Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

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5
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Up From Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington

Published:

1901

Pages:

171

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6,370

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Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

By

5
(2 Reviews)

Book Excerpt

pon his task as an economic one instead of a theological one." I wrote him an apology for mistaking him for a preacher.

The first time that I went to Tuskegee I was asked to make an address to the school on Sunday evening. I sat upon the platform of the large chapel and looked forth on a thousand coloured faces, and the choir of a hundred or more behind me sang a familiar religious melody, and the whole company joined in the chorus with unction. I was the only white man under the roof, and the scene and the songs made an impression on me that I shall never forget. Mr. Washington arose and asked them to sing one after another of the old melodies that I had heard all my life; but I had never before heard them sung by a thousand voices nor by the voices of educated Negroes. I had associated them with the Negro of the past, not with the Negro who was struggling upward. They brought to my mind the plantation, the cabin, the slave, not the freedman in quest of education. But on the plantation and in the cabin th

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Washington's autobiography takes him from slavery to freedom, from poverty to riches, from illiteracy to an honorary degree from Harvard, from no social standing to relationships with Presidents and Queens.

His skillful use of metaphor at the Atlanta Exposition is one of the best explanations of how races and sections can find peace and prosperity together.

His references to individuals who were well-known when he wrote his book but forgotten today will make you want to keep Google handy while you read.