| Sometimes one could find out that there are people | | | | what it all meant, that this was the day for which |
| whose abilities and energy take them far beyond any | | | | she had been so long praying, but fearing that she |
| limitations life tries to place on them. Booker T. | | | | would never live to see |
| Washington was one such person. He rose up from | | | | After emancipation, his family was so poverty |
| slavery and illiteracy to become the foremost | | | | stricken that they could not make it on their own. So |
| educator and leader of black Americans at the turn | | | | Booker Washington moved out with his mother and |
| of the 19th century. For decades, he was the major | | | | three siblings to join his stepfather in Malden, West |
| African-American spokesman. He was lecturer, Civil | | | | Virginia. where he had been fortunate to have found |
| Rights/Human Rights Activist, Educational | | | | work packing salt. . The young boy took a job in this |
| Administrator, Professor, Organization Executive | | | | salt mine. Work began there at 4 a.m. so that he |
| Founder and Author/Poet. | | | | could attend school later in the day. The nine-year old |
| His childhood is recorded in his autobiography, Up | | | | Washington spent long, exhausting days packing salt. |
| From Slavery which this writer had the fortune of | | | | He worked with his mother and other free blacks not |
| reading in his early years in an abridged edition at the | | | | only as a salt-packer in a salt mine. He also worked in |
| second form of the Prince of Wales School at | | | | a coal mine. He even signed up briefly as a hired hand |
| Kingtom, western Freetown in Sierra Leone West | | | | on a steamboat. However, soon he became |
| Africa from which end Washington's ancestors may | | | | employed as a houseboy for Viola Ruffner, the wife |
| well have hailed. | | | | of General Lewis Ruffner, who owned the |
| Booker T. Washington was born a slave on April 5, | | | | salt-furnace and coal mine. Many other houseboys |
| 1856 on the Burroughs tobacco farm which, despite | | | | had failed to satisfy the demanding and methodical |
| its small size, he always referred to as a | | | | Mrs. Ruffner, but Booker's diligence and attention to |
| "plantation."at the community of Hale's Ford, Virginia. | | | | detail met her standards. Encouraged to do so by |
| This was in what he described as "the most | | | | Mrs. Ruffner, when he could, young Booker attended |
| miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundings" His | | | | school and learned to read and to write. And soon, |
| mother Jane was a black slave who worked as a | | | | he sought even more education than was available in |
| cook for a small planter. His father was a white | | | | his community.. |
| plantation owner whom he never knew. Under the | | | | Always an intelligent and curious child, like many |
| laws then, his mother's status also made young | | | | blacks after Emancipation he yearned for an |
| Booker a slave. His childhood was thus one of | | | | education. So despite the exhausting days he used |
| privation, poverty, slavery and back-breaking work. | | | | his free time to go to school in the evenings. .He was |
| He was from birth the property of James Burroughs | | | | frustrated when he could not receive good schooling |
| of Virginia. His mother, Jane, raised him, and he was | | | | locally. So when he was 16 his parents allowed him to |
| put to work as early as possible. | | | | quit work to go to school. They had no money to |
| Since it was illegal for a slave to learn to read and | | | | help him, so he traveled 500 miles, often by walking, |
| write Booker T. Washington received no education. | | | | to enroll at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural |
| For as he states: "The early years of my life, which | | | | Institute in Virginia. He did not know if he could get in, |
| were spent in the little cabin," he wrote, "were not | | | | and if he got in he didn't know how he was going to |
| very different from those of other slaves."He went | | | | pay for it, He arrived with only 50 cents in his pocket. |
| to school in Franklin County - not as a student, but to | | | | The head teacher suspicious of his country ways and |
| carry books for one of James Burroughs's daughters. | | | | ragged clothes admitted him only after he had |
| It was illegal to educate slaves. "I had the feeling that | | | | cleaned a room to her satisfaction. |
| to get into a schoolhouse and study would be about | | | | Students with little income such as Washington could |
| the same as getting into paradise," he wrote. | | | | get a place there by working to pay their way. So |
| In April 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation was read | | | | the institute gave him a job as a janitor to pay for |
| to joyful slaves in front of the Burroughs home. He | | | | school fees He thus paid his tuition and board there |
| recalled this in Up from Slavery. . He was seven years | | | | by working as the janitor. The normal school |
| old when President Abraham Lincoln issued the | | | | (teachers college) at Hampton was founded for the |
| Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves. It | | | | purpose of training black teachers and had been |
| could not be enforced until the end of the Civil War | | | | largely funded by church groups and individuals such |
| by the Thirteenth Amendment. The former slaves | | | | as William Jackson Palmer, a Quaker, among others. |
| were at first jubilant about being free but it quickly | | | | In many ways he was back where he had started, |
| became apparent that there was no place for most | | | | earning a living through menial tasks, but his time at |
| of them to go. | | | | Hampton led him away from a life of labor. Hampton |
| As the great day drew nearer, there was more | | | | Institute was started and run by General Samuel |
| singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, | | | | Chapman Armstrong. Armstrong and the institution |
| had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of | | | | he created were to become the one great influence |
| the verses of the plantation songs had some | | | | in Washington's life. Armstrong believed in work, |
| reference to freedom | | | | study, hygiene, morality, self-discipline and self-reliance |
| .... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United | | | | - in large amounts. It was not a place for slackers. |
| States officer, I presume) made a little speech and | | | | Armstrong's purpose was to train black teachers, but |
| then read a rather long paper -- the Emancipation | | | | he believed every student should have a trade as |
| Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told | | | | well. Washington imbibed these principles so well in |
| that we were all free, and could go when and where | | | | him that later, when he developed the Tuskegee |
| we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my | | | | Institute it emphasized these same qualities and |
| side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears | | | | convictions. |
| of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us | | | | |