Up From Slavery

Up from Slavery is an autobiography written by Booker T. Washington and originally published in 1901.

The book begins with Washington's childhood on a Virginia plantation and with the day emancipation reached it at the end of the Civil War, when he was about nine years old.

He reflects on the importance of education in the social improvement of the black population and how he overcame obstacles to get that education at the Hampton Institute and how he went on to found and build the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Washington argues that political agitation will not solve the problems of Black Americans, and that what comes first is an education in practical skills that improves their living conditions and their standing — a position W. E. B. Du Bois and others attacked at the time as too accommodating.

It is interesting to know the small details of what life is like after leaving slavery, such as the choice of a surname, the habit of not sitting down to eat or the feeling of being well dressed.