Biography of Booker T Washington
Booker T. Washington, born on April fifth, 1856, was born into slavery on the Burroughs’ tobacco farm. His mother was a cook, and his father was a white man from a nearby farm. Despite the small size of the farm Washington always referred to it as a plantation, and his life was not much different from any other slave on the larger plantations. “The early years of my life, which were spent in the little cabin, were not very different from those of other slaves” (Awakening).
As a child he was able to go to school but not in the traditional sense, since at the time it was illegal to educate a slave, he went to school carrying the books of the slave masters daughter, which didn't matter to Washington, he was getting an education by any means necessary. "I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study would be about the same as getting into paradise," (Industrial).
At the age of ten (1865) the Emancipation Proclamation declared that slavery had been abolished and soon after his family moved to his stepfather’s home in Malden, West Virginia. At his stepfather’s house Washington had taken a job at a salt mine that began at 4 A.M., so Washington could take advantage of his new found privilege to schooling. By the time he reached the ripe old age of sixteen he was working as a houseboy to a wealthy woman who encouraged his need to learn. In this same year he walked much of a 500 mile journey back to Virginia to take become educated at Hampton Institute, he was admitted to the Institute by much surprise, by cleaning the head teacher’s room.
To afford this new schooling Washington was back to slave-like tasks for a living but was well on his way to a prosperous life. After his initia...
... middle of paper ...
...r counties.
Bibliography:
Work Cited
Washington, Booker T. “The Awakening of the Negro”
n.page. On-Line. Internet. 19 Jan. 2001
Available WWW:http://eserver.org/race/awakening.txt
Washington, Booker T. “Industrial Education for the Negro”
The Negro Problem Sept. 1903: n.page. On-Line. Internet.
17 Jan. 2001. Available
WWW:http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/wash_b04.htm
Washington, Booker T. “Signs of Progress Among the Negroes”
N.page. On-Line. Internet. 19 Jan. 2001
Available WWW:http://eserver.org/race/signs-of-progress.txt
Washington Booker T. britanica.com
Encyclopedia Britannica 19 Jan. 2001 AvailableWWW:http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/printable/3/0,5722,78193,00.html
“Up From Slavery” nps.gov
National Park Service 19 Jan. 2001
Available WWW:http://www.nps.gov/bowa/btwbio.html
In his book, An Imperfect God, Henry Wiencek argues in favor of Washington being the first true president to set the precedent for the emancipation of African-American slaves. Wiencek delves into the evil paradox of how a nation conceived on the principles of liberty and dedicated to the statement that all men are created equal was in a state that still preserved slavery for over seven decades following the construction of the nation. Washington’s grandeur estate at Mount Vernon at its peak had the upkeep of over 300 slaves 126 of which were owned by Washington. First, it must be understood that Washington was raised on slavery receiving ownership of 10 slaves at the age of 11 years old and that Washington was a man of his time. However, it must also be understood that Washington’s business with slavery was in the context of a constrained social and political environment. Weincek maintains that this does not exonerate the fact that Washington maintained slavery however; it does help to quantify the moral shortcoming by which Washington carried until his last year of life.
Washington wanted to ensure the white race that education of colored individuals would not lead to a decrease in domestic services, as this was one of the main fears presented throughout. The beginning of the Institute started with only Washington as the teacher, and thirty students (Washington 58). While the Tuskegee Institute did an excellent job in developing students minds and reading abilities, Washington wanted to also teach his students practical life skills. Understanding that his students came from homes with little opportunities, Washington made it a priority to teach students how to care for their themselves. Students were taught how to bathe, care for their teeth, wash their clothing, and even what to eat and how to eat properly (Washington 61). Along with these basic skills, students were taught in a way so they could both become teachers and return to the plantation districts (Washington 61). Rather than simply studying books, students engaged in labor and physically saw what it meant to pave one’s own way. Washington wanted to implement a set of agricultural skills that would allow students to gain a new set of ideas and energy that could improve the industry. Soon after Washington found a new location to move his growing school, students were in charge of completing all the chores needed to successfully move to the farm. While
Born into slavery and fathered by an unknown white man, “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey” was born in Maryland around 1818. He was raised by his grandparents and with an Aunt, having seen his mother only a handful of times before she died. It was during this time that he witnessed firsthand the cruelty of the institution of slavery: lashings, exposure to the elements and hunger. When he was eight years old he left for Baltimore, and it was there that his master’s sympathetic wife taught him to read and write. When he recounted the move later in his life he said, “Going to live at Baltimore, laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity.” Typically slaveholders would prevent slaves from becoming literate. And Douglass’ master would often punish his wife for teaching the slaves the alphabet because he would make them disobedient. Slavery means you are to remain ignorant but freedom means that you were enlightened. He would struggle, but he knew that knowledge was more than power, it was freedom. After he escaped slavery September 3, 1838 and fled to New York, he joined various abolitionist groups and in 1841 he met the white abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, who went on to become his mentor. Despite many apprehensions that releasing his story would endanger his life as a free man, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself in 1845. After becoming more independent from Garrison, he spoke against his belief that the Constitution was pro-slavery, and argued that it may “be wielded in behalf of emancipation,” where the federal government had exclusive jurisdiction. Douglass d...
Booker T. Washington was an African American leader who established an African-American college in 1181. Then in 1895 delivered the Atlanta Compromise Speech to an audience of mainly Southerners, but some Northerners were present. In his speech he made a few points. He said, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Washington believed that the African American race needed to learn first that manual labor was just as important as the work of intellects. He thought that until they learned this they were not worthy of becoming intellects themselves. The color line is thus important in teaching them this lesson. He also said, “It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges.” His opinion was that one day blacks would deserve to have equal rights with the whites, but right now in 1895 the blacks needed to be...
Frederick Douglass was an enslaved person and was born in Talbot County, Maryland. He had no knowledge of his accurate age like most of the enslaved people. He believed that his father was a white man, and he grew up with his grandmother. Douglass and his mother were separated when he was young, which was also common in the lives of the enslaved people. This concept of separation was used as a weapon to gain control of the enslaved people. In short, despite the obstacles he had to endure, he was able to gain an education and fight for his freedom in any means necessary.
Booker T Washington was born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin County Virginia. Like many slaves at that time, historians are not sure of the exact place or date of his birth (Washington, Up From Slavery 7). Washington had absolutely no schooling while he was a slave; he received all his education after he was set free. The fact that he had no education through slavery, made it that much more important to him when he did get his education, and that is one of the reasons he so highly stressed education. Growing up, he did not even know what education was, he first heard about it through the miners he worked with while he was a slave....
Washington’s life story was told during the mid to late 1800’s into the early 1900’s, in the time when the Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect. The Emancipation Proclamation was one major event in history that forever changed our country. All slaves were free and had to go find a new place to live and a new place to work. When the slaves were first freed there was alot ofhostile feelings from the whites towards the newly freed slaves. To blacks living within post- Reconstruction South, Washington offered industrial education as the means of escape from sharecropping and allowed blacks to become self-employed, while owning their own land, or small business.
Booker T. Washington was born on the fifth of April in 1856, in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. Washington’s generation was the last to be born into slavery. He was an African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. This gentlemen attended Hampton University and Virginia Union University. During that time Washington became famous nationally with a speech he gave in 1895 in Atlanta. His speech consisted of how African- Americans would be able to make progress in the South. Washington believed that progress could be made through entrepreneurship and education, he also believed that Jim Crow segregation and that black’s not being able to vote should not be challenge at that point and time. Overall Booker T. Washington supported segregation during this point in time because, he knew that soon enough blacks would be treated better.
As word of Carver's work at Tuskegee spread across the world, he received many invitations to work or teach at better-equipped, higher-paying institutions but decided to remain at Tuskegee, where he could be of greatest service to his fellow African Americans in the South. Carver epitomized Booker T. Washington's philosophy of black solidarity and self-reliance. Born a slave, Carver worked hard among his own people, lived modestly, and avoided confronting racial issues. For these reasons Carver, like Booker T. Washington, became an icon for white Americans.
In 1903 black leader and intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois wrote an essay in his collection The Souls of Black Folk with the title “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others.” Both Washington and Du Bois were leaders of the black community in the 19th and 20th century, even though they both wanted to see the same outcome for black Americans, they disagreed on strategies to help achieve black social and economic progress. History shows that W.E.B Du Bois was correct in racial equality would only be achieved through politics and higher education of the African American youth.
Like many blacks around this time, he was born into slavery. He was born on a small farm in the Virginia back country. His master was James Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs had a wife named Elizabeth and 13 children. Booker's mother's name was Jane and she had two other children besides Booker.
This book was about Booker T Washington who was a slave on a plantation in Virginia until he was nine years old. His autobiography offers readers a look into his life as a young child. Simple pleasures, such as eating with a fork, sleeping in a bed, and wearing comfortable clothing, were unavailable to Washington and his family. His brief glimpses into a schoolhouse were all it took to make him long for a chance to study and learn. Readers will enjoy the straightforward and strong voice Washington uses to tell his story. The book document his childhood as a slave and his efforts to get an education, and he directly credits his education with his later success as a man of action in his community and the nation. Washington details his transition from student to teacher, and outlines his own development as an educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He tells the story of Tuskegee's growth, from classes held in a shantytown to a campus with many new buildings. In the final chapters of, it Washington describes his career as a public speaker and civil rights activist. Washington includes the address he gave at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895, which made him a national figure. He concludes his autobiography with an account of several recognitions he has received for his work, including an honorary degree from Harvard, and two significant visits to Tuskegee, one by President McKinley and another by General Samuel C. Armstrong. During his lifetime, Booker T. Washington was a national leader for the betterment of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South. He advocated for economic and industrial improvement of Blacks while accommodating Whites on voting rights and social equality.
The readings Booker T. Washington, The “Atlanta Compromise” and “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others” were both very interesting to me. The “Atlanta Compromise” was the actual speech Booker T. Washington gave to a majority white crowd asking for support for vocational/technical training and education. His focus on the speech was for the Black community to use their skills to earn a living and focus more on that than race relations. He was encouraging the black community to gain financial security and be open to getting the necessary tools to be their own providers.
Moreover, Frederick Douglass never ever in his entire life did he get to see his White father. Well he only knew that his father was but, nothing else. But he believed that’s his White father was his master. His master’s name was Aaron Anthony. So when Frederick Douglass was left abounded he had to leave with his grandmother to a plantation in Maryland. When Douglass the age of seven he started to witness slavery and racism. He witnessed firsthand brutal painful whippings to his fellow friends.
Booker Taliaferro Washington was born a slave on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Va. His mother, Jane Burroughs, was a plantation cook. His father was an unknown white man. As a child, Booker swept yards and brought water to slaves working in the fields. Freed after the American Civil War, he went with his mother to Malden, W. Va., to join Washington Ferguson, whom she had married during the war.