition and the great
6183 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu stress of life have led them to learn to do things more thoroughly and
6184 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to exercise greater economy; but time, I think, will bring my race to
6185 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the same point. In the matter of truth and high honour I do not believe
6186 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the average Frenchman is ahead of the American Negro; while so far
6187 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as mercy and kindness to dumb animals go, I believe that my race is far
6188 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ahead. In fact, when I left France, I had more faith in the future of
6189 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the black man in America than I had ever possessed.
6191 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From Paris we went to London, and reached there early in July, just
6192 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about the height of the London social season. Parliament was in session,
6193 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and there was a great deal of gaiety. Mr. Garrison and other friends had
6194 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu provided us with a large number of letters of introduction, and they
6195 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had also sent letters to other persons in different parts of the United
6196 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Kingdom, apprising these people of our coming. Very soon after reaching
6197 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu London we were flooded with invitations to attend all manner of social
6198 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu functions, and a great many invitations came to me asking that I deliver
6199 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu public addresses. The most of these invitations I declined, for the
6200 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reason that I wanted to rest. Neither were we able to accept more than
6201 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a small proportion of the other invitations. The Rev. Dr. Brooke
6202 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Herford and Mrs. Herford, whom I had known in Boston, consulted with
6203 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the American Ambassador, the Hon. Joseph Choate, and arranged for me to
6204 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu speak at a public meeting to be held in Essex Hall. Mr. Choate kindly
6205 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu consented to preside. The meeting was largely attended. There were many
6206 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distinguished persons present, among them several members of Parliament,
6207 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu including Mr. James Bryce, who spoke at the meeting. What the American
6208 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ambassador said in introducing me, as well as a synopsis of what I said,
6209 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was widely published in England and in the American papers at the time.
6210 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dr. and Mrs. Herford gave Mrs. Washington and myself a reception,
6211 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at which we had the privilege of meeting some of the best people in
6212 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu England. Throughout our stay in London Ambassador Choate was most kind
6213 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and attentive to us. At the Ambassador's reception I met, for the first
6214 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu time, Mark Twain.
6216 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We were the guests several times of Mrs. T. Fisher Unwin, the daughter
6217 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the English statesman, Richard Cobden. It seemed as if both Mr. and
6218 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Unwin could not do enough for our comfort and happiness. Later, for
6219 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu nearly a week, we were the guests of the daughter of John Bright, now
6220 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mrs. Clark, of Street, England. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark, with their
6221 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu daughter, visited us at Tuskegee the next year. In Birmingham, England,
6222 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were the guests for several days of Mr. Joseph Sturge, whose father
6223 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was a great abolitionist and friend of Whittier and Garrison. It was
6224 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a great privilege to meet throughout England those who had known and
6225 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honoured the late William Lloyd Garrison, the Hon. Frederick Douglass,
6226 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and other abolitionists. The English abolitionists with whom we came
6227 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in contact never seemed to tire of talking about these two Americans.
6228 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Before going to England I had had no proper conception of the deep
6229 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu interest displayed by the abolitionists of England in the cause of
6230 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu freedom, nor did I realize the amount of substantial help given by them.
6232 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In Bristol, England, both Mrs. Washington and I spoke at the Women's
6233 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Liberal Club. I was also the principal speaker at the Commencement
6234 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exercises of the Royal College for the Blind. These exercises were held
6235 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the Crystal Palace, and the presiding officer was the late Duke of
6236 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Westminster, who was said to be, I believe, the richest man in England,
6237 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu if not in the world. The Duke, as well as his wife and their daughter,
6238 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed to be pleased with what I said, and thanked me heartily. Through
6239 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the kindness of Lady Aberdeen, my wife and I were enabled to go with a
6240 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu party of those who were attending the International Congress of Women,
6241 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu then in session in London, to see Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle,
6242 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu where, afterward, we were all the guests of her Majesty at tea. In our
6243 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu party was Miss Susan B. Anthony, and I was deeply impressed with the
6244 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fact that one did not often get an opportunity to see, during the same
6245 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hour, two women so remarkable in different ways as Susan B. Anthony and
6246 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Queen Victoria.
6248 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the House of Commons, which we visited several times, we met Sir
6249 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Henry M. Stanley. I talked with him about Africa and its relation to the
6250 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu American Negro, and after my interview with him I became more convinced
6251 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu than ever that there was no hope of the American Negro's improving his
6252 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu condition by emigrating to Africa.
6254 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu On various occasions Mrs. Washington and I were the guests of Englishmen
6255 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in their country homes, where, I think, one sees the Englishman at his
6256 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu best. In one thing, at least, I feel sure that the English are ahead of
6257 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Americans, and that is, that they have learned how to get more out of
6258 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu life. The home life of the English seems to me to be about as perfect as
6259 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu anything can be. Everything moves like clockwork. I was impressed,
6260 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu too, with the deference that the servants show to their "masters" and
6261 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "mistresses,"--terms which I suppose would not be tolerated in America.
6262 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The English servant expects, as a rule, to be nothing but a servant, and
6263 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so he perfects himself in the art to a degree that no class of servants
6264 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in America has yet reached. In our country the servant expects to
6265 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu become, in a few years, a "master" himself. Which system is preferable?
6266 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I will not venture an answer.
6268 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Another thing that impressed itself upon me throughout England was the
6269 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu high regard that all classes have for law and order, and the ease and
6270 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thoroughness with which everything is done. The Englishmen, I found,
6271 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu took plenty of time for eating, as for everything else. I am not
6272 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sure if, in the long run, they do not accomplish as much or more than
6273 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu rushing, nervous Americans do.
6275 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My visit to England gave me a higher regard for the nobility than I had
6276 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had. I had no idea that they were so generally loved and respected by
6277 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the classes, nor had I any correct conception of how much time and
6278 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu money they spent in works of philanthropy, and how much real heart they
6279 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu put into this work. My impression had been that they merely spent money
6280 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu freely and had a "good time."
6282 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It was hard for me to get accustomed to speaking to English audiences.
6283 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The average Englishman is so serious, and is so tremendously in earnest
6284 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about everything, that when I told a story that would have made an
6285 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu American audience roar with laughter, the Englishmen simply looked me
6286 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu straight in the face without even cracking a smile.
6288 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When the Englishman takes you into his heart and friendship, he binds
6289 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu you there as with cords of steel, and I do not believe that there are
6290 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu many other friendships that are so lasting or so satisfactory. Perhaps
6291 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I can illustrate this point in no better way than by relating the
6292 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu following incident. Mrs. Washington and I were invited to attend a
6293 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reception given by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, at Stafford
6294 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu House--said to be the finest house in London; I may add that I believe
6295 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Duchess of Sutherland is said to be the most beautiful woman in
6296 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu England. There must have been at least three hundred persons at this
6297 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reception. Twice during the evening the Duchess sought us out for a
6298 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conversation, and she asked me to write her when we got home, and tell
6299 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu her more about the work at Tuskegee. This I did. When Christmas came
6300 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we were surprised and delighted to receive her photograph with her
6301 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu autograph on it. The correspondence has continued, and we now feel that
6302 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the Duchess of Sutherland we have one of our warmest friends.
6304 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu After three months in Europe we sailed from Southampton in the steamship
6305 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu St. Louis. On this steamer there was a fine library that had been
6306 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu presented to the ship by the citizens of St. Louis, Mo. In this library
6307 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I found a life of Frederick Douglass, which I began reading. I became
6308 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu especially interested in Mr. Douglass's description of the way he was
6309 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu treated on shipboard during his first or second visit to England. In
6310 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this description he told how he was not permitted to enter the cabin,
6311 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but had to confine himself to the deck of the ship. A few minutes after
6312 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had finished reading this description I was waited on by a committee
6313 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of ladies and gentlemen with the request that I deliver an address at
6314 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a concert which was to begin the following evening. And yet there are
6315 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people who are bold enough to say that race feeling in America is not
6316 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu growing less intense! At this concert the Hon. Benjamin B. Odell, Jr.,
6317 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the present governor of New York, presided. I was never given a more
6318 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cordial hearing anywhere. A large proportion of the passengers were
6319 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Southern people. After the concert some of the passengers proposed that
6320 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a subscription be raised to help the work at Tuskegee, and the money to
6321 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu support several scholarships was the result.
6323 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While we were in Paris I was very pleasantly surprised to receive the
6324 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu following invitation from the citizens of West Virginia and of the city
6325 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu near which I had spent my boyhood days:--
6327 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Charleston, W. Va., May 16, 1899.
6329 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Professor Booker T. Washington, Paris, France:
6331 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dear Sir: Many of the best citizens of West Virginia have united in
6332 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu liberal expressions of admiration and praise of your worth and work, and
6333 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu desire that on your return from Europe you should favour them with
6334 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu your presence and with the inspiration of your words. We must sincerely
6335 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu indorse this move, and on behalf of the citizens of Charleston extend
6336 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to your our most cordial invitation to have you come to us, that we may
6337 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honour you who have done so much by your life and work to honour us.
6341 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Very truly yours,
6343 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Common Council of the City of Charleston,
6345 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu By W. Herman Smith, Mayor.
6348 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This invitation from the City Council of Charleston was accompanied by
6349 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the following:--
6351 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Professor Booker T. Washington, Paris, France:
6353 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dear Sir: We, the citizens of Charleston and West Virginia, desire to
6354 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu express our pride in you and the splendid career that you have thus
6355 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far accomplished, and ask that we be permitted to show our pride and
6356 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu interest in a substantial way.
6358 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Your recent visit to your old home in our midst awoke within us the
6359 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu keenest regret that we were not permitted to hear you and render some
6360 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu substantial aid to your work, before you left for Europe.
6362 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In view of the foregoing, we earnestly invite you to share the
6363 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hospitality of our city upon your return from Europe, and give us the
6364 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opportunity to hear you and put ourselves in touch with your work in a
6365 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu way that will be most gratifying to yourself, and that we may receive
6366 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the inspiration of your words and presence.
6368 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu An early reply to this invitation, with an indication of the time you
6369 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu may reach our city, will greatly oblige,
6371 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Yours very respectfully,
6373 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Charleston Daily Gazette, The Daily Mail-Tribune; G.W. Atkinson,
6374 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Governor; E.L. Boggs, Secretary to Governor; Wm. M.O. Dawson, Secretary
6375 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of State; L.M. La Follette, Auditor; J.R. Trotter, Superintendent of
6376 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Schools; E.W. Wilson, ex-Governor; W.A. MacCorkle, ex-Governor; John
6377 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Q. Dickinson, President Kanawha Valley Bank; L. Prichard, President
6378 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Charleston National Bank; Geo. S. Couch, President Kanawha National
6379 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Bank; Ed. Reid, Cashier Kanawha National Bank; Geo. S. Laidley,
6380 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Superintended City Schools; L.E. McWhorter, President Board of
6381 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Education; Chas. K. Payne, wholesale merchant; and many others.
6384 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This invitation, coming as it did from the City Council, the state
6385 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu officers, and all the substantial citizens of both races of the
6386 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu community where I had spent my boyhood, and from which I had gone a
6387 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu few years before, unknown, in poverty and ignorance, in quest of an
6388 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education, not only surprised me, but almost unmanned me. I could not
6389 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu understand what I had done to deserve it all.
6391 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I accepted the invitation, and at the appointed day was met at the
6392 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu railway station at Charleston by a committee headed by ex-Governor W.A.
6393 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu MacCorkle, and composed of men of both races. The public reception was
6394 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu held in the Opera-House at Charleston. The Governor of the state, the
6395 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Hon. George W. Atkinson, presided, and an address of welcome was made
6396 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by ex-Governor MacCorkle. A prominent part in the reception was taken by
6397 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the coloured citizens. The Opera-House was filled with citizens of both
6398 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu races, and among the white people were many for whom I had worked when
6399 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I was a boy. The next day Governor and Mrs. Atkinson gave me a public
6400 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reception at the State House, which was attended by all classes.
6402 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Not long after this the coloured people in Atlanta, Georgia, gave me
6403 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a reception at which the Governor of the state presided, and a similar
6404 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reception was given me in New Orleans, which was presided over by the
6405 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Mayor of the city. Invitations came from many other places which I was
6406 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not able to accept.
6410 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Chapter XVII. Last Words
6412 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Before going to Europe some events came into my life which were
6413 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu great surprises to me. In fact, my whole life has largely been one of
6414 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surprises. I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant,
6415 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his
6416 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu level best each day of his life--that is, tries to make each day reach
6417 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful
6418 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu living. I pity the man, black or white, who has never experienced the
6419 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu joy and satisfaction that come to one by reason of an effort to assist
6420 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in making some one else more useful and more happy.
6422 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Six months before he died, and nearly a year after he had been stricken
6423 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with paralysis, General Armstrong expressed a wish to visit Tuskegee
6424 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu again before he passed away. Notwithstanding the fact that he had lost
6425 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the use of his limbs to such an extent that he was practically helpless,
6426 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his wish was gratified, and he was brought to Tuskegee. The owners of
6427 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Tuskegee Railroad, white men living in the town, offered to run a
6428 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu special train, without cost, out of the main station--Chehaw, five miles
6429 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu away--to meet him. He arrived on the school grounds about nine o'clock
6430 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the evening. Some one had suggested that we give the General a
6431 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "pine-knot torchlight reception." This plan was carried out, and the
6432 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu moment that his carriage entered the school grounds he began passing
6433 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu between two lines of lighted and waving "fat pine" wood knots held by
6434 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu over a thousand students and teachers. The whole thing was so novel and
6435 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu surprising that the General was completely overcome with happiness. He
6436 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu remained a guest in my home for nearly two months, and, although almost
6437 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wholly without the use of voice or limb, he spent nearly every hour in
6438 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu devising ways and means to help the South. Time and time again he said
6439 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to me, during this visit, that it was not only the duty of the country
6440 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to assist in elevating the Negro of the South, but the poor white man
6441 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as well. At the end of his visit I resolved anew to devote myself more
6442 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu earnestly than ever to the cause which was so near his heart. I said
6443 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that if a man in his condition was willing to think, work, and act, I
6444 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu should not be wanting in furthering in every possible way the wish of
6445 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu his heart.
6447 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The death of General Armstrong, a few weeks later, gave me the privilege
6448 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of getting acquainted with one of the finest, most unselfish, and most
6449 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu attractive men that I have ever come in contact with. I refer to the
6450 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Rev. Dr. Hollis B. Frissell, now the Principal of the Hampton Institute,
6451 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and General Armstrong's successor. Under the clear, strong, and
6452 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu almost perfect leadership of Dr. Frissell, Hampton has had a career of
6453 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu prosperity and usefulness that is all that the General could have wished
6454 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for. It seems to be the constant effort of Dr. Frissell to hide his own
6455 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu great personality behind that of General Armstrong--to make himself of
6456 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "no reputation" for the sake of the cause.
6458 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu More than once I have been asked what was the greatest surprise that
6459 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ever came to me. I have little hesitation in answering that question. It
6460 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was the following letter, which came to me one Sunday morning when I was
6461 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu sitting on the veranda of my home at Tuskegee, surrounded by my wife and
6462 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu three children:--
6464 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Harvard University, Cambridge, May 28, 1896.
6466 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President Booker T. Washington,
6468 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu My Dear Sir: Harvard University desired to confer on you at the
6469 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu approaching Commencement an honorary degree; but it is our custom to
6470 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu confer degrees only on gentlemen who are present. Our Commencement
6471 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu occurs this year on June 24, and your presence would be desirable
6472 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from about noon till about five o'clock in the afternoon. Would it be
6473 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu possible for you to be in Cambridge on that day?
6475 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Believe me, with great regard,
6477 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Very truly yours,
6479 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Charles W. Eliot.
6482 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This was a recognition that had never in the slightest manner entered
6483 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu into my mind, and it was hard for me to realize that I was to be
6484 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honoured by a degree from the oldest and most renowned university in
6485 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu America. As I sat upon my veranda, with this letter in my hand, tears
6486 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu came into my eyes. My whole former life--my life as a slave on the
6487 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu plantation, my work in the coal-mine, the times when I was without food
6488 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and clothing, when I made my bed under a sidewalk, my struggles for an
6489 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education, the trying days I had had at Tuskegee, days when I did
6490 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not know where to turn for a dollar to continue the work there, the
6491 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ostracism and sometimes oppression of my race,--all this passed before
6492 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu me and nearly overcame me.
6494 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had never sought or cared for what the world calls fame. I have always
6495 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu looked upon fame as something to be used in accomplishing good. I have
6496 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu often said to my friends that if I can use whatever prominence may have
6497 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu come to me as an instrument with which to do good, I am content to have
6498 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu it. I care for it only as a means to be used for doing good, just as
6499 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu wealth may be used. The more I come into contact with wealthy people,
6500 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the more I believe that they are growing in the direction of looking
6501 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu upon their money simply as an instrument which God has placed in their
6502 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hand for doing good with. I never go to the office of Mr. John D.
6503 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Rockefeller, who more than once has been generous to Tuskegee, without
6504 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu being reminded of this. The close, careful, and minute investigation
6505 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that he always makes in order to be sure that every dollar that he gives
6506 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu will do the most good--an investigation that is just as searching as if
6507 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he were investing money in a business enterprise--convinces me that the
6508 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu growth in this direction is most encouraging.
6510 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu At nine o'clock, on the morning of June 24, I met President Eliot, the
6511 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and the other guests, at the
6512 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu designated place on the university grounds, for the purpose of being
6513 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu escorted to Sanders Theatre, where the Commencement exercises were to be
6514 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu held and degrees conferred. Among others invited to be present for the
6515 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purpose of receiving a degree at this time were General Nelson A. Miles,
6516 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dr. Bell, the inventor of the Bell telephone, Bishop Vincent, and the
6517 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Rev. Minot J. Savage. We were placed in line immediately behind the
6518 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President and the Board of Overseers, and directly afterward the
6519 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Governor of Massachusetts, escorted by the Lancers, arrived and took his
6520 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu place in the line of march by the side of President Eliot. In the line
6521 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there were also various other officers and professors, clad in cap and
6522 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gown. In this order we marched to Sanders Theatre, where, after the
6523 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu usual Commencement exercises, came the conferring of the honorary
6524 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu degrees. This, it seems, is always considered the most interesting
6525 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu feature at Harvard. It is not known, until the individuals appear, upon
6526 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whom the honorary degrees are to be conferred, and those receiving these
6527 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honours are cheered by the students and others in proportion to
6528 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu their popularity. During the conferring of the degrees excitement and
6529 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enthusiasm are at the highest pitch.
6531 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When my name was called, I rose, and President Eliot, in beautiful and
6532 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu strong English, conferred upon me the degree of Master of Arts. After
6533 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu these exercises were over, those who had received honorary degrees were
6534 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu invited to lunch with the President. After the lunch we were formed in
6535 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu line again, and were escorted by the Marshal of the day, who that year
6536 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu happened to be Bishop William Lawrence, through the grounds, where, at
6537 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu different points, those who had been honoured were called by name and
6538 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu received the Harvard yell. This march ended at Memorial Hall, where
6539 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the alumni dinner was served. To see over a thousand strong men,
6540 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu representing all that is best in State, Church, business, and
6541 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu education, with the glow and enthusiasm of college loyalty and college
6542 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pride,--which has, I think, a peculiar Harvard flavour,--is a sight that
6543 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu does not easily fade from memory.
6545 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Among the speakers after dinner were President Eliot, Governor Roger
6546 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Wolcott, General Miles, Dr. Minot J. Savage, the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge,
6547 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and myself. When I was called upon, I said, among other things:--
6549 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It would in some measure relieve my embarrassment if I could, even in
6550 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a slight degree, feel myself worthy of the great honour which you do me
6551 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to-day. Why you have called me from the Black Belt of the South, from
6552 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu among my humble people, to share in the honours of this occasion, is not
6553 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for me to explain; and yet it may not be inappropriate for me to suggest
6554 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that it seems to me that one of the most vital questions that touch
6555 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our American life is how to bring the strong, wealthy, and learned into
6556 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu helpful touch with the poorest, most ignorant, and humblest, and at the
6557 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu same time make one appreciate the vitalizing, strengthening influence of
6558 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the other. How shall we make the mansion on yon Beacon Street feel
6559 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and see the need of the spirits in the lowliest cabin in Alabama
6560 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cotton-fields or Louisiana sugar-bottoms? This problem Harvard
6561 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu University is solving, not by bringing itself down, but by bringing the
6562 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu masses up.
6566 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu If my life in the past has meant anything in the lifting up of my people
6567 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the bringing about of better relations between your race and mine, I
6568 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu assure you from this day it will mean doubly more. In the economy of God
6569 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed--there is
6570 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but one for a race. This country demands that every race shall measure
6571 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu itself by the American standard. By it a race must rise or fall, succeed
6572 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or fail, and in the last analysis mere sentiment counts for little.
6573 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu During the next half-century and more, my race must continue passing
6574 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our
6575 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong,
6576 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our
6577 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial
6578 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet
6579 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all.
6582 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As this was the first time that a New England university had conferred
6583 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an honorary degree upon a Negro, it was the occasion of much newspaper
6584 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu comment throughout the country. A correspondent of a New York paper
6587 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When the name of Booker T. Washington was called, and he arose to
6588 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu acknowledge and accept, there was such an outburst of applause as
6589 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greeted no other name except that of the popular soldier patriot,
6590 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu General Miles. The applause was not studied and stiff, sympathetic and
6591 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu condoling; it was enthusiasm and admiration. Every part of the audience
6592 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from pit to gallery joined in, and a glow covered the cheeks of those
6593 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu around me, proving sincere appreciation of the rising struggle of an
6594 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ex-slave and the work he has accomplished for his race.
6597 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu A Boston paper said, editorially:--
6599 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the Principal
6600 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honoured itself as well
6601 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as the object of this distinction. The work which Professor Booker T.
6602 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington has accomplished for the education, good citizenship,
6603 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and popular enlightenment in his chosen field of labour in the South
6604 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entitles him to rank with our national benefactors. The university which
6605 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu can claim him on its list of sons, whether in regular course or honoris
6606 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu causa, may be proud.
6608 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It has been mentioned that Mr. Washington is the first of his race
6609 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to receive an honorary degree from a New England university. This, in
6610 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu itself, is a distinction. But the degree was not conferred because Mr.
6611 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington is a coloured man, or because he was born in slavery, but
6612 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu because he has shown, by his work for the elevation of the people of the
6613 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Black Belt of the South, a genius and a broad humanity which count for
6614 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatness in any man, whether his skin be white or black.
6617 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Another Boston paper said:--
6619 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu It is Harvard which, first among New England colleges, confers an
6620 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honorary degree upon a black man. No one who has followed the history of
6621 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee and its work can fail to admire the courage, persistence, and
6622 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu splendid common sense of Booker T. Washington. Well may Harvard honour
6623 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the ex-slave, the value of whose services, alike to his race and
6624 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu country, only the future can estimate.
6627 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The correspondent of the New York Times wrote:--
6629 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All the speeches were enthusiastically received, but the coloured man
6630 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu carried off the oratorical honours, and the applause which broke out
6631 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when he had finished was vociferous and long-continued.
6634 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Soon after I began work at Tuskegee I formed a resolution, in the secret
6635 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of my heart, that I would try to build up a school that would be of
6636 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu so much service to the country that the President of the United States
6637 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would one day come to see it. This was, I confess, rather a bold
6638 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu resolution, and for a number of years I kept it hidden in my own
6639 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thoughts, not daring to share it with any one.
6641 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In November, 1897, I made the first move in this direction, and that was
6642 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in securing a visit from a member of President McKinley's Cabinet,
6643 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. He came to deliver
6644 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu an address at the formal opening of the Slater-Armstrong Agricultural
6645 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Building, our first large building to be used for the purpose of giving
6646 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu training to our students in agriculture and kindred branches.
6648 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the fall of 1898 I heard that President McKinley was likely to visit
6649 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Atlanta, Georgia, for the purpose of taking part in the Peace Jubilee
6650 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu exercises to be held there to commemorate the successful close of the
6651 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Spanish-American war. At this time I had been hard at work, together
6652 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu with our teachers, for eighteen years, trying to build up a school that
6653 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu we thought would be of service to the Nation, and I determined to make
6654 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a direct effort to secure a visit from the President and his Cabinet. I
6655 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu went to Washington, and I was not long in the city before I found my way
6656 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the White House. When I got there I found the waiting rooms full of
6657 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people, and my heart began to sink, for I feared there would not be much
6658 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu chance of my seeing the President that day, if at all. But, at any rate,
6659 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I got an opportunity to see Mr. J. Addison Porter, the secretary to the
6660 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President, and explained to him my mission. Mr. Porter kindly sent my
6661 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu card directly to the President, and in a few minutes word came from Mr.
6662 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu McKinley that he would see me.
6664 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu How any man can see so many people of all kinds, with all kinds of
6665 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu errands, and do so much hard work, and still keep himself calm, patient,
6666 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and fresh for each visitor in the way that President McKinley does, I
6667 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu cannot understand. When I saw the President he kindly thanked me for the
6668 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work which we were doing at Tuskegee for the interests of the country. I
6669 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu then told him, briefly, the object of my visit. I impressed upon him the
6670 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fact that a visit from the Chief Executive of the Nation would not only
6671 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu encourage our students and teachers, but would help the entire race. He
6672 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu seemed interested, but did not make a promise to go to Tuskegee, for the
6673 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu reason that his plans about going to Atlanta were not then fully made;
6674 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu but he asked me to call the matter to his attention a few weeks later.
6676 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu By the middle of the following month the President had definitely
6677 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu decided to attend the Peace Jubilee at Atlanta. I went to Washington
6678 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu again and saw him, with a view of getting him to extend his trip to
6679 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee. On this second visit Mr. Charles W. Hare, a prominent white
6680 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu citizen of Tuskegee, kindly volunteered to accompany me, to reenforce my
6681 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu invitation with one from the white people of Tuskegee and the vicinity.
6683 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Just previous to my going to Washington the second time, the country
6684 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu had been excited, and the coloured people greatly depressed, because of
6685 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu several severe race riots which had occurred at different points in the
6686 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu South. As soon as I saw the President, I perceived that his heart was
6687 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu greatly burdened by reason of these race disturbances. Although there
6688 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were many people waiting to see him, he detained me for some time,
6689 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu discussing the condition and prospects of the race. He remarked several
6690 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu times that he was determined to show his interest and faith in the race,
6691 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not merely in words, but by acts. When I told him that I thought that
6692 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu at that time scarcely anything would go farther in giving hope and
6693 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu encouragement to the race than the fact that the President of the Nation
6694 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu would be willing to travel one hundred and forty miles out of his way to
6695 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spend a day at a Negro institution, he seemed deeply impressed.
6697 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While I was with the President, a white citizen of Atlanta, a Democrat
6698 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and an ex-slaveholder, came into the room, and the President asked his
6699 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opinion as to the wisdom of his going to Tuskegee. Without hesitation
6700 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the Atlanta man replied that it was the proper thing for him to do. This
6701 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu opinion was reenforced by that friend of the race, Dr. J.L.M. Curry.
6702 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The President promised that he would visit our school on the 16th of
6705 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu When it became known that the President was going to visit our school,
6706 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the white citizens of the town of Tuskegee--a mile distant from the
6707 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school--were as much pleased as were our students and teachers. The
6708 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu white people of this town, including both men and women, began arranging
6709 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to decorate the town, and to form themselves into committees for the
6710 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu purpose of cooperating with the officers of our school in order that the
6711 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu distinguished visitor might have a fitting reception. I think I never
6712 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu realized before this how much the white people of Tuskegee and vicinity
6713 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thought of our institution. During the days when we were preparing for
6714 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the President's reception, dozens of these people came to me and said
6715 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that, while they did not want to push themselves into prominence, if
6716 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu there was anything they could do to help, or to relieve me personally,
6717 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I had but to intimate it and they would be only too glad to assist. In
6718 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu fact, the thing that touched me almost as deeply as the visit of the
6719 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President itself was the deep pride which all classes of citizens in
6720 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Alabama seemed to take in our work.
6722 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The morning of December 16th brought to the little city of Tuskegee
6723 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu such a crowd as it had never seen before. With the President came Mrs.
6724 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu McKinley and all of the Cabinet officers but one; and most of them
6725 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu brought their wives or some members of their families. Several prominent
6726 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu generals came, including General Shafter and General Joseph Wheeler, who
6727 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were recently returned from the Spanish-American war. There was also a
6728 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu host of newspaper correspondents. The Alabama Legislature was in session
6729 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in Montgomery at this time. This body passed a resolution to adjourn
6730 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for the purpose of visiting Tuskegee. Just before the arrival of the
6731 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President's party the Legislature arrived, headed by the governor and
6732 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other state officials.
6734 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The citizens of Tuskegee had decorated the town from the station to
6735 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the school in a generous manner. In order to economize in the matter
6736 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of time, we arranged to have the whole school pass in review before the
6737 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President. Each student carried a stalk of sugar-cane with some open
6738 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu bolls of cotton fastened to the end of it. Following the students the
6739 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu work of all departments of the school passed in review, displayed on
6740 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu "floats" drawn by horses, mules, and oxen. On these floats we tried
6741 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to exhibit not only the present work of the school, but to show the
6742 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu contrasts between the old methods of doing things and the new. As an
6743 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu example, we showed the old method of dairying in contrast with the
6744 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu improved methods, the old methods of tilling the soil in contrast with
6745 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the new, the old methods of cooking and housekeeping in contrast with
6746 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the new. These floats consumed an hour and a half of time in passing.
6748 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In his address in our large, new chapel, which the students had recently
6749 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu completed, the President said, among other things:--
6751 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To meet you under such pleasant auspices and to have the opportunity
6752 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of a personal observation of your work is indeed most gratifying. The
6753 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is ideal in its conception, and
6754 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu has already a large and growing reputation in the country, and is
6755 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not unknown abroad. I congratulate all who are associated in this
6756 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu undertaking for the good work which it is doing in the education of its
6757 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students to lead lives of honour and usefulness, thus exalting the race
6758 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for which it was established.
6760 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nowhere, I think, could a more delightful location have been chosen for
6761 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu this unique educational experiment, which has attracted the attention
6762 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and won the support even of conservative philanthropists in all sections
6763 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the country.
6765 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To speak of Tuskegee without paying special tribute to Booker T.
6766 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Washington's genius and perseverance would be impossible. The inception
6767 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of this noble enterprise was his, and he deserves high credit for it.
6768 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu His was the enthusiasm and enterprise which made its steady progress
6769 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu possible and established in the institution its present high standard
6770 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of accomplishment. He has won a worthy reputation as one of the great
6771 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu leaders of his race, widely known and much respected at home and abroad
6772 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as an accomplished educator, a great orator, and a true philanthropist.
6775 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Hon. John D. Long, the Secretary of the Navy, said in part:--
6777 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I cannot make a speech to-day. My heart is too full--full of hope,
6778 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu admiration, and pride for my countrymen of both sections and both
6779 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu colours. I am filled with gratitude and admiration for your work, and
6780 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from this time forward I shall have absolute confidence in your progress
6781 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and in the solution of the problem in which you are engaged.
6783 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The problem, I say, has been solved. A picture has been presented to-day
6784 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which should be put upon canvas with the pictures of Washington and
6785 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Lincoln, and transmitted to future time and generations--a picture which
6786 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the press of the country should spread broadcast over the land, a most
6787 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dramatic picture, and that picture is this: The President of the United
6788 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu States standing on this platform; on one side the Governor of Alabama,
6789 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu on the other, completing the trinity, a representative of a race only a
6790 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu few years ago in bondage, the coloured President of the Tuskegee Normal
6791 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and Industrial Institute.
6793 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu God bless the President under whose majesty such a scene as that is
6794 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu presented to the American people. God bless the state of Alabama, which
6795 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is showing that it can deal with this problem for itself. God bless the
6796 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu orator, philanthropist, and disciple of the Great Master--who, if he
6797 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu were on earth, would be doing the same work--Booker T. Washington.
6800 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Postmaster General Smith closed the address which he made with these
6803 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We have witnessed many spectacles within the last few days. We have seen
6804 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the magnificent grandeur and the magnificent achievements of one of the
6805 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu great metropolitan cities of the South. We have seen heroes of the war
6806 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu pass by in procession. We have seen floral parades. But I am sure
6807 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu my colleagues will agree with me in saying that we have witnessed no
6808 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu spectacle more impressive and more encouraging, more inspiring for our
6809 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu future, than that which we have witnessed here this morning.
6812 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Some days after the President returned to Washington I received the
6813 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu letter which follows:--
6815 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Executive Mansion, Washington, Dec. 23, 1899.
6817 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Dear Sir: By this mail I take pleasure in sending you engrossed copies
6818 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the souvenir of the visit of the President to your institution.
6819 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu These sheets bear the autographs of the President and the members of the
6820 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Cabinet who accompanied him on the trip. Let me take this opportunity of
6821 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu congratulating you most heartily and sincerely upon the great success
6822 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the exercises provided for and entertainment furnished us under your
6823 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu auspices during our visit to Tuskegee. Every feature of the programme
6824 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu was perfectly executed and was viewed or participated in with the
6825 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu heartiest satisfaction by every visitor present. The unique exhibition
6826 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which you gave of your pupils engaged in their industrial vocations was
6827 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu not only artistic but thoroughly impressive. The tribute paid by the
6828 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu President and his Cabinet to your work was none too high, and forms
6829 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a most encouraging augury, I think, for the future prosperity of your
6830 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu institution. I cannot close without assuring you that the modesty shown
6831 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by yourself in the exercises was most favourably commented upon by all
6832 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the members of our party.
6834 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu With best wishes for the continued advance of your most useful and
6835 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu patriotic undertaking, kind personal regards, and the compliments of the
6836 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu season, believe me, always,
6838 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Very sincerely yours,
6840 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu John Addison Porter,
6842 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Secretary to the President.
6844 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu To President Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
6845 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.
6849 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Twenty years have now passed since I made the first humble effort at
6850 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Tuskegee, in a broken-down shanty and an old hen-house, without owning
6851 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a dollar's worth of property, and with but one teacher and thirty
6852 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students. At the present time the institution owns twenty-three hundred
6853 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu acres of land, one thousand of which are under cultivation each year,
6854 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entirely by student labour. There are now upon the grounds, counting
6855 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu large and small, sixty-six buildings; and all except four of these have
6856 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been almost wholly erected by the labour of our students. While the
6857 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu students are at work upon the land and in erecting buildings, they are
6858 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu taught, by competent instructors, the latest methods of agriculture and
6859 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the trades connected with building.
6861 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu There are in constant operation at the school, in connection with
6862 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thorough academic and religious training, thirty industrial departments.
6863 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu All of these teach industries at which our men and women can find
6864 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu immediate employment as soon as they leave the institution. The only
6865 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu difficulty now is that the demand for our graduates from both white and
6866 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu black people in the South is so great that we cannot supply more than
6867 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one-half the persons for whom applications come to us. Neither have we
6868 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the buildings nor the money for current expenses to enable us to admit
6869 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to the school more than one-half the young men and women who apply to us
6870 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for admission.
6872 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In our industrial teaching we keep three things in mind: first, that the
6873 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu student shall be so educated that he shall be enabled to meet conditions
6874 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu as they exist now, in the part of the South where he lives--in a word,
6875 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to be able to do the thing which the world wants done; second, that
6876 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu every student who graduates from the school shall have enough skill,
6877 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu coupled with intelligence and moral character, to enable him to make a
6878 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu living for himself and others; third, to send every graduate out feeling
6879 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and knowing that labour is dignified and beautiful--to make each
6880 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one love labour instead of trying to escape it. In addition to the
6881 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu agricultural training which we give to young men, and the training
6882 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu given to our girls in all the usual domestic employments, we now train
6883 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a number of girls in agriculture each year. These girls are taught
6884 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu gardening, fruit-growing, dairying, bee-culture, and poultry-raising.
6886 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu While the institution is in no sense denominational, we have a
6887 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu department known as the Phelps Hall Bible Training School, in which
6888 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a number of students are prepared for the ministry and other forms
6889 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of Christian work, especially work in the country districts. What is
6890 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu equally important, each one of the students works half of each day at
6891 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu some industry, in order to get skill and the love of work, so that when
6892 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu he goes out from the institution he is prepared to set the people with
6893 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu whom he goes to labour a proper example in the matter of industry.
6895 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The value of our property is now over $700,000. If we add to this our
6896 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu endowment fund, which at present is $1,000,000, the value of the total
6897 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu property is now $1,700,000. Aside from the need for more buildings and
6898 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for money for current expenses, the endowment fund should be increased
6899 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu to at least $3,000,000. The annual current expenses are now about
6900 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu $150,000. The greater part of this I collect each year by going from
6901 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu door to door and from house to house. All of our property is free from
6902 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu mortgage, and is deeded to an undenominational board of trustees who
6903 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu have the control of the institution.
6905 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu From thirty students the number has grown to fourteen hundred, coming
6906 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from twenty-seven states and territories, from Africa, Cuba, Porto Rico,
6907 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Jamaica, and other foreign countries. In our departments there are one
6908 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred and ten officers and instructors; and if we add the families of
6909 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu our instructors, we have a constant population upon our grounds of not
6910 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu far from seventeen hundred people.
6912 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I have often been asked how we keep so large a body of people together,
6913 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and at the same time keep them out of mischief. There are two answers:
6914 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that the men and women who come to us for an education are in earnest;
6915 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and that everybody is kept busy. The following outline of our daily work
6916 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu will testify to this:--
6918 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu 5 a.m., rising bell; 5.50 a.m., warning breakfast bell; 6 a.m.,
6919 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu breakfast bell; 6.20 a.m., breakfast over; 6.20 to 6.50 a.m., rooms
6920 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are cleaned; 6.50, work bell; 7.30, morning study hours; 8.20, morning
6921 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu school bell; 8.25, inspection of young men's toilet in ranks; 8.40,
6922 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu devotional exercises in chapel; 8.55, "five minutes with the daily
6923 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu news;" 9 a.m., class work begins; 12, class work closes; 12.15 p.m.,
6924 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu dinner; 1 p.m., work bell; 1.30 p.m., class work begins; 3.30 p.m.,
6925 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu class work ends; 5.30 p.m., bell to "knock off" work; 6 p.m., supper;
6926 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu 7.10 p.m., evening prayers; 7.30 p.m., evening study hours; 8.45 p.m.,
6927 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu evening study hour closes; 9.20 p.m., warning retiring bell; 9.30 p.m.,
6928 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu retiring bell.
6930 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu We try to keep constantly in mind the fact that the worth of the school
6931 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is to be judged by its graduates. Counting those who have finished
6932 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the full course, together with those who have taken enough training to
6933 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu enable them to do reasonably good work, we can safely say that at least
6934 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu six thousand men and women from Tuskegee are now at work in different
6935 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu parts of the South; men and women who, by their own example or by
6936 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu direct efforts, are showing the masses of our race now to improve their
6937 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu material, educational, and moral and religious life. What is equally
6938 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu important, they are exhibiting a degree of common sense and self-control
6939 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which is causing better relations to exist between the races, and is
6940 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu causing the Southern white man to learn to believe in the value of
6941 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu educating the men and women of my race. Aside from this, there is the
6942 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu influence that is constantly being exerted through the mothers' meeting
6943 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and the plantation work conducted by Mrs. Washington.
6945 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Wherever our graduates go, the changes which soon begin to appear in the
6946 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu buying of land, improving homes, saving money, in education, and in
6947 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu high moral characters are remarkable. Whole communities are fast being
6948 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu revolutionized through the instrumentality of these men and women.
6950 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Ten years ago I organized at Tuskegee the first Negro Conference. This
6951 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu is an annual gathering which now brings to the school eight or nine
6952 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hundred representative men and women of the race, who come to spend
6953 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu a day in finding out what the actual industrial, mental, and moral
6954 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu conditions of the people are, and in forming plans for improvement. Out
6955 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from this central Negro Conference at Tuskegee have grown numerous state
6956 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and local conferences which are doing the same kind of work. As a result
6957 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of the influence of these gatherings, one delegate reported at the last
6958 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu annual meeting that ten families in his community had bought and paid
6959 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for homes. On the day following the annual Negro Conference, there is
6960 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the "Workers' Conference." This is composed of officers and teachers who
6961 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu are engaged in educational work in the larger institutions in the South.
6962 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The Negro Conference furnishes a rare opportunity for these workers to
6963 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu study the real condition of the rank and file of the people.
6965 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In the summer of 1900, with the assistance of such prominent coloured
6966 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu men as Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, who has always upheld my hands in every
6967 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu effort, I organized the National Negro Business League, which held its
6968 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu first meeting in Boston, and brought together for the first time a large
6969 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu number of the coloured men who are engaged in various lines of trade
6970 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu or business in different parts of the United States. Thirty states were
6971 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu represented at our first meeting. Out of this national meeting grew
6972 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu state and local business leagues.
6974 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu In addition to looking after the executive side of the work at Tuskegee,
6975 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and raising the greater part of the money for the support of the school,
6976 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu I cannot seem to escape the duty of answering at least a part of the
6977 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu calls which come to me unsought to address Southern white audiences and
6978 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu audiences of my own race, as well as frequent gatherings in the North.
6979 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As to how much of my time is spent in this way, the following clipping
6980 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu from a Buffalo (N.Y.) paper will tell. This has reference to an occasion
6981 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu when I spoke before the National Educational Association in that city.
6983 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker T. Washington, the foremost educator among the coloured people of
6984 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the world, was a very busy man from the time he arrived in the city the
6985 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu other night from the West and registered at the Iroquois. He had hardly
6986 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu removed the stains of travel when it was time to partake of supper.
6987 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Then he held a public levee in the parlours of the Iroquois until eight
6988 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu o'clock. During that time he was greeted by over two hundred eminent
6989 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu teachers and educators from all parts of the United States. Shortly
6990 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu after eight o'clock he was driven in a carriage to Music Hall, and in
6991 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu one hour and a half he made two ringing addresses, to as many as five
6992 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thousand people, on Negro education. Then Mr. Washington was taken in
6993 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu charge by a delegation of coloured citizens, headed by the Rev. Mr.
6994 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Watkins, and hustled off to a small informal reception, arranged in
6995 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu honour of the visitor by the people of his race.
6998 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Nor can I, in addition to making these addresses, escape the duty
6999 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of calling the attention of the South and of the country in general,
7000 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu through the medium of the press, to matters that pertain to the
7001 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu interests of both races. This, for example, I have done in regard to
7002 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the evil habit of lynching. When the Louisiana State Constitutional
7003 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Convention was in session, I wrote an open letter to that body pleading
7004 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu for justice for the race. In all such efforts I have received warm and
7005 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hearty support from the Southern newspapers, as well as from those in
7006 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu all other parts of the country.
7008 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Despite superficial and temporary signs which might lead one to
7009 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu entertain a contrary opinion, there was never a time when I felt more
7010 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu hopeful for the race than I do at the present. The great human law that
7011 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal.
7012 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu The outside world does not know, neither can it appreciate, the struggle
7013 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu that is constantly going on in the hearts of both the Southern white
7014 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu people and their former slaves to free themselves from racial prejudice;
7015 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu and while both races are thus struggling they should have the sympathy,
7016 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the support, and the forbearance of the rest of the world.
7019 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu As I write the closing words of this autobiography I find myself--not
7020 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu by design--in the city of Richmond, Virginia: the city which only a
7021 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu few decades ago was the capital of the Southern Confederacy, and where,
7022 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu about twenty-five years ago, because of my poverty I slept night after
7023 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu night under a sidewalk.
7025 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu This time I am in Richmond as the guest of the coloured people of the
7026 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu city; and came at their request to deliver an address last night to both
7027 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu races in the Academy of Music, the largest and finest audience room in
7028 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the city. This was the first time that the coloured people had ever
7029 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu been permitted to use this hall. The day before I came, the City Council
7030 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu passed a vote to attend the meeting in a body to hear me speak. The
7031 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu state Legislature, including the House of Delegates and the Senate, also
7032 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu passed a unanimous vote to attend in a body. In the presence of hundreds
7033 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu of coloured people, many distinguished white citizens, the City Council,
7034 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu the state Legislature, and state officials, I delivered my message,
7035 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu which was one of hope and cheer; and from the bottom of my heart I
7036 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu thanked both races for this welcome back to the state that gave me
7043 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Up From Slavery: An Autobiography, by
7044 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu Booker T. Washington
7046 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UP FROM SLAVERY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY ***
7048 ffd9a51f 2023-08-04 jrmu ***** This file should be named 2376.txt or 2376.zip *****
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