Chapter I: Introduction

I have cheerfully consented to prefix a few words introductory to this autobiography. While I have encouraged its publication, not a sentence has been submitted to my examination. From my intimate acquaintance with the subject, because of my connection with the Peabody and the Slater Education Funds, I am sure the volume has such a strong claim upon the people that no commendation is needed.

The life of Booker T. Washington cannot be written. Incidents of birth, parentage, schooling, early struggles, later triumphs, may be detailed with accuracy, but the life has been so incorporated, transfused, into such a multitude of other lives,--broadening views, exalting ideals, molding character,--that no human being can know its deep and beneficent influence, and no pen can describe it. Few living Americans have made a deeper impression on public opinion, softened or removed so many prejudices, or awakened greater hopefulness in relation to the solution of a problem, encompassed with a thousand difficulties and perplexing the minds of philanthropists and statesmen. His personality is unique, his work has been exceptional, his circle of friendships has constantly widened; his race, through his utterances and labors, has felt an upward tendency, and he himself has been an example of what worth and energy can accomplish and a stimulus to every one of both races, aspiring to a better life and to doing good for others.

It has been said with truth that the race problem requires the patient and wise co-operation of the North and the South, of the white people and the Negroes. It is encouraging to see how one true, wise, prudent, courageous man can contribute far more than many men to the comprehension and settlement of questions which perplex the highest capabilities. Great eras have often revolved around an individual; and, so, in this country, it is singular that, contrary to what pessimists have predicted, a colored man, born a slave, freed by the results of the War, is accomplishing so much toward thorough pacification and good citizenship.

While Mr. Washington has achieved wonders, in his own recognition as a leader and by his thoughtful addresses, his largest work has been the founding and the building up of the Normal and Industrial Institute, at Tuskegee, Alabama. That institution illustrates what can be accomplished under the supervision, control, and teaching of the colored people, and it stands conspicuous for industrial training, for intelligent, productive labor, for increased usefulness in agriculture and mechanics, for self-respect and self-support, and for the purification of home-life. A late Circular of the Trustees of Hampton Institute makes the startling statement that “six millions of our Negroes are now living in one-room cabins.” Under such conditions morality and progress are impossible. If the estimate be approximately correct, it enforces the wisdom of Mr. Washington in his earnest crusade against “the one-room cabin”, and is an honorable tribute to the revolution wrought through his students in the communities where they have settled. Every student at Tuskegee, in the proportion of the impression produced by the Principal, becomes a better husband, a better wife, a better citizen, a better man or woman. A series of useful books on the “Great Educators” has been published in England and the United States. While Washington cannot, in learning and philosophy, be ranked with Herbart, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Hopkins, Wayland, Harris, he may be truly classed among those who have wrought grandest results on mind and character.

J. L. M. CURRY.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 16, 1899.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND EARLY CHILDHOOD.

Author’s Reasons for Writing Autobiography--Ancestry--Mother--Author’s Early Recollections and Impressions of Her--Father--Who He Was--When and Where Author Was Born--A Description of the Cabin Where Born--Dress of the Author in Early Childhood--The “Tow Shirt"--Early Services of Author at Holding Horses and Going to the Mill--Name of Author’s Owner--His Treatment of His Slaves--Author First Hears of the War from the Slaves in the “Quarters"--He Assembles with His Mother at the “Big House” and Hears Freedom to the Slaves Announced--Removal of Author’s Family to West Virginia--Incidents of the Journey--Of Whom the Family Consisted at That Time.

CHAPTER II.

BOYHOOD IN WEST VIRGINIA.

Beginning Life in West Virginia--Author Sees a Negro Reading a Newspaper in Malden which Kindles His First Ambition--He Learns His Letters while Working in Coal Mines and Salt Furnaces--Attends His First School--Author Gives Himself a Surname--He Turns Forward the Hands of the Clock to Enable Him to Get to School on Time--Author Learns of Sunday School from an Old Man and Becomes a Regular Attendant--Some Experiences in the Coal Mines--Author Goes to Live with the Family of Gen. Lewis Ruffner--He Runs Away, but Returns--Some Experiences as a Market Boy while Working for Mrs. Ruffner--Mrs. Ruffner, Author’s Estimate of Her--Author Hears of the Hampton Institute while Working in the Coal Mines and Resolves to go There--Joins the Baptist Church in Malden Before Leaving for Hampton--Still a Member of This Church.

CHAPTER III.

LIFE AT HAMPTON INSTITUTE.

Author Starts for Hampton in 1872--The Journey--How Made--Sleeping Under Sidewalk in Richmond--Unloads Pig Iron from a Vessel in Richmond and Thereby Earns Money Enough to Continue the Journey to Hampton--Arrives at Hampton--Sees Miss Mary F. Mackie, the Lady Principal--Undergoes a “Sweeping Examination” and is Admitted as a Student--Author Sees Gen. Armstrong for the First Time--First and Last Impressions of Him--Hampton Institute when Author First Entered It--His Connection with the Debating Societies--His Destitute Condition at Hampton--After Two Years at Hampton, Author Spends Vacation at Home in Malden--Death of His Mother--He is Graduated at Hampton in 1875--Some Helpful Friends at Hampton, Misses Nathalie Lord and Elizabeth Brewer--Goes as a Waiter to Saratoga Springs.

CHAPTER IV.

HOW THE FIRST SIX YEARS AFTER GRADUATION FROM HAMPTON WERE SPENT.

Author Begins Teaching at Malden--Encourages His Pupils to go to Hampton--Helps His Brother John to Enter Hampton--Enters Wayland Seminary, Washington, D. C., and Spends a Year There--Stumps the State of West Virginia in the Interest of the Removal of the State Capital--Studies Law for a Short Time--Invited by Gen. Armstrong to Deliver the Graduate’s Address--Asked to Return to Hampton by Gen. Armstrong as a Special Student and to Take Charge of Night School--Accepts--The “Plucky Class"--In Charge of Indian Boys at Hampton--The Call from Tuskegee for Some One to Start a Normal School--Gen. Armstrong Recommends the Author--Author Accepts and Proceeds to Tuskegee.

CHAPTER V.

THE BEGINNING OF THE WORK AT TUSKEGEE.

Author’s Difficulty in Locating the Town of Tuskegee Before Starting Thither--Description and Some Early History of Tuskegee by Maj. W. W. Screws--Author’s Meeting with Mr. Lewis Adams, Who First Advanced the Idea of a Normal School at Tuskegee--How Mr. Adams Secured the First Appropriation Through Hons. A. L. Brooks and W. F. Foster--The Opening of the Normal School, July 4, 1881--The House in which the School Was Started.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIRST YEAR AT TUSKEGEE.

The Necessity for a Permanent Location for the School Early Seen by the Author--Objections of the Early Students to Manual Labor--Gen. Marshall, Treasurer at Hampton, Lends $500 with which the Present Site of Tuskegee Was Purchased--The Coming of Miss Olivia A. Davidson and Her Valuable Service to the School in Its Early Struggles--The Struggle for Money--Generosity of Both White and Colored Citizens of Tuskegee Towards the Institute--Miss Davidson Goes to Boston in the Interest of the School and Secures Money for the Erection of Porter Hall--More About the Shanty in which the School Was Started and Taught for the First Year--Author is Married to Miss Fannie N. Smith of Malden--Birth of Daughter Portia, and the Mother’s Early Death.