Up from Slavery
An Autobiography

The 1901 autobiography of an influential African-American educator and community leader, setting out his philosophy of vocational education and non-confrontation.

Booker T. Washington (Author)

9781108079402, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 December 2014

346 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.44 kg

Born into slavery on a Virginia plantation, Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) educated himself tirelessly in the years after the American Civil War. In 1881, he was appointed head of the Tuskegee Institute, a teacher-training college for African Americans. As a writer, orator and fundraiser, he became one of the leading figures of the black community. Washington argued that the best way of bettering the social position of African Americans was through vocational education, which would make them indispensable and productive members of society. In this 1901 autobiography, he uses his life as an example to illustrate these principles, covering particularly the work of the Tuskegee Institute and his fundraising on behalf of black education. The book also contains the full text of his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech, which created the model for Southern race relations until Washington's death and the emergence of more overtly assertive African-American civil rights leaders.

Preface
1. A slave among slaves
2. Boyhood days
3. The struggle for an education
4. Helping others
5. The reconstruction
6. Black race and red race
7. Early days at Tuskegee
8. Teaching school in a stable and a hen-house
9. Anxious days and sleepless nights
10. A harder task than making bricks without straw
11. Making their beds before they could lie on them
12. Raising money
13. Two thousand miles for a five minute speech
14. The Atlanta Exposition address
15. The secret of success in public speaking
16. Europe
17. Last words
Index.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]