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diff --git a/27258.txt b/27258.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f050ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/27258.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3292 @@ +Project Gutenberg's From Slave to College President, by Godfrey Holden Pike + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: From Slave to College President + Being the Life Story of Booker T. Washington + +Author: Godfrey Holden Pike + +Release Date: November 14, 2008 [EBook #27258] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT *** + + + + +Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT + + + + ++----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +| The "Lives Worth Living" | +| | +| SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES. | +| | +| Illustrated. Crown 8vo, Cloth Extra, Gilt Edges, 3s. 6d. per | +| Volume. | +| | +| #1. LEADERS OF MEN.# By H. A. PAGE, Author of "Golden Lives." Sixth | +| Edition. | +| | +| #2. WISE WORDS AND LOVING DEEDS.# By E. CONDER GRAY. Eighth Edition. | +| | +| #3. MASTER MISSIONARIES.# By A. H. JAPP, LL.D., F.R.S.E. Sixth | +| Edition. | +| | +| #4. LABOUR AND VICTORY.# By A. H. JAPP, LL.D. Third Edition. | +| | +| #5. HEROIC ADVENTURE.# Illustrated. Third Edition. | +| | +| #6. GREAT MINDS IN ART.# By WILLIAM TIREBUCK. Second Edition. | +| | +| #7. GOOD MEN AND TRUE.# By A. H. JAPP, LL.D. Second Edition. | +| | +| #8. FAMOUS MUSICAL COMPOSERS.# By LYDIA MORRIS. Second Edition. | +| | +| #9. OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS TIMES.# By G. HOLDEN PIKE. With 8 | +| Illustrations, including the Bristol Portrait as Frontispiece. | ++----------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +[Illustration: BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.] + + + + + FROM SLAVE TO + COLLEGE PRESIDENT + + BEING THE + + LIFE STORY OF + BOOKER T. WASHINGTON + + + BY + G. HOLDEN PIKE + + Author of + "Oliver Cromwell and His Times," + Etc., Etc. + + + _With Frontispiece Portrait_ + + + London + T. Fisher Unwin + Paternoster Square + 1902 + + [_All rights reserved._] + + + + ++------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +| CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN OF HARPER'S | +| FERRY | +| | +| BY | +| | +| JOHN NEWTON | +| | +| Crown 8vo, Cloth, 6s. Fully Illustrated. | +| | +| There are few to whom the lines, | +| | +| "John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave, | +| But his soul's marching on," | +| | +| are not familiar, but few are now aware that they came into being as | +| the marching song, made and used by the followers of "John Brown of | +| Harper's Ferry," or of "Ossawatomie," after he had been executed. His | +| was a stirring life. Having conceived the idea of becoming the | +| liberator of the negro slaves in the Southern States of North America, | +| he emigrated in 1855 from Ohio to Kansas, where he took an active part | +| in the contest against the pro-slavery party. He gained, in August | +| 1856, a victory at Ossawatomie over a superior number of Missourians | +| who had invaded Kansas (whence the surname "Ossawatomie"). On the | +| night of October 16, 1859, he seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, | +| Virginia, at the head of a small band of followers with a view to | +| arming the negroes and inciting an insurrection. He was captured | +| October 18th, was tried by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was | +| executed at Charlestown, December 2, 1859. | +| | +| Mr Newton has been at pains to inform himself from every available | +| source upon which it was possible to draw for a biography of John | +| Brown. The result is a most exhaustive work, in which the part Brown | +| took in the Kansas border wars, all his preparations for Harper's | +| Ferry and what occurred there, and his trial are fully related. | +| Practically no day between Brown's condemnation and his | +| execution--nearly a month--is ignored, and many most interesting | +| particulars are given of Brown's family. The judgments of his great | +| countrymen, Whittier, Thoreau and Emerson, as well as that of the | +| great romancer, Victor Hugo, are related, and interesting sketches are | +| given of many prominent men of all parties with whom Brown came in | +| contact. | ++------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. WANTED: A MAN--THE MAN FOUND 1 + + II. THE ERA OF FREEDOM--REALISING THAT KNOWLEDGE IS POWER 16 + + III. OFF TO HAMPTON--WAS HE A LIKELY CANDIDATE? 32 + + IV. GENERAL ARMSTRONG--HIS PREDECESSORS AND COLLABORATORS--PIONEERS + OF THE NEW ERA 41 + + V. UPS AND DOWNS--PROGRESS AS A STUDENT--BEGINNING TO TEACH 49 + + VI. AMERICAN INDIANS--WORK AT HAMPTON 60 + + VII. THE BEGINNING OF A LIFE WORK 71 + +VIII. SOME ACTUAL RESULTS--POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS 85 + + IX. CONTINUED PROGRESS--POPULARITY AS A SPEAKER 94 + + X. VISIT TO EUROPE--RETURN TO TUSKEGEE 104 + + + + + FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE + PRESIDENT + + + + + CHAPTER I + + WANTED: A MAN--THE MAN FOUND + + +Just at the most severe crisis of the war between France and Germany, +over thirty years ago, a London newspaper, in describing the situation, +remarked that France wanted not men, but a Man. During a whole +generation which followed after the close of the gigantic and sanguinary +conflict between the Northern and Southern States of the American +Republic, a similar remark would have applied to the millions of slaves +who, though nominally free, were drifting hither and thither, now +groping in the wrong direction altogether, or missing opportunities they +might have embraced, had there but been one commanding personality in +their midst to give the word and lead the way. There seemed to be too +many negroes, while they were still increasing with a rapidity which +inspired misgiving. The race seemed to be "at sea" for want of a Man. At +length the much-needed chief or leader was found in Booker T. +Washington, whose distinguished work on behalf of the race at the great +institution which he has founded at Tuskegee has given him a world-wide +reputation. As a negro, his mission is to the men and women of his own +nation. + +In regard to this man with his commanding personality, the +_International Monthly_ of New York says:--"At the present time he is +universally recognised as the foremost representative of his race. He is +eagerly sought after as a speaker. Whatever he chooses to write +immediately finds a willing publisher. Newspaper eulogy declares him to +be a remarkable orator. He is often spoken of as of solid, and even +brilliant, intellectual attainments. How much of all this vogue and of +this unusual reputation is based upon the fact that he is a negro, and +how much upon his native merit when weighed and judged without regard to +any other consideration whatsoever? Has he, in fact, done that which, +had he been a white man, would have given him a solid and substantial +claim to the esteem that he now enjoys?" + +Mr Harry T. Peck, who writes thus, ventures the opinion that the +estimate of the public in regard to Booker Washington is exaggerated. +"There is no evidence that his mind is in any way exceptional," he +adds.... "Were he a white man, he never would be singled out for +eminence.... He is not an orator; he is not a writer; he is not a +thinker. He is something more than these. He is the man who comes at the +psychological moment and does the thing which is wanting to be done, and +which no one else has yet accomplished." This can hardly be accepted as +genuine criticism. Just as we judge a tree by its fruits, so we measure +capacity, and even genius, by its results. If, as is generally +acknowledged to be the case, Booker Washington has practically solved +that Race Problem which American politicians have hardly dared to face +since the close of the Civil War, it is only fair that we accord him the +distinction of possessing that original shrewdness which may even be +called genius. When an idea of exceptional value is given forth, one +that is all the greater on account of its simplicity, people seem to be +naturally disposed to underrate the power which gave it utterance. +Booker Washington may merely be following in the footsteps of Adam Smith +when, instead of regarding the negro population as an evil or a +grievance, he prescribes that their labour, as a source of vast wealth, +be utilised for the national advancement. Viewed from any other +standpoint, there can be no doubt that the rapidly-increasing negroes +inspire some disquieting apprehensions as a possible source of +inconvenience or of actual danger. Once get the coloured race well under +control, however, and the result would be all-round satisfaction. + +Thus Booker Washington is not only the man of the hour to his own +people; in him the Man who has been wanted for forty years has been +found. Being somewhat over forty years of age, he was born in those +portentous times towards the end of the sixth decade of the last century +when the political horizon of the Republic was darkening and showing +symptoms of the coming Civil War. Virginia, his native State, was the +most populous and wealthy of the original thirteen, which, as colonies, +separated from Great Britain after the War of Independence. In the days +of his childhood, before the Civil War actually broke out, his +surroundings were those of the cabin standing amid the squalor of +slavery. All the sad, as well as the comic, phases of life on the +Southern plantations, as they then existed, are vividly remembered by +Booker Washington. Of course, to the slaves themselves very much +depended on the disposition of their owners, or on the character of the +overseers which those planters employed. The lot of Booker Washington +was what may be called an average one. It was not so bad as that of many +others who were less fortunate; nor was it so good as the exceptional +experience of the few who were born amid the most favourable +surroundings. It was, of course, a sad childhood, unrelieved by anything +like what we should in Great Britain call the comforts of life. He was a +keen-witted lad; but the shrewdest of seers could not have foreseen that +he would develop into the man of hope whom the negroes, after their +coming emancipation, would most sorely need. + +At the time of his birth, some forty-three or forty-four years ago--the +exact place or time being alike unknown--the public sentiment in regard +to emancipation had made great advances, and this had been effected +chiefly through the diffusion of millions of copies of Mrs H. B. Stowe's +_Uncle Tom's Cabin_. Among those in this country who believed the +descriptions in that work to be exaggerated, and that Legree was a +non-existent character, we have to include Charles Dickens. At the same +time, that famous novelist, in common with some others, probably +clearly saw that the days of slavery were numbered. "In truth, it must +be so," remarked one journalist at the time when _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ was +the most popular book both in the Old and the New World. "In truth, it +must be so, for the very laws of population forbid the permanence of +slavery in America. The black man thrives where the white man decays, +and it is the knowledge of this very remarkable fact that in great part +accounts for the dislike to the coloured population which is everywhere +expressed in the United States." The social inequality of the negroes +and the whites struck people then, as it does to-day in this country, as +being one of the most marked features of American society. There is +probably no remedy for that state of things, and it is partly through +his recognising this fact, and knowing that the negroes must continue to +be a race by themselves, that Booker Washington's success has been what +it is. + +Meanwhile, what kind of existence was the everyday life on a plantation +"down South" in the days of Booker Washington's childhood? By way of +reply, take this vivid word-picture from Mr Casey's _Two Years on the +Farm of Uncle Sam_, which was published in the decade of our hero's +birth:-- + +"The slaves are all that I had imagined, coming up to the dark outline +of fancy with a terrible precision. We put in to wood at one of these +places, and for the first time I saw these hewers of wood and drawers of +water. A party of us went on shore to shoot; some distance in the wood +we found two men, three women and two boys; there were twenty in all on +this farm. The women were dressed in a rough, shapeless, coarse +garment, buttoned at the back, with a sort of trousers of the same +material, rough shoes and stockings, the upper garment reaching nearly +to the ankle; a kind of cloth, like a dirty towel, was wound round the +head. One of the women drove an ox-team; she had a large and powerful +whip, with which, and a surprising strength, she belaboured and tugged +the unwieldy team with great dexterity. The other woman had five +children, and assisted in loading the wood; the younger, about sixteen +years of age, had one child, and appeared to do nothing. The women, it +seemed to me, worked harder than the men. I observed the almost complete +absence of memory in the elder woman; she could not remember where she +had left the link-chain or goad-whip, though but a few minutes out of +her hand. I must confess that, looking on that labour-crooked group, I +felt a dislike, strong and definite, to that system which takes away +even the hope of improvement, crushing down the principle of self-esteem +in the man, until it reaches the passive and unambitious existence of +the oxen which he drives. And looking on those women, negroes though +they were, so unnaturally masculine, so completely unsexed, so far +removed from all those attributes with which the name of woman is +associated, I felt that no reason based on an asserted right, no fiction +of argument, could stand in my judgment but as dust in the balance when +the question is whether a human being--no matter of what colour, whether +an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him--should possess the +liberty or right of securing his own happiness to the extent of his +ability. Then their state, their look, bodies, mind and manner were so +many self-evident arguments against the system, which no +representations, however plausible, could refute; and all that I had +listened to from Southerners on the voyage disappeared like gossamer in +the tempest before the mute, living picture of wretchedness presented by +that group." + +Brought up amid such surroundings, one would not know much about his +ancestry, if anything at all. A great planter gave no more heed to the +pedigree of his slaves than he did to that of his cattle; all alike were +bought and sold in the open market, and neither one nor the other had +any rights or privileges apart from the will of their owners. The cabin +of the slave family was, in a very literal sense, what its name +implied--a cabin and nothing more. The household was not supposed to +need more than one room; the furniture was, of course, as rude as the +hovel itself, and, though the apartment would be well ventilated, glass +windows were not considered necessary. A pallet on the earthern floor +was the only sleeping accommodation. It was one-room life under one of +its worst phases; and, in addition to other drawbacks, the inmates +suffered from cold and draughts in winter and from heat in summer. It is +almost needless to say that under such conditions and amid such +surroundings a lad like Booker Washington fared neither better nor worse +than tens of thousands of his fellows; his earliest days were not +cheered by any of the sunshine of childhood. As a rule, the children of +the slave-cabin knew nothing of those ordinary sports and pastimes which +relieve and give variety to the early days of the young under happier +circumstances. Of course, he was not more than a child when slavery came +to an end, but in the case of such a child slave, at a very early age +indeed, his possible service was found to be commercially too valuable +to be altogether dispensed with. He could do duty as a messenger or as a +porter between the great house--a sumptuous palace in comparison with +the slave-cabins--and the fields where his elders were at work. With a +horse he could also go on more distant errands, some of which, along +lonely roads, were not unattended with danger. Thus the dense, dark +woods through which he might have to pass, when taking corn to be ground +at a distant mill, would be haunted by imaginary spectres; and, besides, +there were said to be deserters from the Confederate Army hidden in +those recesses who, by way of sport, would relieve any negro lad of his +ears if they chanced to meet with him. Such were the last repellent +phases of that phase of that now obsolete world of slavery in Old +Virginia as Booker Washington remembers them. + +In our common, everyday talk we are accustomed to say that the darkest +hour of night precedes the dawn of day. It was so in this instance. The +time of Booker Washington's birth, and for some years after, was +apparently the darkest period in the history of the slaves of the +Southern States. For long the negroes of the plantations not only grew +up quite illiterate--it was a punishable offence for them to make any +endeavour to learn to read, or for anyone to attempt to teach them. Not +very long before the Fugitive Slave Law had found a place in the Statute +Book of the Republic, and this Act made it illegal for any fugitive +slave to find either shelter or aid in any State of the Union. Then, +just about the same time, the American Chief-Justice had, in his +official capacity, declared that nowhere in any one of the States had a +slave any rights of citizenship. In a word, the slaves on a plantation +were simply on a level, in a legal sense, with the cattle they tended or +used in their everyday work. For example, the mere children had no +regular meal times in the conventional sense as we understand things; +and there was little or nothing of what we should recognise as family +life. Thus when, after the era of emancipation, Booker Washington came +to the experience of sleeping in an ordinary bed and sitting down at +table to partake of a family meal, both were a revelation of civilised +existence which were quite new to him. + +In a sense the very denial to the slave population of their educational +rights would seem to have had something like the effect of sharpening +their wits, until they became not only interested in what was happening +around them, but the shrewdest observers of the signs of the times. Like +other boys of his race, Booker Washington ran wild when he was not +engaged in his customary errands, and without so much as learning even +the English alphabet. But this compulsory ignorance seems to have +intensified that ardent desire for knowledge which was part of his +nature. Among his errands he might have to go to a schoolhouse where +companies of happy young people were engaged over their books, and he +was naturally much affected by what he saw and heard. Why was not he +privileged in a similar way? Tens of thousands of negro boys may have +asked themselves that same question in the generations that preceded +him, and in every instance the answer would be the same--schools are +forbidden to the slave. The coloured population was fast increasing, and +the planters believed that the public safety could only be guaranteed by +compelling them to remain illiterate. + +In point of fact, however, the slaves on the plantations were not as +ignorant as their too sanguine owners supposed them to be. In a secret +way one here and there may even have learned to read; and, in regard to +what was going on in the outside world, they were oftentimes hardly less +well informed than their masters and mistresses. As Booker Washington +remembers it, the time of his childhood was a wonderful era of +transition. None more fully realised than the slaves themselves that the +bone of contention which occasioned the Civil War was the question of +slavery. Thus, to them, the period of conflict was a time of wild, but +still subdued, excitement, for fear their sentiments should be detected +and be followed by pains and penalties. The traffic on "the underground +railroad" was probably for the time suspended; but what was called "the +grapevine telegraph" was in full operation, and on every plantation and +in every planter's palatial mansion the slaves looked for its messages +with that ardent interest which cannot be described. They could not read +newspapers, and would have been forbidden to do so had they been able, +but whenever a messenger was sent to a neighbouring town he took care to +linger about the post-office, or elsewhere where persons conversed on +the current news, and everything that entered the coloured messenger's +sharpened ears soon became generally known to every soul on the +plantation. There were masters who professed to believe that their +people would fight for them; but in secret nocturnal meetings these +slaves congratulated one another on every Northern victory, while they +prayed with pathetic ardour for the success of Lincoln and his armies. + +At the same time, when they were tolerably well used by their owners, +there was a good deal of sympathy binding together the coloured race and +the white people. Booker Washington does not think that his race have +ever betrayed any trust that has been reposed in them. Being born into +slavery, they grew up without being acquainted with any other condition +of life, so that it must have appeared quite natural to them for the +dominant whites to live in the great house and for themselves, who were +merely niggers, to herd in the cabins. But while they never undervalued +freedom, and, personally, ardently longed for it, there were certain +things which exercised influence over them of a softening kind, despite +the master grievance of hard bondage and its occasional cruel hardships. +For example, Booker Washington, at a very early age, undertook such +service as he could perform in his master's house; and it was not only a +possibility, it frequently happened, that a young servant, whether a lad +or a girl, became a favourite with the members of the family. The +younger white people would sometimes favour or protect a slave when he +got into trouble, and thus something like genuine affection would be +kindled in the hearts of the subject race. What animated conversations +respecting the two great armies in the field such a boy as Booker +Washington would hear at his master's table while he was engaged in +keeping the room as clear as possible of flies! This was another way of +getting the current news by those who did not form any part even of the +fringe of the newspaper constituency. Then, of course, there was the +constant occurrence of the usual casualties of war. Bitter sorrow and +mourning, like angels of darkness, would steal into the luxurious homes +of the planters when the master himself, or a son of the household, was +returned invalided or so sorely wounded as to be maimed for life. It was +still worse when, as it actually happened, one or another of these chief +people of the Southern Confederacy was killed. There was then the +anguish of mourning in the household akin to that which afflicted the +people of Egypt when the first-born of each family was slain. In many +cases, whether the fallen or the wounded might belong to the older or +the younger generation, the slaves themselves were touched by the +affliction of the family, because they never forgot the good deeds of +those who had befriended them. It seems to be the belief of Booker +Washington that, in any case, if, as trusted servants, they had been +left in charge of a house by night or day, they would never have +surrendered to the enemies of their owners, even though the invaders +might have been men of the Northern battalions who were practically +fighting for the freedom of the oppressed race. Still, it is thought +with good reason that both the white and the coloured races were losers +by slavery. As was inevitable, it turned out that one race cannot +oppress another without being affected for the worse. Over the best of +the plantations there seemed to hover a shadow, as though something were +wanting to make the prosperity complete, when wealth was amassed by +doubtful means. Instead of being a pleasure and honourable, labour was +looked upon as something which had degradation associated with it. The +planters and their families held aloof from it because it was the badge +of slavery. The slaves themselves disliked it because it belonged to +their condition of bondage. + +As it has been shown, slavery reached its darkest phase in the years +which immediately preceded the era of emancipation, during Booker +Washington's childhood. Many telling illustrations might be given to +show that this was actually the fact. I am personally well acquainted +with an ex-slave, who is also a native of Virginia, who vividly +remembers those days. At the time of his birth his mother was hardly +more than sixteen years of age; but, notwithstanding, this girl had +already tasted enough of the anguish and bitterness of slavery which +might more than have sufficed for a long lifetime. She was so roughly +treated by her owner that for some little time preceding her child's +birth she remained concealed in a neighbouring wood, where the only diet +procurable was berries or wild fruit. In this case the painful anomaly +was that the slave-girl's husband was a free man who, loving his wife +and child, made strenuous efforts to purchase them, but did so quite +unsuccessfully. The master even moved away to another place, where the +mother did the work of a domestic servant, and during this time her son +experienced something of the gaiety of childhood while playing in the +yard with coloured juveniles of his own age, who, like himself, were as +young cattle in a pen growing up for a sad destiny. + +In those days, as Booker Washington himself would be aware, +slave-mothers would at times speak to their children of Georgia, or +going "down South," in order to inspire terror. Going to Georgia meant +to pass on into a land without hope, of darkness and death. Occasionally +a hard-featured stranger would appear on the scene, and, while leaning +on the fence with folded arms, he would watch the boys at play in the +yard with the interested glances of a trader. Then, as must have +appeared mysteriously to the boys themselves, after the stranger had +gone away, one or another of the boys would be missing. Then it would be +whispered, as though some horror had overtaken them, the missing boy had +been taken "down South"--into Georgia. + +Booker Washington is certainly one of the most extraordinary examples on +record of the successful pursuit of knowledge under difficulties; but +there have been many striking examples among slaves of lads showing this +mettle. My ex-slave friend, to whom reference has been made, is +certainly to be reckoned as one of these. It is probable that his mother +may have passed as a woman of education, seeing that she knew the +English alphabet and was able to count a hundred. Be this as it may, +however, like a genuine Christian mother, she determined that, in spite +of planters and their laws, her child should learn whatever she could +teach him. In due course the boy himself showed a flaming desire to +learn. By dint of remarkable diligence and perseverance, he got ahead of +his mother in knowledge. If learning was carried on in secret, there had +rarely been found a more ardent pupil. Without inconvenient questions +being asked, he succeeded in purchasing a copy-book and spelling primer, +which were well used on all possible occasions. He actually went through +the whole of the Bible when he could not master more than one in eight +of the words. This man afterwards enjoyed the benefit of a college +education in England, so that his case is worthy of being mentioned as +being similar to that of Booker Washington. Both instances alike show +that negroes may not only have good intellectual endowments, but may +also succeed in high aims by dint of unflagging energy and perseverance. + +At length the era of freedom came; and although at that time Booker +Washington was still too young to realise what all the excitement and +commotion portended, those who looked upon him saw the child who would +develop into a benefactor of his race and the most distinguished negro +of his time. The Man who was wanted was found. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE ERA OF FREEDOM--REALISING THAT KNOWLEDGE IS POWER + + +The great, long-looked-for and ardently-prayed-for day of freedom had +come at last, and probably one of the things which Booker Washington +remembers is the kiss which his mother gave him after listening to the +reading of President Lincoln's Proclamation, and to which the Southern +leaders were compelled to yield when the pressure of the Northern army +became too great to be longer resisted. In common justice to the +Southern planters, we have to remember that the crisis may have meant +little if anything short of actual ruin. The human chattels, as slaves +were often called, were not seldom very valuable bargains in the open +market. A sum of 3000 dollars in gold was once offered for the ex-slave +friend to whom reference has been made, and was at once refused by his +owner. It can well be believed that one who has developed such a gift +for organisation as Booker Washington would have commanded a much higher +figure, although such prices were, of course, far in advance of the +average. + +It might also be said that the planters were not responsible for slavery +having become an institution of the Republic, and that they had to do +with things as they found them. But while this may be true, it has also +to be admitted that the Southern States retained that institution longer +than their neighbours. At the end of the century in which the Republic +secured its independence there were under 900,000 slaves in the whole of +the United States; but the total was nearly 4,000,000 in the year of +emancipation. The Northern States had already liberated their slaves in +a gradual way about a quarter of a century before that crisis. For +generations slavery had been denounced as a wrong, amounting to a great +evil, by a number of chief men among the Republican leaders, such as +Franklin and Washington, Madison and Jefferson, and others. These men +were sufficiently outspoken to regard the thing as being quite out of +keeping with the principles of the Declaration of Independence. +Nevertheless, differences of opinion over this matter not only led to +violent controversy but to religious division, the most notable split +being that of the Episcopal Methodist Church, which henceforth had its +Northern and Southern sections, the latter being founded on a +pro-slavery basis. + +Young as he was when the great revolution of complete abolition in the +Southern States was brought about, Booker Washington was still able to +show a child's keenest interest in what was taking place. It was as if +the sun had risen on new times altogether; the very winds seemed to blow +more cheerfully; the sky above seemed to be bright with promise with +better things to come than mere _niggers_ had ever known before; it was +as though the Golden Age itself had dawned. The sharp-witted little son +of the slave-girl could heartily enter into his mother's joy, but he +could not take in the meaning of the things that were happening as he +has been able to understand them since. Such a child was naturally +affected by the growing boldness and enthusiasm of his elders, who for +some time before the final catastrophe clearly anticipated what the end +would be. When they gathered at their nocturnal meetings there was +unwonted light in their eyes; a spirit of hope and cheerfulness such as +they had never known before gave new life to their hymns, which had too +often been sad or weird; their feelings became irrepressible. There were +signs and tokens of various kinds which the working slaves well +understood, whatever this child of a slave-mother may have made of them. +There was something in the air which told that something uncommon was +coming--"a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees," as it +were, which betokened that the great day of freedom had come. Straggling +soldiers, who had broken away from the Confederate Army, had a doleful +story to tell of disaster and collapse. Then, besides, the inmates of +the great house were thinking of how best they could secure their +valuables if the invaders actually came. Then, on the first Sunday of +April 1865, the catastrophe may be said to have really come. On that day +vast quantities of stores were burned at Richmond; during the night many +a slave-owner stole away, and in the early morning numbers who had been +slaves found themselves no longer in bondage when they greeted the +regiments of the Northern Army. + +Booker Washington testifies to the wild excess of joy with which the +slaves on all the plantations accepted the freedom which had come to +them in this remarkable, but no doubt providential, way. For the moment +they took no account of the future; they were altogether intoxicated +while trying to estimate the reality of that new condition in which they +found themselves--that inestimable blessing about which their +forefathers had prayed through long and weary generations. The thing +seemed to be too good to be true, and yet it was actually with them--it +was their own blissful possession! + +Then, as was inevitable, human nature being what it is, there came a +somewhat strong reaction to this outburst of feeling and irrepressible +excitement. What about the future? Practically, a whole nation of +something like 4,000,000 persons had suddenly been set free, severed +from their employment and their masters, who in their way had looked +after them. Those masters had been sorely reduced by the war; many +members of the great houses had been killed or wounded. What was to +become of those millions of coloured people who had never come in +contact with the outer world, who, with a few exceptions, were quite +illiterate and knew nothing of the outside world? No wonder that a +certain amount of gloom and misgiving soon took the place of that +exuberance of joy which the sense of freedom had at first inspired. The +crisis was sufficiently serious for those who were young and strong, but +what was to become of the aged or those who were worn out in the hard +service of the plantations? + +Probably the gloom which now overtook so many of the coloured people was +as exaggerated as their wild ideas about their good fortune when +freedom first came to them. These coloured folk were apt to run into +extremes. Booker Washington well remembers them in both moods; and he +also can call to mind how they came to see that, after all, liberty was +an inheritance of sterling worth when it was fairly estimated. One +advantage of the new-found freedom consisted in possessing the right to +choose a respectable surname; and another gain was the right, if they +felt so disposed, to leave the old haunts and, in some measure, to look +round the outside world. Otherwise, they could hardly tell how it might +feel to be free. As is the case with agricultural labourers in general, +these poor coloured slave folk, with whom Booker Washington was +acquainted, had never been far afield from the place of their birth, +and, having seen so little of the world, they found that the world was a +wide place and, in some respects, different from what they had expected. +Of course, a large number were glad to return to the plantations and to +agree with their old employers to work as labourers. In choosing their +new names, the ex-slaves showed some good taste as well as ambition. +Having the patronymic list of presidents, statesmen, soldiers and others +to select from, they bedecked themselves in becoming style, not +forgetting a middle and, apparently, an initial letter, which usually +did not represent a name at all, but, as showing the American manner, +was still indispensable. Even in the case of the distinguished negro, an +account of whose life and work is given in this volume, he had no such +name as Booker T. Washington while he remained in a state of slavery; he +chose it for himself after he became free, and all must admit that he +made a good selection. + +Mrs Washington--as by courtesy she may be called--did not return to the +fields after gaining her freedom, as was the case with so many of her +old companions. Circumstances led to her removal to Malden, in West +Virginia, and which is also in the suburbs of Charleston. Still being +quite a young lad, Booker Washington accompanied his mother, as did also +his brother John, the object being to join their mother's husband--the +man being only their stepfather--who was then employed in the salt +industry. + +Notwithstanding that all were now free, the temporal prosperity of the +family so far showed no improvement. Amid the huts and furnaces of the +salt-producing little town there was even less comfort, and far more +repulsive squalor, than there had been on the plantation among +fellow-slaves. Being a mixture of coloured and white people, the main +part were a degraded set; so that, after all the toil and rough +adventure of some weeks of travelling, the wonder is that the future +benefactor of his race was not utterly demoralised amid his new +surroundings. Perhaps it turned out to his advantage that he had to work +hard through very long days. + +Ever since the time that he began to think about anything, Booker +Washington had been inspired by a very strong desire to learn to read. +He resolved that, come what might, he would, if possible, so far +distinguish himself as to become competent to read the periodicals and +newspapers of the day. This was a very praiseworthy resolution to make, +but to ordinary persons how utterly impossible of attainment it must +have seemed when all things were against them. By a roundabout way he so +far advanced as to be able to understand what certain figures on a +salt-barrel meant; but he had not even a primer or spelling-book until, +on being earnestly requested to do so, his mother was successful in her +strenuous endeavours to obtain one. In the whole circle of his coloured +acquaintance the ex-slave child knew of no individual who could read, +his mother being no exception. This fact, however, seems to have the +effect of bringing out in bolder outline the sterling traits of this +negro woman's character. She was evidently uncommonly shrewd in worldly +matters, and, instead of advising her child not to attempt what might +well have seemed to be impossibilities, she showed that wholesome +ambition for the boy's future which proved her to be of a superior +nature, while she was a genuine, loving mother. We may be sure that +Booker Washington inherited his gifts and indomitable perseverance from +his mother. A long line of distinguished men have borne similar +testimony. Men who have lived and laboured for the benefit of others +have been, in very many instances, what their mothers made them. + +Having obtained his spelling-book, Booker Washington commenced his +education without a teacher, the consequence being that he was occupied +for some weeks in overcoming the difficulties of the alphabet, which, +under the most favourable conditions, would have detained him but a few +hours. In due course he made more rapid progress under the teaching of a +negro boy who had the rare distinction of being able to read a printed +page; and, as was quite natural, such an example of literary attainments +in youth was no less envied than admired. + +Then something else occurred which cannot fail to strike us as being +almost a phenomenon--at all events, a thing altogether extraordinary +under the circumstances. What, through the vista of a third of a +century, looks like a perfect _furore_ for education took complete +possession of the ex-slaves, and, what made this the more singular, the +burning desire for school teaching extended to aspirants of all ages. +Before philanthropists came forward to help them the coloured people +were found to have their own appointed tutor, and care was taken that he +should fare well. Thus, in the case of Booker Washington, the first +comparatively competent teacher with whom he came in contact was a +quondam soldier who had served in the war. Surely no tutor ever had more +enthusiastic pupils; and whether the age of the learner was seven or +seventy-five, it seemed to make no difference in damping their +enthusiasm. Indeed, it may be seriously questioned whether any other +race of people would ever have rivalled this extraordinary ardour in +learning to read. And circumstances made it necessary that even the +Sunday schools, in common with the day schools, should, first of all, +give the most elementary of teaching. What a contrast such a state of +things presents to anything of the kind with which we are familiar in +connection with any other country! How many there are who remain +illiterate, or semi-illiterate, in spite of the schools which are +provided and admirably equipped under any national system of education! +In their darkest days of ignorance and bondage the negro slaves showed +the most lively desire for education. In what measure is that true of +any other race? We know that through a long succession of centuries our +own peasantry remained, for the most part, quite illiterate, all the +while showing a kind of sullen content or stolid indifference. That +negroes should show other characteristics should inspire the +encouragement coming from the hope that they are destined for better +things than have usually entered into the calculations of American +politicians. It is because Booker Washington so thoroughly well +understands his race that he can harbour such bright hopes of their +future, provided that common-sense means are used to train and educate +them, so as to give them an opportunity of making the best possible use +of their capacities. He is quite an ingenuous man, who says just what he +thinks, and who would never think of aiming at the impracticable. What +may at first have seemed to be quite a Utopian enterprise to quidnuncs +in American social and political circles is to him a very ordinary +business. He has solved what has been to others a dark problem, because +he has failed to see that there was any problem which needed solution. +He sees in the labour of the millions of negroes who people the Southern +States a source of vast national wealth. Only turn this to good account +and the whole country will be benefited and enriched, while the +descendants of the ex-slaves themselves will remain contented and good +citizens. To carry out this idea is certainly one of the greatest of +enterprises to which social reformers in the New World have ever set +their hand. + +When a school was established and a supposed competent tutor was +appointed, Booker Washington did not find that his course had ceased to +be a pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. His mother and stepmother +were so poor that it was not thought that his services at the salt works +could be altogether dispensed with in order that he might attend school. +Then a kind of compromise was made, and without the work being entirely +suspended, he was allowed to pass some portion of each day at the +school. Having thus risen to this respectable standing, he found it +desirable to wear a cap which his mother made for him; for it would seem +that a Virginian planter no more thought of providing such head-dress +for boy slaves than he would of clothing his colts or calves. It was +then, moreover, that he gave himself the name which he has ever since +retained and honoured. He had been called Booker as a child-slave; for +some reason his mother had added Taliaferro, but the final Washington +was a becoming euphonism of his own. + +With so much manual labour to be done, the difficulties in the way of +education were continually becoming intensified. Soon it became +impossible to continue in attendance at the day school, and he had to be +content with attending an evening class after completing the day's toil. +Under the most favourable circumstances this was exhausting; and his +experience proved still more trying when he was removed from the salt +works to serve in a coal mine, which supplied the furnaces with fuel. +Booker Washington has very vivid recollections of the horrors and even +constant dangers attending such subterranean work. The darkness alone +was almost such as might be felt; and the mishaps, through taking a +wrong path, through falling coal, or a candle getting extinguished, were +ever threatening those engaged in the works. It was in such an +atmosphere and amid such surroundings, however, that the dawn of a new +era sent its beams across his chequered pathway. It was there that he +heard for the first time of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural +Institute, which was destined to shape for him his life-course. The +institution in question is near to the small town and bathing resort of +Hampton, in Virginia, and the channel, commanded by Fortress Monroe, was +the scene of some lively naval fights during the Civil War. The +institution was founded in 1868 by General S. C. Armstrong, and two +years later was incorporated by the State of Virginia. Its object is +stated to be "to train young men and women of the negro and Indian races +to become teachers among their own people." Booker Washington happened +to overhear two men in the coal mine conversing together about this +school, and he resolved to find out everything possible about it. The +revelation had for him something more than passing interest; strange new +hopes had been kindled in his soul. If he had asked, Who was Samuel +Chapman Armstrong? he might have learned that he was an officer who had +served in the Civil War, and that he was born in the Hawaiian Islands in +1839. The General was a genuine, warm-hearted friend of the coloured +races, and as he became to Booker Washington an exemplar, or even +something like an apostle, who did more than any other human teacher to +mark out his pathway of life, some reference may be made to the +pressing needs of the freed negroes in the years which immediately +followed the close of the Civil War. There are now some ten million +coloured people in the Southern States, but at the time in question +there were less than half of this number. Nevertheless, the crisis was +sufficiently serious to be even alarming. Thus a contemporary writer +says:-- + +"Such sudden emancipation, on so vast a scale, is unequalled in the +annals of history. The nearest parallel to it is the deliverance of the +Israelites from Egyptian bondage. A nation, numbering about two +millions, was then suddenly emancipated. But as for their sustenance and +preservation a succession of miracles took place, it is not necessary +for our present purpose to pursue the parallel. No instance in secular +history equals the present position of the freed negroes of North +America. The crisis has come in a manner and at a time that could hardly +have been anticipated by the wisest forecaster of political events." + +Great as was the need for earnest effort after hostilities ceased, +however, the want and suffering had been far more acute in days that had +gone before. The contemporary writer just quoted adds:-- + +"From the very beginning of the war hundreds have suddenly poured in, as +at an hour's notice, upon the cities of the Northern States. One of the +camps was inundated by a thousand of these naked and starving fugitives +in a single day, and this whilst the snow was coldly and silently +covering the surrounding landscape. After the Federals had gained +possession of Memphis, there speedily turned into it a long train of +negroes, so miserably destitute that, having nothing whatever with them +of food or clothing but the rags of two or three years' wear, and only +the clouds and the trees to shelter them, these human multitudes were +far worse off than the comfortably-kennelled dogs of their white +brethren. When General Sherman passed through Georgia, he was asked how +many negroes had followed his army. The reply was, 'Ten miles of them.'" + +Charitable and Christian people were moved to do what lay in their power +not only to relieve present sufferings, but to enable the coloured folk +to make a new start in the world. Associations were formed, money was +collected, even the Government took care that rations should be +distributed. The result was that the outlook soon showed signs of +improvement. At one time Levi Coffin of Cincinnati reported that there +were thirty-five camps in the Mississippi Valley which contained about +650,000 coloured fugitives, but these camps soon became self-supporting. +The more acute want and suffering were soon relieved, but it soon became +more and more apparent that service of a more permanent kind would have +to be undertaken if the coloured people were to be raised from the low +condition into which slavery had reduced them. People of the shrewder +sort clearly saw that great results might be expected from education and +industrial training. Although the prevailing ignorance was of the +densest kind, all were most anxious to learn. Wherever a camp appeared +it was certain that schools would speedily follow; and in what must +have appeared an incredibly short space of time no less than 250 schools +were established in that Mississippi Valley alone. The contemporary +anonymous writer in the _Leisure Hour_ who has already been quoted, and +who appears to have been thoroughly well acquainted with the negroes' +characteristics and condition in their transition state, adds this +word-picture of the general outlook at the time to which reference is +being made:-- + +"They are most anxious to be taught, and most docile under direction. +Their ignorance previously was universal and extreme. It is no wonder +that their religious camp-meetings had become associated with the most +grotesque ideas and narrations. It is no wonder that their phraseology +was a caricature of civilised language. For how could they be expected +to manifest intelligence without any education? So deplorably destitute +of instruction were they that very few even of their preachers could +read the simplest words. Old men amongst them who had preached the +Gospel to their black congregations for upwards of forty years, were +found totally ignorant of the alphabet, and, of course, had never read a +verse of Scripture. How could the Sermons, the prayers and the religious +ideas of such 'pastors' be other than grievously deficient?" + +When the depressed conditions under which these coloured people had +previously lived were duly taken into account, the most wonderful thing +of all was seen in the rapid strides they made in the betterment of +their temporal condition or outward surroundings. The days no longer +passed in dull or even painful monotony. Labour, which had hitherto been +to them hard bondage, not easy to bear, had become a privilege and a +pleasure. Having survived the too exaggerated notions of what the new +era might mean for them, and the inevitable reaction of disappointment +which followed, they could now take stock of life and realise that they +had been enormous gainers by at last coming into that inheritance for +which their forefathers had so earnestly longed and prayed. The +responsibilities, and even the commonplace things associated with +freedom, were intensely prized. In contrast with the loose and +demoralising customs which had been characteristic of slave-worked +plantations, marriage became a bond not to be dissolved. Now that they +were becoming able to read it for themselves, the Bible became a prized +book, which the negroes regarded as being peculiarly their own. So far +from disappointing those who sought to aid them, now that their +ex-owners, the planters, were so greatly impoverished, or even ruined, +the negroes surprised their friends by the readiness with which they +adapted themselves to their new life. The way in which habits of +industry and economy were formed struck observers with peculiar force, +as being an exceedingly hopeful sign. Nor did the freer air, which they +now breathed, in any measure weaken those Christian ties which had held +them together in their days of bondage. Their religious meetings were +well maintained, but of course under happier conditions. The sad or even +strangely weird songs which had been sung by night with bated breath, as +it were, in the slave-cabins could now be superseded by more cheerful +hymns. The former had been the natural expression of bond-slaves, to +whom life on earth was without hope; at last they were able to sing the +triumphant note of freemen. He was a very representative member of the +negro race who at that time remarked to a friend, "I'se afeard I'll work +myself to death now. I'se so glad to work for myself and the family that +I can't stop nohow." Even in the United States, where towns and large +communities have often risen rapidly in what had but just before been +the wilderness, this new reformation, which the negroes now proved +themselves to be capable of keeping pace with, must have struck many +observers as a phenomenon for which they had hardly been prepared. +Schoolhouses and churches, as well as cottages, which were a grateful +contrast to the squalid cabins of the plantations, were in many +instances supplemented by savings banks. At the same time a disposition +towards self-reliance showed itself, which led the main body, whenever +possible, to keep aloof from the alms-houses, in which pauper poor were +sheltered, by working hard and bravely to support themselves and their +households. + +While this transition age was in progress, Booker Washington was growing +up apace. He had been fortunate enough to sever his connection with the +Malden salt-furnaces and their squalid and immoral surroundings, and, +what was still better, he had escaped from the coal mine never to +return, and had found more genial employment in the household of a +military officer and his wife. He now worked more ardently than ever +towards the Hampton Institute. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + OFF TO HAMPTON--WAS HE A LIKELY CANDIDATE? + + +Those who read the American newspapers will be aware that there is great +diversity of opinion in regard to the manner in which the education of +the coloured people should be conducted. Those who have grown up amid +the traditions of the Southern States, where, under the old order of +things, the education of slaves was a legal offence, do not readily +favour that higher training of negroes to which, in Great Britain, no +one would ever think of offering any objection. The feeling referred to +prevails in the Northern States as well as in the Southern; and more or +less throughout the Republic it is strongly held that, whether educated +or uneducated, the coloured race are socially on a lower plane and can +never associate on terms of equality with white people. The readiness +with which he has acknowledged this fact, while acting accordingly, has +in no small measure contributed to Booker Washington's success and +popularity. He has undoubtedly stimulated the interest which is now +shown in efficient negro training, as is self-evident from the newspaper +and magazine articles which from time to time appear upon the subject. +Thus, in course of an article on "The Function of the Negro College," +in the _Dial_ of Chicago, Mr Kelly Miller, of Howard University, +Washington, remarks:-- + +"The groundwork of education cannot be modified to meet the variant +demands of race or colour, previous conditions or present needs. The +general processes of discipline and culture must form a fixed and +unalterable part of any adequate educational programme. On the other +hand, there is quite a wide latitude of accommodation for special needs +and social circumstances in what might be called the practical aspect of +education. There has recently sprung up a class of educational +philosophers who would restrict the term practical education to those +forms of knowledge or formulas of information which can be converted +into cash equivalent on demand. The truth is, that all knowledge which +enables the recipient to do with added efficiency the work which falls +to his lot in this world, whether that work be tilling the soil or +plying a handicraft, healing the sick or enlightening the ignorant, +uplifting the lowly or administering spiritual solace, is 'practical' in +the highest and best significance of that term.... Traditional branches +of study have lost much of their talismanic value. The so-called higher +education is no longer confined to the classic tongues of two famous +far-off peoples. The pedagogical watchword is _method_ rather than +subject-matter. The higher method of inquiry and investigation can be +applied to the growing roots of living plants as well as to the dry +stems of a dead language. The problems growing out of the population of +Alabama or Florida are as intricate in their relation, and as +far-reaching in their consequence, and, withal, as important a subject +for study, as any ever involved in the European peninsulas." + +It seems to be generally held by such writers and their readers that the +mission of negroes who have received a good college training is to be +teachers and leaders to the more commonplace members of their own race, +and it is thought that a proportion of one in two hundred needs to have +the knowledge which will enable him to lead, and so benefit his fellows. +There must be tact, however; the negro student must have his craft well +ballasted or he may lose self-control, which may possibly lead to +somewhat comical results. Thus, Mr Miller tells of "A circular issued by +a young man, scarcely thirty years of age, the sum-total of whose +knowledge would be scarcely equal to that of a Yale sophomore, who +advertises himself as Rev. ----, A.M., B.D., Ph.D., D.D. It is more than +likely that the majority of the congregation of this over-bedecked +preacher can neither read nor write. What these humble people need is +sound knowledge and simple sense.... The negro race is characterised by +boisterousness of manners and extravagant forms of taste. As if to +correct such deficiencies, their higher education hitherto has been +largely concerned with Greek and Latin literature, the norms of modern +culture. The advanced negro student became acquainted with Homer and +Virgil before he had Shakespeare and Milton. It is just here that our +educational critics are apt to become excited. The spectacle of a negro +wearing eyeglasses, and declaiming in classic phrases about 'the walls +of lofty Rome,' and 'the wrath of Achilles,' upsets their critical +balance and composure. We have so often listened to the grotesque +incongruity of a Greek chorus and a greasy cabin, and the relative value +of a piano and a patch of potatoes, that if we did not join in the smile +in order to encourage the humour, we should do so out of sheer +weariness." + +Their utterances show in what light the college training of negroes is +regarded by ordinary citizens of the United States; and it may be noted +that Mr Kelly Miller, the writer, hails from Howard University, which is +intended chiefly for coloured students. As slavery only disappeared a +generation ago, it can hardly be expected that such a matter can be +discussed without some show of extravagance or of exaggeration +appearing. We even find a well-known Doctor of Divinity venturing the +opinion, in an influential weekly journal, that the education of one +white student is worth more to the negroes than the education of ten +blacks. All tends to clear the air, however; and what is done at Howard +and Atlanta Universities and elsewhere, in the way of providing +education for coloured youths, shows that advances are being made, and +that better times are coming. + +We left Booker Washington still looking forward with confidence to being +admitted as a student at Hampton College and Industrial Institute. The +resolution thus taken was the more extraordinary because the negro +aspirant was still a mere boy, practically without means for such an +ambitious enterprise, while he had no friends who could assist him in +any adequate manner. He was also quite unused to travelling, and was so +unacquainted with the map of his native State that he could not have +pointed out the direction in which the town of Hampton lay. In point of +fact, a cross-country journey would have to be taken, representing a +distance about corresponding with that between London and Aberdeen. +Under such unfavourable conditions even his hitherto heroic mother, +whose strength seemed now to be declining, hardly thought that the thing +could successfully be carried out. On the other hand, others rather +encouraged the lad, at least to make the endeavour. Then, for some +considerable time before the start was made, the outlook at Malden, so +far as Booker Washington was himself personally concerned, had +considerably improved. Instead of having to continue at the rough, or +even dangerous, labour in which he had been compelled to engage, he +obtained a situation in the household of a military officer, whose wife +had gained the reputation of being a domestic martinet, the family +otherwise being one of the chief in the town. The sequel proved, +however, that common report is oftentimes not to be trusted; for while +the ex-slave boy made an excellent house-servant, the discipline he +underwent in the officer's house was just such as he needed, and could +not fail to be beneficial to him. + +Having resolved to resign a situation which he valued, and which, most +probably, his mother would have been well content for him to retain, the +would-be student prepared to start, being unhampered by anything in the +way of luggage beyond a bundle that could easily be carried in one hand. +The journey alone was a very formidable undertaking, much more so at +that time than would be the case to-day. As might have been expected, +the ambitious youth soon made the painful discovery that he was very +inadequately equipped for his journey. The difficulties of the way were +also greatly increased by the fact that he belonged to a proscribed +race. The distance was so great that money was wanted for food and for +travelling fares; but the scant available supply very speedily ran out. +Of course, there were roadside houses of rest and of refreshment into +which negroes could not gain admittance, even though he might carry a +good supply of cash. He soon found out that a boy of colour could not +hope to find lodging in an hotel intended for white people; and on +reaching Richmond, footsore and famished with hunger, he was so utterly +impecunious that, for some nights in succession, after earning a little +by day, he had to repeat the experience of "sleeping out." The wonder is +that, in the case of so young a boy, all of this suffering did not damp +his ardour and discourage his still persevering. So far as can be +discovered, however, he never did lose his hold of the anchor of hope. +Is it not a singular and a suggestive thing that quite a number of +well-known men, who afterwards won literary fame or distinguished +commercial success, were correspondingly adventurous in having to "sleep +out," or to walk the streets through the livelong night in order to keep +themselves warm, because they lacked the money wherewith to pay for a +bed? Dr Johnson went through this experience before he became the +literary autocrat of the eighteenth century. So also did John Cassell +when he came to London, with only a few pence in his pocket, not so very +long before the founding of that printing and publishing house, still +named after him, which ranks as one of the greatest establishments of +the kind in the British Isles. + +No youthful aspirant thirsting for an education ever completed a more +toilsome, and even painful, journey in order to reach the college he +desired to enter than Booker Washington, when he actually got over the +five hundred miles between Malden and Hampton. It is still more +remarkable that, although he was undoubtedly one of the most daring and +doggedly persevering youths that could have been found among the +coloured people, he was still not a solitary example of a negro boy +literally making stepping-stones of difficulties. There were other black +youngsters who were quite as determined, and their efforts were also +destined to be crowned with success. + +Still, our wonder is increased when we remember that this journey, with +its formidable difficulties, was boldly hazarded without there being any +certainty of his being received as a student in the institution. No one +in the house even knew that he was on the road and was about to present +himself as a candidate for admission. When at length he arrived and +confronted the chief matron, a less shrewd and sympathetic person than +she was would hardly have been impressed in Booker Washington's favour. +Footsore, travel-stained, hungry, with not more than two shillings in +his pocket, he was, in point of fact, so completely, though +unintentionally, disguised, that an ordinary observer would have had +difficulty in deciding what he was. He might have been one of that +class, who abound in the United States, who prefer a wandering vagabond +life to honest work, and who thus thought that a brief acquaintance +with the college might add to the diversity or excitement of life. But, +happily, there is something in the human eye which surely betokens +character. Cheats and impostors of all kinds cannot control their eyes. +It would seem that the chief matron thought that there might be +something in the adventurous applicant. At all events she decided that +he might be tested, and, as the training included the teaching of +various industries, what more effective test could be applied than the +"doing up" of a room. The work was so perfectly done that Booker +Washington was found to have something in him. + +We may naturally infer that this aspiring negro lad now began fully to +reap the benefit of having been for many months subjected to the +uncompromising discipline of the domestic martinet--the general's +wife--at Malden. If it had not been for this preliminary household +education we can hardly suppose that he would, even imperfectly, have +understood how to do certain things which were now done well, the +knowledge thus acquired being of the greatest possible value to one who +had to make a favourable impression on those from whom he was hoping to +obtain an education. He was admitted into the institution as a student; +but as there were still certain expenses for board and teaching to be +met, difficulties looming in the future were not as yet altogether +overcome. It was quite impossible for him to find any money at all for +current expenses unless it was first earned, all of his family +connections being too poor to send even the smallest contribution. The +most ready way out of such difficulties was for the student to give his +labour during certain hours of each day in return for his board. He was +such an efficient house-servant that such an arrangement promised to be +of advantage to both sides. He was appointed to the position of what we +should call handy-man in the institution--doorkeeper, porter, +room-cleaner, man-of-all-work. The burden of labour, in addition to +onerous class-work, which all this involved through each successively +long working day, was, of course, formidable; but such things were now +made light of because the goal, so long looked forward to when seen from +afar, had been reached at last. The ex-slave boy not only breathed the +air of freedom, he was getting an education which was best adapted to +his needs and future plans. General Armstrong, the founder of such a +school-paradise, was naturally looked upon as an ideal man. Until the +good General died in middle age, Booker Washington never lowered his +estimate of this distinguished benefactor of the coloured race; and, if +questioned at the present time concerning his late friend, the master of +the Tuskegee institution would probably not hesitate to say that the +General was worthy of being compared with Greatheart in the _Pilgrim's +Progress_. + +During those early days at Hampton there were, at times, hardships to be +borne, but even these seem to have had a bracing effect. The number of +students became so great that those who had to be lodged in tents might +occasionally suffer from the weather. Notwithstanding, coloured students +made light of privations which might reasonably have damped the ardour +of others. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + +GENERAL ARMSTRONG--HIS PREDECESSORS AND COLLABORATORS--PIONEERS + OF THE NEW ERA + + +When in 1868, some years after the close of the Civil War, General +Armstrong proceeded to give practical expression to his idea of founding +a normal and industrial institute for the coloured races, which are +found within the boundaries of the great American Republic, the new era +of education for such peoples, which had been made possible by the +emancipation of the slaves in the Southern States, was fast coming on. +Of course, General Armstrong was not the original pioneer in such +service; but it may probably come to pass that he will be the best +remembered on account of his having trained such a distinguished pupil +as Booker Washington. But for years prior to his making the acquaintance +of this Virginian boy, the work carried on by the General must have won +for him some considerable amount of popularity; otherwise, what was +being done would hardly have become a matter of conversation between +miners in a coal-mine. Had that talk not taken place, the institution at +Tuskegee might possibly not have been quite what it is to-day. + +What has been effected, and what is still being done, is seen to be all +very wonderful when it is compared with the state of things, as well as +the kind of popular sentiment which formerly existed, not only in the +South, but even in the Northern States. There was a time when public +prejudice made it impossible, or almost impossible, to educate coloured +pupils at all whether they were free or otherwise. Such far-reaching +institutions as General Armstrong founded at Hampton, and, still more +notably, the one which his pupil and disciple has planted and built up +with a masterly hand at Tuskegee, are nothing less than signs of the +times, which indicate to the American people, and to the world, that a +mighty revolution has taken place, and is still working out its +beneficent purposes. + +Some time ago an article in _Scribner's Magazine_ revived the memories +which cluster around the name of Prudence Crandall, of Windham County, +Connecticut. Who was this woman? In a volume of autobiographical +recollections and reminiscences published in 1887, Laura S. Haviland +thus answers this question:-- + +"She opened a school in Canterbury Green for girls, and was patronised +by the best families, not only of that town, but of other counties and +states. Among those who sought advantages of her school was a coloured +girl. But Prudence was too thorough a Quaker to regard the request of +bitter prejudice on the part of her other patrons to dismiss her +coloured pupil. But she did not wait for them to execute their threat to +withdraw their children. She sent them home. Then she advertised her +school as a boarding-school for young ladies of colour. The people felt +insulted, and held indignation meetings and appointed committees to +remonstrate with her. But she stood to her principles regardless of +their remonstrance. The excitement in that town ran high. A town meeting +was called to devise means to remove the nuisance.... Miss Crandall +opened her school against the protest of an indignant populace. Another +town meeting was called at which it was resolved, 'That the +establishment of a rendezvous, falsely denominated a school, was +designed by its projectors as the theatre to promulgate their disgusting +theory of amalgamation, and their pernicious sentiments of subverting +the Union. These pupils were to have been congregated here from all +quarters under the false pretence of educating them, but really to +scatter firebrands, arrows and death among brethren of our own blood.'" + +In the darkest days the above would appear to reflect the popular +sentiment in regard to negro education even in the Northern States, +although there were still thousands of persons to be found who had no +manner of sympathy with such views. Neither the teacher nor her coloured +pupils were allowed to attend the ordinary religious service at the +Congregational Church; her parents were forbidden to visit Miss +Crandall; she was threatened with arrest as a criminal; her windows and +doors were destroyed with crowbars, and the house was set on fire. The +school had to be given up; but the example of the heroic teacher had not +been in vain. As Laura Haviland remarks, "her name became a household +word in thousands of Northern homes." A similar revolution for the +better will surely be brought about in the Southern States also, and is +even now in progress. We can hardly doubt that after some further +progress has been made there will be nothing within their power that the +good old families of the South will not do for the negroes when they +find that the coloured race is amenable to civilising influences, and +that commercially they will well repay for all the money and trouble +that may be expended upon them. At the outset of this reformation this +must have been the hope of General Armstrong; and it would seem to be +that of Booker Washington at Tuskegee to-day. + +In some instances the pioneer teachers had to carry on their service +amid the lowest depths of squalor and wretchedness, even more repellent +than ragged-school work in the worst quarters of a great town. Thus, Mrs +Haviland, in her autobiography, tells how Dr Emily P. Newcomb, who was +said to come of a family of educators, bravely founded a station at +Kansas City, and herself superintended the work:-- + +"At this point there is massed a large population of exceedingly +ignorant, destitute and superstitious people of every colour and +condition--men, women and children--crowded together in rickety hovels, +where stagnant water stood the year round, the very air impregnated with +the heavy sickening odour of the packing-houses. No tongue or pen can +describe the wretchedness that existed in that locality, known and +appropriately designated as Hell's Half Acre, which embraced a large +area on either side of the State line. At that time no mission work had +been attempted or suggested for the elevation of this seething mass by +either Church or State." + +For bravery in her work and devotion, we find Emily Newcomb, M.D., +compared to a general on the battlefield. From such a woman's working +experience, as well as from that of others who were like-minded, we can +in some measure estimate the magnitude of the work which required to be +done. The suddenness of their emancipation, and the consequent +disorganisation of their social life, could not but involve a good deal +of suffering. In regard to the general condition of the coloured people +at the time in question, Mr F. J. Loudin says: "They were homeless, +penniless, ignorant, improvident--unprepared in every way for the +dangers as well as the duties of freedom. Self-reliance they had never +had the opportunity to learn, and, suddenly left to shift for +themselves, they were at the mercy of the knaves who were everywhere so +ready to cheat them out of their honest earnings." They were a people +who were too often despised on the one hand, and yet as often showing +extraordinary traits of character on the other. There were gems of the +first water among them; and now and then an individual, showing in one +person the best attributes of both races, came to the front. It became +more and more evident that the chief kind of aid which these people +wanted was being taught how to help themselves. One of the mettle of +Booker Washington could push his way upward, braving and overcoming +obstacles and difficulties such as might well have cowed a youth who +possessed the courage and perseverance of a dozen men; but he was one of +a thousand, one who was destined to become a pioneer who would make the +way plainer and easier for those who followed after. However low down +they might be, the coloured race showed no disposition to remain where +they were; all along the line were seen signs of advancement. As +regarded the proportion who attended religious worship, and who were +Church communicants, the negroes compared favourably with the whites. +Persons who carefully took notice of the different phases of the new +reformation in progress were often having some new surprise. Thus, the +manner in which the funds were raised for the building and endowment of +Fisk University seems almost to belong to the region of romance, as is +proved from this opening passage in the popular volume which contains +the narrative:-- + +"The story of the Jubilee Singers seems almost as little like a chapter +from real life as the legend of the daring Argonauts who sailed with +Jason on that famous voyage after the Golden Fleece. It is the story of +a little company of emancipated slaves who set out to secure, by their +singing, the fabulous sum of twenty thousand dollars for the +impoverished and unknown school in which they were students. The world +was as unfamiliar to these untravelled free people as were the countries +through which the Argonauts had to pass; the social prejudices that +confronted them were as terrible to meet as fire-breathing bulls or the +warriors that sprang from the land sown with dragons' teeth; and no seas +were ever more tempestuous than the stormy experiences that for a time +tested their faith and courage. They were at times without the money to +buy needed clothing. Yet in less than three years they returned, +bringing back with them nearly one hundred thousand dollars. They had +been turned away from hotels and driven out of railway waiting-rooms +because of their colour. But they had been received with honour by the +President of the United States; they had sung their slave-songs before +the Queen of Great Britain, and they had gathered, as invited guests, +about the breakfast-table of her Prime Minister. Their success was as +remarkable as their mission was unique." + +The University for coloured students, on behalf of which these efforts +were made, is situated at Nashville, a town which, on account of the +number and quality of its educational institutions, has come to be +called the Athens of the South. Its first students consisted of those +who had actually been slaves; and the earnestness of most of the +students had to bear the test of having to earn their own livelihood +while receiving their education. Outside aid was given in the hope that +an endowment would be provided. The college, including its Jubilee Hall +and Livingstone Hall, occupies a healthy site, and has grounds of +twenty-five acres. The negroes are in a minority at Nashville; but it is +there that one may profitably study their characteristic traits and +capacities, and thus form some tolerably correct estimate of what the +vast national gain would be if the entire coloured race were raised by +adequate education and industrial training. + +In aiming at what he does in founding and carrying on his great +institution at Tuskegee, is Booker Washington warranted by the past +successes of those who have worked to raise and train negroes for the +best service of which they are capable, in harbouring the sanguine +anticipations he does for more perfect achievements in the future? As he +is happily only one, though the chief, worker among many, it will be +necessary, while proceeding with our story, to give convincing testimony +from outsiders concerning the reasonableness and practicableness of his +aims and hopes. In giving some interesting and striking illustrations by +way of proof that he is no visionary, but a cool-headed, hard-working +calculator who well knows that the capital he is working with will yield +a high percentage, we may have to tell of what is in progress in +Nashville itself. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + UPS AND DOWNS--PROGRESS AS A STUDENT--BEGINNING TO TEACH + + +Probably one reason why youths who are educated in such a school as the +Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute so commonly turn out to be of +use to themselves and to others in the world is, that only young people +of mettle and perseverance would endure the labour and hardship which +form part of the discipline. What was done for the students was not +altogether gratuitous; they were supposed either to have means or to be +able to earn money, and to be too hard driven to be able to pay the +merest trifle may often have been an experience which might have damped +the ardour of any save enthusiasts of the most dogged perseverance. +Among the large company of poor students, it would almost seem that +Booker Washington was the poorest. Do what he would, he could not help +small arrears of college dues accumulating; and when vacation time came +round, he might be the only one of the household who could not afford to +rejoin his friends at home. Instead of thinking of doing this, there was +pressing necessity for finding work in the town which would bring in +supplies towards paying off old scores, and which would help him to +tide over the next term. Education under such conditions would have a +deadening effect, or it would prove a discipline of the most bracing +kind, fostering habits of independence and self-reliance. To Booker +Washington it was of the latter kind. He formed good habits; he was a +ready learner; he was thankful for any advice which those above him +could impart. Reverence for Scripture is a very characteristic trait of +the negro race; and the habit of reading daily a portion of the Bible +which was formed at Hampton has never since been given up. While making +progress at ordinary school or college work, he also added to his +knowledge of certain outdoor industries, which was a valuable +acquisition to be turned to account in future days. Then, the +enlargement of his knowledge of human nature was likely to be of no +small advantage to him. He may not have known before that the desire for +education was so general among his own people, nor that the capacity for +turning it to good account was so self-evident. He learned still +further, that white men and women of social standing and high culture +were willing to make personal self-sacrifices on behalf of the coloured +race by becoming their teachers and their helpers. From such persons of +culture and refinement he even learned the dignity of labour. He learned +from their everyday example that education did not merely mean settling +down into a more genteel life, but meant larger responsibilities and +harder work. In other words, he came to see that the sharpening of the +mental faculties was to ensure the hands working more efficiently, while +it might be necessary to spend strength and talent for the benefit of +others. + +The all-round work at the Institute continued as it had begun. As +regarded the general studies, every hour was turned to full account. The +housework expected of the janitor was never either neglected or half +done; and when each vacation time came round outside service had to be +procured. During all this time both his mother and his brother stood by +him, and not only gave him their sympathy, but all the help that was +possible. At the present moment that brother, as well as a friend, who +as a child was adopted by the family, are valued assistants in the +Tuskegee Institution. + +As the college course came to an end, and Booker Washington returned to +his old haunts with their memories of coal mining and salt production, +he was now a man of education to be looked up to and respected; and as +the coloured people were ambitious of having a school established with a +competent master, a fully-equipped graduate from Hampton Institute was +no small acquisition. When the school was established the classes were +soon crowded by those who, on account of their anxiety to improve, +deserved to be distinguished as the most diligent and persevering of +learners. There were a host of others also who, through having to attend +to their daily labour were unable to attend school by day, were still +not content to remain uninstructed in such good times as had dawned upon +them. For these evening classes were provided, so that the tutor's time +was occupied from early morning until late at night. + +While at Malden he saw something of the doings of the members of the +somewhat mysterious Ku-Klux Klan, which in the _Cyclopaedia of Names_ is +thus described:--"A former secret organisation in the Southern United +States, of which the object was to intimidate the negroes, +carpet-baggers and 'scalawags,' and to prevent them from political +action. It arose probably in 1867; was guilty of numerous outrages; and +was suppressed in consequence of an Act of Congress--the Force +Bill--passed in 1871." Street fights occurred, and the progress made +since that day is seen in the fact that even the best part of the +Southern public sentiment would not now tolerate the existence of such +an association. + +Had the policy of the Ku-Klux Klan been continued, and had public +sympathy been accorded to its warfare, the cause of the negroes must +have gone down until the race became a very genuine danger to the +Government. The change in public opinion in the South is not only one of +the most cheering signs of the times, but many of Booker Washington's +most earnest sympathisers and helpers are actually found in the former +slave States. In the _Southern Letter_ for May 1901, a little monthly +newspaper which the founder of the Tuskegee Institution issues from his +headquarters, a Southern lady of position, who was formerly a +slave-owner, writes:-- + +"God speed you in your noble work! Whenever I hear it said, 'The +Caucasian blood in Booker Washington is the cause of his success and +perseverance,' I answer, 'It is Principle.' I am a Southern white woman, +once a slave-owner, educated to think it right, and to believe that +coloured people could not provide for themselves, but would return to +cannibalism if brought from under their masters, and so I thought it +would be an awful thing for both races if they should be emancipated. I +have long ago seen the folly of such opinions, and have seen that +slavery was a horrible thing, and no one is more rejoiced than I am to +see the progress and prosperity and enlightenment of the coloured +people. Though a stranger in person, I am your true friend." + +During the twelve years which followed the close of the Civil War, the +Southern States were in a condition of unrest, which was natural, +however, and was such as might have been expected after such a crisis as +that which had shaken and threatened the very existence of the Republic. +Considering what the relationship between the whites and the blacks had +been, and what kind of traditional views the former had been trained to +receive concerning the inferiority of the coloured race, we cannot +wonder that the planters, and those who were with them, should have been +appalled at the outlook. The situation became more anomalous, or even +dangerous, through the mistakes of the Northern politicians, quite as +much as through any want of charity, whether real or imaginary, on the +part of the Southern statesmen. There were wounds to be healed on both +sides, and there was too much of a disposition to maintain the +vindictive war spirit after the war was over. Those who aimed at +reconstruction certainly endangered their cause when they suddenly gave +to the negroes greater political privileges than they understood, or +would be able to use with any advantage to themselves. It would seem +that some ludicrous instances occurred of even the lower kind of negroes +being installed in important State offices. The result of this and many +more indiscretions was naturally to foment feelings of great bitterness +on both sides. If many in the North were disposed to make the +emancipated slaves a bone of contention--a means of punishing the States +which had wished to secede and to found a Commonwealth of their +own--they missed their mark and involved the coloured race in much +additional suffering which they might well have been spared. If we look +through such a record as the autobiography of Laura Haviland, we find +mention made of a number of atrocities belonging to this unsettled +period of the kind which, under the circumstances, were pretty sure to +happen. In a sense, Southern society was in a condition of that kind of +chaos which has often marked similar transition periods. Never before +were leaders more urgently needed who would work for peace and +advancement by showing those, whose interests were supposed to be at +variance, that their cause was one. Who could have prophesied at that +time that the coloured people were destined to find some of their best +friends among the whites of the south? + +It has also to be confessed, that the outlook among the emancipated +people themselves was such as might be expected to inspire misgiving, or +even some alarm. They neither comprehended the situation nor could they +properly understand what was the true aim of education. Booker +Washington himself had been so thoroughly well trained in the best +school that then existed, that of General Armstrong at the Hampton +Institute, that he saw at a glance the kind of obstacles which +threatened to bring disaster to his race by hindering their progress. In +large measure the squalor and superstition which naturally come of +generations of the darkest ignorance prevailed. It was seen that the +training which was imperatively needed would have to be mainly +industrial, while there must be no aspiration for equality with the +whites by attempting to come into competition with them in the common +avocations of everyday life. This was actually happening, however, so +that while he studied for a time at Washington, the future founder of +the great institute at Tuskegee saw that there were breakers ahead +unless certain errors could be corrected. The negroes became too much +disposed to look to the Government to make full provision for them, +especially when they attained to the distinction of being able to read +and write. Many would indulge in extravagant habits in order to make it +appear that they were better off than they really were. Then there were +an extraordinary number who aspired to the rare distinction of shining +as divines and as admired preachers of the Gospel. Young men sought to +become instructors of others before they had any ballast of character of +their own. It was a time of danger and of the threatened loss of great +opportunities, making it all the more remarkable that, in the way of +social, educational and industrial progress, the negroes are where they +are to-day. In those days of uncertainty the prophets of evil made their +voices heard. As Booker Washington recently remarked in the +_International Monthly_: "There were not a few who predicted that, as +soon as the negro became a free man, he would not only cease to support +himself and others, but he would become a tax upon the community." +Persons who held notions of this kind doubtless supposed that negroes +had some physical kinship with the native American Indians, who have +never shown any disposition to take to field labour; and while they +involve the Government in no small annual expense, their tribes are +gradually dying out. The negroes, on the contrary, are fast multiplying, +and their value as field labourers, and as workers in other departments +of service, is a grateful contrast to the general incapacity of the +Indians. In the article just referred to, Booker Washington is able to +bear this high testimony to the general worth of his own people:-- + +"Few people in any part of our country have ever seen a black hand +reached out from a street corner asking for charity. In our Northern +communities a large amount of money is spent by individuals and +municipalities in caring for the sick, the poor, and other classes of +unfortunates. In the South, with very few exceptions, the negro takes +care of himself, and of the unfortunate members of his race. This is +usually done by a combination of individual members of the race, or +through the churches or fraternal organisations. Not only is this true, +but I want to make a story illustrate the condition that prevails in +some parts of the South. The white people in a certain Black Belt county +in the South had been holding a convention, the object of which was to +encourage white people to emigrate into the county. After the +adjournment of the convention an old coloured man met the president of +the meeting on the street and asked the object of the convention. When +told, the old coloured man replied, ''Fore God, Boss, don't you know +that we niggers have just as many white people in this county as we can +support?'" + +The more we become acquainted with the general character and capacity of +the negro, the more are we likely to become convinced that, instead of +these people being any drawback to life in the South, those States, so +favoured by Nature, could not do without them. It is true that a number +of white persons in the States chiefly concerned have boldly testified +that the coloured race have proved the best labourers which the country +has ever had for its peculiar needs, and better than are likely to be +forthcoming in the future. This fact is now being recognised by those +whose interests are chiefly affected. Thus we even find it stated, "The +greatest excitement and anxiety has been recently created among the +white people in two counties in Georgia, because of the fact that a +large proportion of the coloured people decided to leave. No stone has +been left unturned to induce the coloured people to remain in the +country and prevent financial ruin to many white farmers." The 8,900,000 +bales of cotton grown in 1899, under free labour, is nearly fourfold +greater than was produced in 1850 by slave labour. + +During the transition or reconstruction time, especially during the +period when he was completing his college training at Washington, Booker +Washington was a keen observer of his own people, the result being that +he probably understands their needs, idiosyncrasies and tendencies +better than any other living authority. He also eagerly reads what +others who are not members of his own race say upon the subject. What he +considers the most valuable testimony under this head appeared about two +years ago in an article in _Appleton's Popular Science Monthly_, written +by Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard University, and Dean of the +Scientific School. Take this passage:-- + +"The negroes who came to North America had to undergo as complete a +transition as ever fell to the lot of man, without the least chance to +undergo an acclimatising process. They were brought from the hottest +part of the earth to the region where the winter's cold is almost of +arctic severity; from an exceedingly humid to a very dry air. They came +to service under alien taskmasters, strange to them in speech and in +purpose. They had to betake themselves to unaccustomed food, and to +clothing such as they had never worn before. Rarely could one of the +creatures find about him a familiar face of friend, parent or child, or +an object that recalled his past life to him. It was an appalling +change. Only those who know how the negro cleaves to all the dear, +familiar things of life, how fond he is of life and friendliness, can +conceive the physical and mental shock that this introduction to new +conditions meant to them. To people of our own race it would have meant +death. But these wonderful folk appear to have withstood the trials of +their deportation in a marvellous way. They showed no particular +liability to disease. Their longevity or period of usefulness was not +diminished, or their fecundity obviously impaired. So far as I have +been able to learn, nostalgia was not a source of mortality, as it would +have been with any Aryan population. The price they brought in the +market and the satisfaction of their purchasers with their qualities +show that they were from the first almost ideal labourers." + +When Booker Washington took up his residence in the town which the first +President of the United States called the Federal City, but which was +destined to take the name of that great patriot himself, a large number +of negroes were found there. As a town, Washington has made wonderful +strides since the close of the Civil War. The schools or colleges for +coloured students, which are provided, of course have attraction for +negroes, while other characteristics of the city also have strong +fascination for such susceptible folk. If we may say so, in connection +with a Republic, Washington is the seat of the Court and of the +Legislature. The population may be a quarter of a million or more; but +though not a very large town, it has recently developed into a beautiful +place, fine buildings of wide thoroughfares and charming recreation +grounds. Booker Washington seems to have discovered that such a place +failed to exercise the best of influence on negro students. It is not in +any sense an industrial centre; the people are for the most part +Government officials, professional people, and persons of means who +settle there because the surroundings and society are congenial. The +temptation to coloured students was to assume too lofty airs, to despise +any occupation other than a profession, and to think that the President +and his Government were bound to find openings for them. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + AMERICAN INDIANS--WORK AT HAMPTON + + +Just about the time that he completed his education at the capital city, +Booker Washington seems to have been tempted in a strange and unexpected +way to give his life and energy to public speaking and politics. He took +part in the agitation as a representative of a committee--which resulted +in Charleston taking the place of Wheeling as capital of West Virginia. +By effective platform work he no doubt was a chief agent in bringing +about this change. Thus early, although he was hardly more than a youth +himself, the future Professor of Tuskegee seems to have seen in what +direction lay his pathway of life. Rightly guided, and taught to turn +their energies and gifts to the best account, the negroes are a very +capable race; but it was being proved on every hand that when left to go +their own way without check or control they were liable to be captivated +by very high-flown notions. As legislators, poets, jurists, artists and +musicians their services were not pressingly in request; but in the +world of a hundred industries there were magnificent openings for all +who were adequately trained. It was fortunate both for himself and his +own people that Booker Washington saw his opportunity and determined +not to be diverted from it by any considerations of self-interest. + +Under these conditions it was something like a special providence when +he received an urgent message from General Armstrong asking him to +revisit Hampton to address the students. It had become a custom for some +one of the graduates who had passed through the institution to undertake +this duty periodically, and the request was understood to be one of the +greatest of compliments. The request was, of course, gladly complied +with; and a revisit to the Institute showed that, under General +Armstrong's capable and sympathetic control, the all-round educational +work, and especially the industrial training, which was ever considered +to be of first importance, had made great progress. The General had a +quick eye to see where improvement could be introduced, and his energy +never flagged. Until that time the negro race had not had such a friend, +one who had a genius for seeing in what direction the coloured people +would find that their best interests lay. Thus early he also probably +saw that in his quondam pupil, Booker Washington, he had a comrade who +was in every way fitted to extend the great enterprise. Certain students +who had been prepared by this coloured tutor before being sent on to +Hampton, had done exceedingly well, and this suggested that operations +should be carried on in other directions. + +It was characteristic of General Armstrong that he believed the American +Indians, in common with the negroes, were capable of being raised to a +condition of honour and usefulness by education and adequate training. +The institute at Hampton was specially intended for Indians as well as +for ex-slaves; and when it was decided to extend the accommodation for +such pupils, where could so competent a teacher be found for them as +Booker Washington? The acceptance on the part of the latter of such an +office of course made it necessary for other connections of +comparatively long standing to be severed, but the path of duty seemed +to be clearly marked out, though the coloured pupils in the school in +West Virginia would sorely miss their greatly-valued teacher. + +Booker Washington's situation was now strangely anomalous. In their own +eyes, and even in the eye of United States law, the Red folk were quite +above those who happened to be black. In ante-emancipation days the Reds +had actually been the owners of a number of Blacks as slaves. We believe +that it may be assumed that even in the present day a Red man would be +cordially welcomed at many hotels where negroes would be refused +accommodation. Thus Booker Washington's large class of some scores of +Indians would regard themselves as being socially quite superior to +their tutor! A thoroughly well-educated negro had now to seek the +improvement of a semi-wild assembly who might be disposed to resent such +innovations as white people's civilisation suggested. Why should they +have shorter hair? Why should the ancestral blanket be superseded by the +conventional dress sanctioned by the United States President and the +people he governed? On the whole, however, Booker Washington found +these strange pupils to be amenable to reason; they were quite +tractable when kindly treated. + +The American Indians are an interesting nation of aborigines, and in +course of an admirable article on their characteristics, habits and +present condition, by Dr C. W. Greene, in _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_, it +is remarked that "their physical and mental characters are much the same +from the Arctic Ocean to Fuegia." The tribes differ somewhat, some being +devoted to hunting, according to the ancient, uncivilised way, others +take to the tilling of the ground. One tribe may be warlike, another +will be more effeminate, while both sexes appear to have a liking for +athletic exercises. The following descriptive passage is borrowed from +Dr Greene's article:-- + +"Their physical characters are a certain tallness and robustness, with +an erect posture of the body; a skull narrowing from the eyebrows +upward; prominence of the cheek-bones; the eyes black, deep-set, and +having, it is thought, a slight tendency, in many cases, to strabismus; +the hair coarse, very black, and perfectly straight; the nose prominent +or even aquiline; the complexion usually of a reddish, coppery, or +cinnamon colour, but with considerable variations in this respect. They +have seldom much beard. In physical qualities the Indians thus make a +somewhat close approximation to the Mongolian type. There is also a +certain remarkable feebleness of constitution, combined, it may be, with +vigour, suppleness and strength of body. At least, the aboriginal races +do not resist well the epidemics introduced by the whites; and many +tribes have been exterminated by the effects of the 'firewater' and the +vicious habits brought in by more civilised men. The Red man is usually +proud and reserved; serious, if not gloomy, in his views of life; +comparatively indifferent to wit or pleasantry; vain of personal +endowments; brave and fond of war, yet extremely cautious and taking no +needless risks; fond of gambling and drinking; seemingly indifferent to +pain; kind and hospitable to strangers, yet revengeful and cruel, almost +beyond belief, to those who have given offence.... They often excel in +horsemanship, and, as a rule, sight and hearing are wonderfully acute." + +Such was the remnant of the aborigines whom Booker Washington now +endeavoured to educate and to drill into civilised habits. A master +difficulty consisted in teaching them the English language. All in the +institute showed them great kindness and evidently won their gratitude. +The strangest thing of all was that if the devoted tutor had occasion to +go abroad with one of his pupils the Red man was eligible for reception +anywhere, while in a steam-boat dining-room, or at the clerk's desk of +an hotel, the Black one was ostracised. Apart from this there appeared +to be some promise of success in the work of training the Indians; but +it may be feared that through his kindness of heart their teacher +harboured expectations which were too sanguine to be realised. + +In the fall of 1900, as he himself explains in course of an article on +"The Economic Value of the Negro," in _The International Monthly_ for +December of that year, Booker Washington received letters showing that +openings for negro labourers existed in Cuba, the Sandwich Islands and +elsewhere. This naturally led him to think closely on the subject +mentioned, and to compare the negro with the Red race, _e.g._:-- + +"When the first twenty slaves were landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in +1619, it was this economic value which caused them to be brought to this +country. At the same time that these slaves were being brought to the +shores of Virginia from their native land, Africa, the woods of Virginia +were swarming with thousands of another dark-skinned race. The question +naturally arises, Why did the importers of negro slaves go to the +trouble and expense to go thousands of miles for a dark-skinned people, +to hew wood and draw water for the whites, when they had right about +them a people of another race who could have answered this purpose? The +answer is that the Indian was tried and found wanting in the commercial +qualities which the negro seemed to possess. The Indian would not submit +to slavery as a race, and in those instances where he was tried as a +slave his labour was not profitable, and he was found unable to stand +the physical strain of slavery. As a slave, the Indian died in large +numbers. This was true in San Domingo and other parts of the American +continent.... The Indian refused to submit to bondage and to learn the +white man's ways. The result is that the greater portion of American +Indians have disappeared, and the greater portion of those who remain +are not civilised. The negro, wiser and more enduring than the Indian, +patiently endured slavery; and the contact with the white man has given +the negro in America a civilisation vastly superior to that of the +Indian." + +To this may be added the testimony of Professor Shaler, of Harvard +University, in _Appleton's Popular Science Monthly_:--"If we compare the +Algonquin Indian, in appearance a sturdy fellow, with these negroes, we +see of what stuff the blacks are made. A touch of housework and of +honest toil took the breath of the aborigines away, but these tropical +exotics fell to their tasks and trials far better than the men of our +own kind could have done." + +It has also to be remembered that the nearly ten million negroes in the +Southern States show that the total has more than doubled since the +close of the Civil War, and are still capable of being turned to vast +profitable account. The Indians show a decrease, and cost the Government +about L2,500,000 a year. + +The attention thus given to the Indians' school at Hampton was an +interesting passage in Booker Washington's experience; but even while +that work was in progress he was gradually drifting into the course +which would represent the main service of his life. When the discoverers +of America first came in contact with the Red Men they may have thought +them to be superior to the negroes; but from that day to this they have +practically made no progress, and to-day appear to be more than ever a +dying nation. It was quite in keeping with the philanthropic General +Armstrong to attempt to befriend and raise such tribes, but even he must +have realised how vastly greater was the return in the case of the +negroes. + +As has been shown, in the years which followed the general emancipation, +the coloured people showed the most eager desire to obtain some kind of +education. It happened that at Hampton there was a large number outside +of the Institute who were of this class, and when it was resolved to +found a night school for their benefit Booker Washington was requested +to undertake its superintendence. These evening classes were to be a +kind of preparatory school for such as might afterwards attend the day +school of the Institute, and the conditions of their receiving two +hours' nightly instruction were sufficiently onerous to deter any from +coming forward but the most determined enthusiasts. A long, hard day's +work had to be fulfilled before they could think of joining their class. +It is no wonder that such scholars are now doing well in the world. The +school is still continued at Hampton, but the scholars have increased +from tens to hundreds. + +So far throughout the course of his working life Booker Washington has +never lost faith in his own people, and, while using his opportunities +to benefit them, no hard-working leader has ever had fewer +disappointments. While American politicians, sometimes with bated +breath, have been talking about the problems of the Southern Black Belt, +this far-sighted negro has clearly seen that ten millions of the +coloured race in the wide territory of the South is rather an advantage +to be thankful for than "a problem" to create dismay. How readily the +young negro men and women can adapt themselves to circumstances, and +benefit others of their own race while making a position for themselves, +is constantly being proved. The fact is confirmed by many independent +witnesses hailing from different quarters. We close this chapter by +another passage on this subject by Professor Shaler, in _Appleton's +Popular Science Monthly_, and quoted, with admiration, by Booker +Washington himself in _The International Monthly_:-- + +"Moreover, the production of good tobacco requires much care, which +extends over about a year from the time the seed is planted. Some parts +of the work demand a measure of judgment such as intelligent negroes +readily acquire. They are, indeed, better fitted for the task than white +men, for they are commonly more interested in their task than whites of +the labouring class. The result was that, before the period of the +revolution, slavery was firmly established in the tobacco planting +colonies of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina; it was already the +foundation of their only considerable industry.... This industry +(cotton), even more than that of raising tobacco, called for abundant +labour which could be absolutely commanded and severely tasked in the +season of extreme heats. For this work the negro proved to be the only +fit man, for, while the whites can do the work, they prefer other +employment. Thus it came about that the power of slavery in this country +became rooted in its soil. The facts show that, based on an ample +foundation of experience, the judgment of the Southern people was to the +effect that this creature of the tropics was a better labourer in their +fields than the men of their own race. + +"Much has been said about the dislike of the white man for work in +association with negroes. The failure of the whites to have a larger +share in the agriculture of the South has been attributed to this cause. +This seems to be clearly an error. The dislike to the association of +races in labour is, in the slaveholding States, less than in the North. +There can be no question that, if the Southern folk could have made +white labourers profitable, they would have preferred to employ them, +for the reason that the plantations would have required less fixed +capital for their operation. The fact was, and is, that the negro is +there a better labouring man in the field than the white. Under the +conditions he is more enduring, more contented and more trustworthy than +the men of our own race." + +The negroes have many qualities such as are sure to heighten their value +in the eyes of employers and business men. On the whole, they are a +contented race when fairly used. We can hardly think of them as becoming +political agitators. They know too well where their interest lies to +favour strikes, and so become the victims of those who professionally +foment them. It would also seem that they generally contract a kind of +affection for those who employ them and who use them well. Complaint is +made of more crime showing itself among negroes in certain centres; but +when it is considered that only a generation ago the whole race was in +bondage, the wonder is that so little crime has been manifest. Provide +good schools and an industrial training, and the coloured folk will +prove to be a law-abiding race. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE BEGINNING OF A LIFE WORK + + +The singular way in which Booker Washington proceeded from one thing to +another, until, at length, he found himself beginning the great work of +his life before he was himself quite aware of the fact, strongly tends +to prove that he was destined to be a leader of his own people. We +believe that he would himself acknowledge that the chain of +circumstances which led up to his being landed at Tuskegee in 1881 was +entirely providential. He did not himself seek the opening; it came to +him unsought at a time when his services were still urgently needed at +Hampton, where he had become General Armstrong's right-hand man, or his +most efficient assistant. He was still fully occupied with the large +class of Indian boys during the day, and then, until a late hour every +night, with the more enthusiastic coloured pupils of his own people. At +the same time, he was pursuing his own studies for self-improvement with +characteristic ardour. Probably neither the good General Armstrong nor +this chief officer of his staff as yet thought the arrangements at the +Institute, which were found to work so well, were other than permanent. + +A great change, which was nothing less than a great forward movement, +was at hand, however. It came to pass that, at a time when he was least +expecting it, the General received an urgent message for help from the +darkest part of the Black Belt of Alabama. The missive in question came +from white people, who were genuine friends of the negroes, and, as +such, were representative of large numbers of others in the Southern +States who were like minded. It occurred to these good souls that a +large proportion of the coloured people--admirable human material, if +turned to good account--was running to waste through lack of that +knowledge which could only come of education or training suitable to +their needs. The blacks greatly outnumbered the whites, and by very many +their capacities for service to the State were not understood. It was +thought by those who had put themselves in communication with General +Armstrong that an institute, similar to the one which had proved so +successful at Hampton, might be founded in the little town of Tuskegee, +which stood aside from the main railway line, but had a branch for its +accommodation. It had not entered into anybody's day-dreams to suppose +that anyone, save an accomplished white man, would be competent to +undertake so arduous an enterprise; but when the General received the +application, and had thought about it, he clearly saw, to his own +satisfaction, that Booker Washington was the man most likely to make +such a school as the one suggested a success. The following passage from +an open letter in the _Century Magazine_ for September 1895, by Mr G. T. +Speed, affords some notion of what the general outlook was in Alabama +at the date in question:-- + +"When the attention of philanthropists was first directed to the +ignorant condition of the freedmen in the South, in nine cases out of +ten the practical effort to do something for their improvement was +controlled by clergymen, and was largely influenced by sentimental +considerations. The chief object seemed to be to grow a great crop of +negro preachers, lawyers and doctors. The result was so disheartening +that, fifteen years after the war was over, there were grave doubts +whether the coloured race in the South was not lapsing into a barbarism +worse than that of slavery. Fortunately, among those educators and +philanthropists there was at least one sane man, the late General S. C. +Armstrong, of Hampton. His main idea was to train workmen and teachers. +Mr Washington was one of these teachers. Of him and his work General +Armstrong, shortly before his death, said:--'It is, I think, the noblest +and grandest work by any coloured man in the land. What compares with it +in general value and power for good? It is on the Hampton plan, +combining labour and study, commands high respect from both races, flies +no denominational flag, but is earnestly and thoroughly Christian, is +out of debt, well managed and organised.'" + +Concerning the opinions, the aims and aspirations of General Armstrong's +disciple, the same friend says:-- + +"Mr Booker T. Washington had become persuaded that most of the efforts +at training his people in purely academic directions were almost +entirely thrown away. He held that the time was not ripe, and his people +were not prepared for the higher scholastic training of which the Greek +and Latin classics are the basis, but that they needed to be taught how +to work to advantage in the trades and handicrafts, how to be better +farmers, how to be more thrifty in their lives, and, most of all, how to +resist the money-lender's inducements to mortgage their crops before +they were made. It was with these great ideas that he began his work at +Tuskegee." + +When Booker Washington acceded to General Armstrong's request to proceed +to Tuskegee to give practical shape to the white people's wishes, he +received as many good wishes and congratulations as if he was going to +accept an enviable appointment in some already founded and flourishing +institution. The fact was, however, that not even the straw was as yet +gathered for the bricks with which the proposed school would have to be +built. Not even a site had been chosen, and no one knew where this might +be found. The most favourable features of the situation were that the +coloured folk were very desirous of obtaining some education, while the +whites were equally anxious that a school should be provided for them. +The cordial greeting accorded to the newcomer on every hand was perhaps +more flattering than reassuring; for the obstacles in the way of success +seemed so formidable that even the sanguine and persevering Booker +Washington might have been excused had he hesitated. Had he not been a +negro, he would probably have declared that the task assigned to him was +impossible. + +The blighting effects of the Civil War were still visible; and when a +beginning at teaching was actually made, the class had to be content +with the accommodation of a tumble-down kind of building which was a +very imperfect protection from the weather. In some respects the +ex-slaves appeared to be no better off than when they were in bondage. +In order to become acquainted with the people, and to understand their +general condition and in what degree an effort to raise them promised to +succeed, it was necessary to visit them in their homes in the +surrounding country. In the main, their cabins showed no improvement on +those in which they had been housed in the days of slavery; and some of +their habits were as comical on the one hand as they were improvident on +the other. Practically what we call one-room life was, in a great number +of instances, a chief obstacle to their more complete civilisation. +While in need of better homesteads and of many necessary but commonplace +things, either for use or ornament, which they were, through their +ignorance, quite unable to turn to any account. Their ignorance also led +to superstition and to one-sided views of things, which suggested +mischievous action. False pride would naturally inspire a love of +showing off, which meant a waste of resources, which, in the hands of +better economists, would have gone far towards providing the family with +the comforts of life. + +The school teaching commenced just after midsummer, 1881; and the number +of the students who came was at once as many as could be accommodated, +and their eagerness to learn testified to the earnest desire for +education which was common among the coloured race. Had all been taken +who wished to come, the school would have been a very large one at the +outset; but at first the plan was to take only those who were not mere +children and who had already acquired some learning. Some who sat in the +classes were even approaching middle-age. Perhaps a chief drawback was +that the aims of the teacher and the expectations of the learners did +not generally agree. As Mr Speed tells us, Booker Washington's capital +originally consisted of "nothing but ideas, ambition and a few friends, +none of whom could do much in the way of contributions." His ideas were +worth more than gold, however; while his friends were of sterling +quality, one being an ex-slaveholder, who had done more than anyone else +in originating the school. It may seem to be strange that some of the +best and shrewdest friends of negroes in the Southern States at the +present time are ex-slave-owners. Others among the white people would +have preferred that the old-time hewers of wood and drawers of water for +the superior race should remain illiterate, thinking that their coming +in contact with books would have the effect of marring their capacity +for field service. Not a few, especially at that time, in common with +the coloured people themselves, entirely misapprehended in what an +effective education consisted. It was too often supposed that it meant +mere book-learning that would release its possessors from hard, manual +labour. To General Armstrong and Booker Washington education would be of +value to negroes because it would enable them to do more effectively +the labour connected with a number of important industries to which they +were called. This obvious truth is far better understood than it was a +quarter of a century ago. The work done at Hampton, at Tuskegee, and at +the many schools on a similar basis which have since sprung up in the +Southern States, has not only demonstrated that the negro race may be +made to become a source of vast good or profit to the Republic, it has +revolutionised public opinion. + +Meanwhile the numbers actually under instruction, and also of those who +were exceedingly anxious to enter the classes, increased daily. At the +same time, the overwhelming need of the coloured race, and the great +opportunities to raise them which offered themselves, made a deep +impression on Booker Washington, as it also did on one who was thus +early an able and sympathetic helper in the work--Miss Olivia Davidson, +afterwards Mrs Booker Washington. The latter was a superior girl, of +coloured ancestry, although personally she was as white as the most +pure-blooded descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers that could have been +found. These two kindred souls were now one in the work, and, of course, +they had many anxious consultations. It did not seem as though the work +of the school could continue to be carried on in the forsaken church and +half-ruinous shed which so far had been the only accommodation. + +A short distance outside of the town there was an old plantation of a +hundred acres, and as the house had been burned down, this was to be +secured for the low price of a hundred dollars. If it could possibly be +effected, the removal of the school to such a site promised to be a +great step in advance; and, after overcoming a good many difficulties, a +portion of the money was borrowed and possession was obtained. Having +made such a good beginning, it seemed to be impossible not to go +forward, especially when the enthusiasm of the coloured people was +encouraged by the hearty sympathy and practical help of the whites. The +fact is that, in proportion as the schools prospered, both blacks and +whites were being made to see that they had very much in common; and +friends of the negro will gladly recognise that the continued aid of +friends in the Southern States has made uninterrupted progress possible. +The next thing was to put up a main school building at a cost of six +thousand dollars, the students themselves being the builders. For some +time after this the difficulty in obtaining adequate funds was a cause +of great anxiety; but what at the time seemed to be unsurmountable +obstacles were always overcome, and the way was then open for still +further advances. The first year's work at Tuskegee was, on the whole, a +time of preparation and of founding what was destined to become a +distinguished institute on a solid basis. It was then that Booker +Washington set up a home of his own, into which he was able to receive +his teaching staff. He was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Smith, who, +like himself, had been trained at Hampton. In less than two years the +first Mrs Washington died, leaving an infant daughter. In this early +stage of the work, distinguished aid continued to be given by Miss +Davidson in collecting, in giving shrewd advice, and in other service, +including that of teaching. As will be made to appear, from this date +the progress made and the growth of the Institute was no less rapid than +wonderful. + +But while the work was thus extending, the question came to be asked, +even by intelligent and far-seeing people, Is not industrial education +for negroes a craze? The majority were convinced that industrial +training in this case needed to go hand-in-hand with book-learning. It +was thought that men should understand farming and divers handicrafts, +and that women should possess such accomplishments as cooking, sewing +and dressmaking, and other domestic matters. Other friends of the negro, +who in the main agreed with this policy, still thought that there was +danger of its being pushed too far, in which case the movement might +even develop into a craze, and then it was almost certain that the +outcome would be "a less extended and thorough mental and moral +culture." In an open letter in the _Century Magazine_ for 1889, Mr S. W. +Powell referred to such objections:-- + +"The proposed change implies too great a concession to the widely +prevalent opinion that the negro is, and in the nature of the case must +be, better fitted for manual than for mental labour. They argue also +that the new departure tends to foster materialistic notions of the +value of education, the main object of which should be the ennoblement +of the worker rather than the production of more cotton, sugar, coal, +iron or lumber.... Then, again, the surprising success in some schools, +and notably in one, in mastering the more advanced branches is +profoundly affecting the opinions of many of the most influential +people in the South as to the capacity of the negro, and to do anything +which would make the work in these brigade schools less extensive, or +less thorough, will push him and his friends off this hard-won +vantage-ground." + +Still further, we are exhorted to remember that "leaders qualified to +hold their own in the sharp competition of professional life are a +great, if not the greatest, need of the coloured race in this country. +Over wide areas most of their clergy are illiterate, immoral, +self-seeking, bitter sectarians, and the most determined opponents of +every kind of improvement. So, too, the lack of lawyers, editors and +physicians of sufficiently broad and thorough training to be able to +defend their weaker brethren against designers or incapable advisers is +a very discouraging feature of the situation. The negroes do not, as a +rule, seek the leadership or counsel of competent and honest whites in +matters of religion or of business, hence the greater need of +well-qualified men of their own race." + +It need hardly be emphasised that those who are favouring the cause of +industrial education, as a means best calculated to raise the coloured +race, are quite as earnest in their desire for negroes to advance to +higher culture when exceptional capacity shows itself. In the nature of +things, however, this higher culture can be extended only to a +comparatively few individuals. Referring to those who are unable to push +their way so far, and yet are aiming at becoming scholars, Mr Powell +adds:-- + +"If they had the industrial education now given in some schools they +might support themselves in the same communities where they teach, +acquiring decent homes of their own, which would be a much-needed +example and incentive to all about them. The lack of anything worthy to +be called home is the most appalling obstacle to the elevation of the +negro. If these higher schools should furnish this industrial training, +as some of them are beginning to do, nine-tenths, or, in many cases, +nineteen-twentieths, of the pupils who never finish even the +grammar-school course might be put in the way of living for the rest of +their lives like human beings instead of like beasts." + +The fact is, that the industrial training is not only becoming more +widely recognised as being what the coloured people most urgently need, +it tends largely to make the students more independent by placing them +in a situation in which they can pay their own way instead of receiving +outside aid. Then, while the negroes have splendid capacities for +service, there is surely no other people who so greatly need to be made +to realise the value and dignity of labour. As Mr Powell further says:-- + +"It was one of the greatest evils of slavery that manual labour was +considered degrading. This was especially mischievous in its effects on +the poor whites. The South is only slowly coming to believe that one who +works for a living can be qualified for good society. In many of the +industrial schools already established, students are beginning to take +pride in their command of tools, in their well-planned and executed +mechanical work, and in the thorough, clean tillage, the enlarged and +varied products, and the improved stock and buildings of the farms +attached to these schools.... The ability to plan or build a church, a +schoolhouse, or a dwelling, or to carry on a farm as it should be +carried on, gives a man's opinion about purely professional matters +greater weight in all struggling communities. A teacher, minister or +physician could hardly have, aside from his mental and moral qualities, +a more effective passport to the confidence and respect of coloured +people." + +It was well both for himself no less than for those who were dependent +upon him for guidance and education, that Booker Washington harboured +the notions he did concerning the worth of labour. Anyone who had +visited the institution he was building up at Tuskegee, during the first +and second year of its struggling existence, would have seen that if the +work eventually succeeded order would have to be brought out of chaos. +This was emphatically true of all things connected with the daily life +of the students on the estate; but beyond that the hereditary prejudices +of the students and their family connections had to be overcome. There +seems to have been a deeply rooted opinion that, if school learning did +not lift a man up above the necessity to labour, it was hardly worth +having. Parents and students alike tenaciously held this notion, so +that, besides looking after his growing institute, Booker Washington had +to travel about the State of Alabama to show that such prejudices were +no less false than mischievous. At the same time he had what would +generally be regarded as his own prejudices, but, come what would, he +was determined to hold his idea, and to give it practical expression. +When buildings had to be put up on the estate, he took care that none +save the students themselves should have any hand in building them. +These coloured aspirants had even to dig the clay, to make and burn the +bricks that were needed; and it was only after three dismal failures in +trying to form a kiln on scientific principles that this enterprise, +which demanded exhausting labour, was crowned with success. As was to be +expected, some of the students grew discouraged while undergoing such +experience; but those who persevered and conquered with their leader at +last found themselves braced or strengthened, rather than injured, by +the difficulties which they had been enabled to conquer. At the present +time the students at Tuskegee are competent to turn out 100,000 bricks +of superior quality a month, and all of the forty buildings on the +ground are their own work. The latest addition in this department is a +magnificent library building, the gift of Mr Andrew Carnegie, which, in +the _Southern Letter_ of December 1901, was spoken of as "now being +rushed to completion." This house has cost Mr Carnegie L4000, and when +finished there was already a large collection of books waiting to be +placed on its shelves. + +In proportion as the students increased in the early days of the +Tuskegee Institute, there came the urgent need for additional buildings +and more money, both for providing these and for the general outlay. It +was decided to put up a main building at a cost of L2000, and in order +to raise money Booker Washington had to do a good deal of travelling as +a collector. He found the rich quite willing to respond in a handsome +way when his needs became known; but while the work has often been +stimulated by large gifts, the more numerous small gifts of commonplace +people have from the first been its mainstay. Practically he was +introduced to the people of the Northern States by General Armstrong, +who accompanied him on a collecting tour. On this and other occasions +some striking adventures were met with, and all tended to show that hard +work, perseverance and freedom from worry carried a man over a great +deal of ground, while in a providential way all things seemed in the end +to turn out for the best. Booker Washington had the gift of being able +to impart some of his own energy and enthusiasm to his subordinates, and +even to the students, who generally came round to see in what direction +their best interests lay. A wholesome discipline was maintained +throughout the institution, and thus, while being qualified to become +instructors of their fellows of the coloured race, the students learned +to love and to respect their leader. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + SOME ACTUAL RESULTS--POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS + + +In the ordinary sense, neither General Armstrong nor Booker Washington +would have been put down as a statesman; but, of course, each had his +own individual sentiments as a citizen of the Republic. Thus each was +well aware that both the North and the South had to deal with a +population problem of an exceptionally difficult kind. The North had an +unceasing tide of foreign immigration; the South had its Black Belt and +a negro population, which appeared to be competent to double itself in +course of a generation. General Armstrong was as large-hearted a friend +of the coloured race as could have been found, and he appears to have +protested against "either coddling the blacks or hampering the whites" +on the part of the North. In an article in _The International Monthly_ +on the Southern question, Mr Edward P. Clark tells us that General +Armstrong "opposed alike Federal Election Laws, designed and +administered in the interest of the blacks, and Federal Education Laws, +appropriating money for the South in the same interest. He urged that a +negro could never become an ordinary citizen until he should cease to be +the 'ward of the nation.'" Booker Washington appears to hold views on +this matter which essentially are in close agreement with the policy of +his late master. _E.g._:-- + +"General Armstrong did not regard it as a serious misfortune for the +negro that he was discouraged and even prevented from voting. He +condemned unfair methods, but he believed that the cure of such methods +might and should be left to local public sentiment. Mr Washington +opposes unjust race legislation, like the recent proposition in Georgia +to disfranchise the black man, as a black man; but he does not urge the +negroes in his own State of Alabama to make voting the chief end of +life. The keynote of the advice given by both of these leaders to the +negro always has been to make himself a good citizen, worthy to share in +the government of town, State and Republic, and trust to his white +neighbour to recognise his right to such share when that time should +come. 'Be a voter, and then think about being a man'; that was long the +only watchword of the Northern Republican politician for the negro. 'Be +a man, and then think about being a voter'; such is the message to him +from the Armstrongs and the Washingtons." + +Mr Clark adds this cheerful note:-- + +"It is easy enough to make a catalogue of outrage and injustice upon the +Southern blacks, so long and gloomy as to justify a feeling of profound +discouragement regarding the future. The most hopeful feature of the +situation is the fact that those friends and champions of the negro who +have studied the question most carefully upon the spot, have grown more +confident all the time that ultimately things would work out right. +General Armstrong died full of faith in the future. Mr Washington grows +more hopeful every year. Outsiders may well feel that there is no +occasion for despair when the voice of cheer is heard from the very +heart of the Black Belt." + +We learn from an article by Mr Pitt Dillingham, in _The Outlook_ of New +York (April 12, 1902), that Booker Washington is a trustee of the +Calhoun Coloured School in Lowndes County, a part of the Black Belt in +Alabama, where the negroes greatly outnumber the whites. The school may +possibly take its name from the family of John Caldwell Calhoun +(1782-1850), a well-remembered statesman of the Republic, who was +Vice-President 1825-1832; an uncompromising defender of slavery, and +propounder of the political doctrine of Nullification--the rejection of +any State of any Act which was judged to be unconstitutional. The +students in the Calhoun School receive just such an industrial education +as would be given at Hampton or Tuskegee; but to us the institution is +the more noteworthy because it has become identified with a kind of +land-movement, which may have the most far-reaching consequences, so far +as the coloured race is concerned. Practically, the school is an +illustration of the way in which those who have been trained at Hampton, +or under Booker Washington at Tuskegee, in turn become teachers and +leaders to their own people. Mr Dillingham remarks:-- + +"The two young women from New England--one from Boston, one from New +Haven--Hampton teachers who first rang a school-bell ten years ago on +the old Shelby plantation in Lowndes County, simply desired to get into +the Black Belt, to identify themselves with a community of +cotton-raisers as neighbours, to know the people at first hand, and then +to meet the human need about them in any way possible; above all, +helping the people to help themselves ... in the Black Belt of Alabama, +a county containing the largest proportion of blacks to whites. The +average ratio for the seventeen counties in Alabama's cotton-belt is +less than three to one. In Lowndes County in 1892 the ratio was seven to +one--28,000 to 4000. This meant maximum conditions of ignorance and +poverty--a county likely to be Africanised if it could not be +Americanised." + +The school at Calhoun had 300 students, and its land extended over 100 +acres. As there were such great opportunities, if the right means were +taken to secure them, the teachers were moved by a desire to provide +openings for their students in the county instead of their being obliged +to seek uncertain employment in the distance. Why not buy land and +divide it into small holdings, which even negroes could purchase for +their own? That would be to show practical sympathy with the native +sentiment--"I always did want to own something that wouldn't die; your +mule, he'll die, but the land is gwine to live." + +That idea gained favour; it was strictly in accordance with the negro's +economic programme; and thus, when a plantation of nearly 1100 acres was +purchased and was divided into over twenty farms, the enterprise was +well in hand. In time other estates were purchased; the movement, which +is favoured by the whites and ex-planters, is so extremely popular with +the blacks that "one man recently sent five cents ten miles by a friend +to go towards his farm!" As might be expected, all this has not been +carried out without there being some failure and discouragement, but, on +the whole, the movement has realised the hopes of its promoters. Mr +Dillingham adds:-- + +"On the economic side, Calhoun's scheme means buying a plantation at +wholesale price, and breaking up the plantation into small farms, by a +group of men who make advance payments and then finish buying by paying +rent for a term of years. The fifty-acre farm means a basis for a new +agriculture or intensive farming, also sharp, individual responsibility +of buyer, plus family life and labour and friendly co-operation of a +neighbourhood. The plantation, with its 'quarters' and renters and +croppers, who 'stay' to make and pick crops, but have no home--the +plantation, the old, before-the-war, economic unit, is transformed into +an American neighbourhood of farms and homes, within sound of church and +bell. This is the light set on the hill." + +This is how the work, commenced at Hampton and Tuskegee, can develop or +expand; and, while benefiting the State, is also found to bring the +white people and the coloured race into friendly contact, the former +doing what lies in their power to advance the cause. Thriving +neighbourhoods of coloured people promise to come into existence, for +"the South is not shutting the industrial door, or the educational door, +or the church or the house door on the negro." + +There are doubtless persons in the Republic who are disposed to think +that, so far as education is concerned, Nashville, the capital and +largest town of Tennessee, is the paradise of the negroes. The place is +famous for its schools, churches and colleges, Fisk College and some +others ranking as universities. The coloured race are in the minority. +The fact tends to promote their own peace and happiness, that they are +not overmuch fascinated by politics; and, according to common report, +the coloured people in the town are more eager than others to obtain an +education. Three great colleges, one named after Roger Williams, have +been founded for their special benefit. A certain small proportion of +negroes may advance to higher scholarship, but the main part do not get +beyond what used to be called grammar-learning; while it is a most happy +thing, both for whites and blacks, that the industrial programme of +General Armstrong and Booker Washington is in large measure carried out. +As a writer in the _Century Magazine_ remarks:-- + +"All boarding pupils are required to devote an hour a day to such forms +of labour as may be required of them, and the cleanest school building I +ever saw is Livingstone Hall of Fisk University, which is kept clean by +the pupils. A certain number of young men at Fisk learn printing every +year, and others will henceforth learn carpentry and other useful +handicrafts; while the young women are taught nursing the sick and the +rules of hygiene, cooking, dressmaking and plain sewing. The course of +industrial training in Central Tennessee College and Roger Williams +University is about the same." + +The majority of those who are thus educated become teachers of their +own people, and in this service there are plenty of openings for them. +The negroes seem to be as amenable to the civilising influences of +education as any race with whom they might be compared, and in Nashville +they are peculiarly fortunate in their teachers. You may meet with +thriving negro business men whose honesty and tact are much commended by +the whites. They see that the acquisition of property gives them a good +standing in the world, so that they may sometimes need a little +wholesome advice to check their excessive eagerness to become rich. Then +the character of their well-furnished and comfortable houses shows how +completely they have been raised from the squalid one-room life of their +former cabins. "These well-kept houses," says one who visited a number +of them in the town for purposes of inspection, "are not only the best +proof of the progress in civilisation of the negro race, but they are +also the best security for the welfare of the whites in property and in +morals, and I have never had so much hope for the future of this region +as since I learned these things. Granted that these may be the picked +few, it is most hopeful that there is a picked few, whose example will +inspire others to lift themselves up." In proportion as they advance +they show commendable enthusiasm for embarking in philanthropic +enterprise. Thus, as a writer in the _Century Magazine_ tells us:-- + +"The only negro church publishing-house in the world" is located at +Nashville, a large building five storeys high. "It was purchased with +the contributions of the children of the African Methodist Episcopal +Church. A home for aged and indigent negroes is the latest enterprise, +while a shop for teaching mechanical trades was opened.... The number of +church societies is, of course, legion." + +All this shows how far-reaching was the influence of such institutes as +Tuskegee and Hampton, when their methods were thus copied. To come back +to Booker Washington's own work, however, we find that at the end of +fourteen years the two old buildings in which he had commenced in 1881 +had given place to forty buildings on an estate of two thousand acres. +At that time there were rented fifteen cottages not on the school +estate, while many of the teachers had houses of their own. The annual +cost was then under L15,000, the number of persons to be supported +exceeding a thousand. It is not often that the students are able to pay +wholly for their board; and at the time in question less than L2000 in +the year was received under this head. Various funds, including a grant +from the State, supplied near L2000 annually. The cost of each student +is L10 a year, board being paid for partly in money and partly in +labour. L40 suffices one to complete the four years' course, while a sum +of L200 provides a permanent scholarship. A carpenter, a bricklayer, or +a blacksmith must, under all circumstances, pass some part of each day +in the school. The aim is to have all well taught, and to inspire a +laudable ambition, hoping to excel and to succeed by hard work, +perseverance and honest, upright lives. The training is also partly +religious, for to come short of that would not yield satisfaction to the +negro. The following from the article by Mr Speed, already referred to, +gives a word-picture of what takes place on a high public day at +Tuskegee, when friends from far and near assemble to see and hear what +is being done not only in the schools, but by those who also represent +the thirty or more industries which are carried on:-- + +"At the commencement, held at the end of May, the exercises included not +only music and speaking, but an exhibition of the handiwork of the +pupils, who were called on to show how each kind of work was done. One +showed the method of putting tires on a buggy, another the construction +of a house, another the pinning of the same, and still another the +painting of the structure; the girls showed the process of ironing a +shirt, of cleaning and lighting a lamp, of making bread, cake and pie, +of cutting and fitting a dress, and so on. Other boys illustrated +wheelwrighting, bricklaying, plastering, mattress-making, printing, and +various agricultural processes. To the crowds of interested negroes at +this commencement this seemed something worth while, because it was +practical and within the range of their own experience and +attainment.... Among all the educational efforts among the negroes there +is probably none more interesting, wise or successful than this work of +Mr Washington's at Tuskegee." + +To understand what progress has been made, we have to contrast the +present outlook with that of forty years ago, when negroes were +considered to be incapable of living as free people with credit to +themselves, and when certain States actually had laws prohibiting their +being set free. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + CONTINUED PROGRESS--POPULARITY AS A SPEAKER + + +While the now great institution at Tuskegee continued to grow and to +increase in popularity both with the North and the South, there seemed +to be no reason for departure in any measure from the course marked out +by General Armstrong. The number as well as the need of the negroes was +so great that preparatory classes, similar to those which had succeeded +so well at Hampton, were arranged for, and candidates eagerly came +forward for admission--young people whose mettle was sufficiently well +tested by their having to get through a long, hard day's work before +they could enjoy the privilege and luxury of some hours of teaching in +the night school. This kind of service has grown, and at the present +time there are probably not far short of 500 pupils in its classes. Of +course many advance from this stage to get admitted to the day school of +the Institute. + +All along Booker Washington has been subjected to the temptation to +excel in public speaking, but he has indulged in this only so far as the +practice would advance his work. He began to make his mark when he gave +an address before the Educational Association at Madison, the capital of +Wisconsin, and the seat of a university. Whenever he spoke the founder +of Tuskegee Institute was recognised as a gifted, natural orator; and +his most famous address, and one which was destined to have most +far-reaching consequences, while it added to the popularity of the man +and his work, was one which he gave in the autumn of 1895 at a Cotton +States Exhibition, which was also to some extent international. + +This great show was held at Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, a great +railway centre, and a place of much trade and manufacture. It has also a +university for coloured students. The crowded assembly on such an +occasion was largely representative of the most influential people among +the whites both in the North and the South, as well as those of the +negro race. It was an exciting time, and quidnuncs of all parties were +eagerly anticipating what the dark-skinned professor would say. Of +course the note he struck was one which tended to the doing away of +racial differences. All along Booker Washington has been honest in his +convictions and in his manner of giving utterance to them. Where wrong +is seen to exist he is brave enough to speak of it. He has even been so +honestly outspoken in regard to the shortcomings of his own people as to +earn their resentment, until it was found that what was said was true, +and was no symptom of want of sympathy. Those who listened to the +address at Atlanta would be impressed with his profound sympathy with +his own coloured race, with the high value he set upon their possible +achievements, and with his passionate representations of the interests +which the white and coloured race had in common, each being thus +dependent on the other. The address was the chief thing which took place +in connection with the Exhibition, and Booker Washington received an +autograph letter from President Cleveland thanking him for having said +what he did. A few passages from _The World's_ account of what actually +occurred may best enable us to realise the scene:-- + +"While President Cleveland was waiting at Grey Gables to send the +electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta Exposition, a +negro Moses stood before a great audience of white people and delivered +an oration that marks a new epoch in the history of the South.... When +Professor Booker T. Washington ... stood on the platform of the +auditorium, with the sun shining over the heads of his auditors into his +eyes, and his whole face lit up with the fire of prophecy, Clark Howell, +the successor of Henry Grady, said to me, 'That man's speech is the +beginning of a moral revolution in America. It is the first time that a +negro has made a speech in the South on any important occasion before an +audience composed of white men and women.' It electrified the audience, +and the response was as if it had come from the throat of a +whirlwind.... All this time the eyes of the thousands present looked +straight at the negro orator. A strange thing was to happen. A black man +was to speak for his people, and with none to interrupt him. As +Professor Washington strode to the edge of the stage, the low, +descending sun shot fiery rays through the windows into his face. A +great shout greeted him. He turned his head to avoid the blinding light, +and moved about the platform for relief. Then he turned his wonderful +countenance without a blink of the eyelids and began to speak. There was +a remarkable figure--tall, bony, straight as a Sioux chief, high +forehead, straight nose, heavy jaws, and strong, determined mouth, with +big, white teeth, piercing eyes and a commanding manner. The sinews +stood out on his bronzed neck, and his muscular right arm swung high in +the air, with a lead pencil grasped in the clenched fist. His big feet +were planted squarely, with the heels together and the toes turned out. +His voice rang out clear and true, and he paused impressively as he made +each point. Within ten minutes the multitude was in an uproar of +enthusiasm--handkerchiefs were waved, canes were flourished, hats were +tossed in the air. The fairest women in Georgia stood up and cheered. It +was as if the orator had bewitched them. And when he held his dusky hand +high above his head, with the fingers stretched wide apart, and said to +the white people of the South on behalf of his race, 'In all things that +are purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand +in all things essential to mutual progress,' the great wave of applause +dashed itself against the walls, and the whole audience was on its feet +in a delirium of applause, and I thought that moment of the night when +Henry Grady stood among the curling wreaths of tobacco smoke in +Delmonico's banquet-hall and said, 'I am a Cavalier among +Roundheads.'... A ragged, ebony giant, squatted on the floor in one of +the aisles, watched the orator with burning eyes and tremulous face +until the supreme hour of applause came, and then the tears ran down +his face. Most of the negroes in the audience were crying, perhaps +without knowing just why." + +Another notable occasion occurred in the year of Queen Victoria's +Diamond Jubilee, when Booker Washington spoke at Boston in connection +with the dedication of a monument erected to the memory of Colonel +Robert Gould Shaw--1837-1863--who was killed at Fort Wagner while in +command of the first coloured regiment which had been mustered to serve +with the Northern Army. A Boston paper said:-- + +"The scene was full of historic beauty and deep significance. Rows and +rows of people who are rarely seen at any public function, whole +families of those who are certain to be out of town on a holiday, +crowded the place to overflowing. The city was at her birthright _fete_ +in the persons of hundreds of her best citizens, men and women whose +names and lives stand for the virtues that make for honourable, civic +pride." + +Some other similar scenes might be referred to; but in a general way +Booker Washington does not value opportunities for platform service +unless they tend to advance the cause of his great work at Tuskegee. Nor +can this be wondered at when it is found that such service alone +necessitates his being away from home during six months in each year. He +married Miss Davidson, to whose efforts the Institute owed so much in +its early days--in 1885; but this second Mrs Washington died about four +years later, leaving two sons. The third wife of the Principal--married +in 1893--was a Miss Murray, who was trained at Fisk University. + +The later developments of the work in its many departments at Tuskegee +can best be realised by reference to certain recent numbers of the +Institute's monthly paper, the _Southern Letter_. + +We find that the school post-office is now recognised as part of the +postal system of the country, and is responsible to the Government. A +savings bank has been founded on the grounds to encourage thrift habits +by receiving savings from teachers, students and coloured people living +in the vicinity. This year a kindergarten teacher was to carry on a +class in the new training school buildings. Last year (1901) agriculture +was made a special feature; 4000 peach trees were planted, making a +total of 5000 of this kind on the farm. "The students are not only +taught how to plant and care for these trees, but are taught the +principles of fruit-growing in all respects at the same time." There are +fourteen young women in this division, and, like the others, they divide +their time between the college classes and the farm:-- + +"They are ranked in their labour as they are in their recitations in the +class-rooms. In the dairy they are not only getting instruction in +theory, but are actually assisting in the care and use of the utensils, +in which 120 gallons of milk are handled, twelve gallons of cream are +ripened, and fifty pounds of butter are made each day. They are also +making a comprehensive study of milk and its constituents, weeds and +their harmful effects upon dairy products, general sanitation of dairy +barns, the drawing of plans, etc. In the poultry division the young +women put theory into practice by having individual responsibilities in +the care of over 300 fowls. In this way they get actual experience in +the sanitation of poultry houses, the care of runs and all the +apparatus used, egg-testing, the use of insecticides, and the prevention +and cure of fowl diseases. The increasing interest in fruit-growing all +over the South makes it easy to interest the young women in +horticulture. The school orchard of 5000 trees makes it possible to lay +great stress on the practical side of fruit growing. Special attention +is given to the quality and quantity of peaches, pears, apples and +plums, figs, grapes and strawberries that can be grown in a home +orchard. In the division of floriculture and landscape gardening a study +of our common-door yards and the laying out and beautifying of same is +required. The young women assist in the care of the school grounds by +helping to trim and shape beds and borders and take care of shrubbery +and flowers. One of the things the young women are very proud of is +their market garden. They have helped to plan, and have done all the +work in it this year (1901) except the ploughing. They have planned, +laid out, prepared and planted their seed beds. They have also planned +and constructed a cold frame-house, doing all the carpentry work +themselves. They are required to keep an itemised account of the +expenses incurred in raising and amounts realised from the sale of all +vegetables. Although the young women have only been in this department +two years, many good reports have come to us from communities where they +have carried their improved ideas of these various lines of agriculture. +To fully understand the need of this work, one must travel through the +country districts and towns of the Southern States." + +A Tuskegee negro Conference is held annually, and this year (1902) it +assembled on February 19 and following day. Encouraging news from the +distance is continually coming to hand. Thus, two graduates will be +reported as getting on well in a town of Georgia. Then news comes to +hand (December 1901) that the Tuskegee stall at the Charleston +Exhibition attracted unusual attention. Even the Dark Continent itself +comes in for some share of attention; for "we hear very encouraging +reports from our students who went to West Africa to introduce the +raising of cotton under the auspices of the German Government." We find +Mrs Washington attending the meeting of the Coloured Women's Federation +of Clubs at Vicksburg early in 1902, and no doubt she carried some rays +of sunshine with her. The work, as a whole, is on a religious basis; and +this fact is emphasised by such an announcement as that at Tuskegee "the +Week of Prayer was observed with great profit and interest." It is +important also to learn that the Nurse Training Department at Tuskegee +is attracting more students than ever. It appears that both young men as +well as young women are trained for this service; and a letter from one +of the former, written in March 1902, from a town in Alabama, shows how +former students become pioneers in the great work of uplifting their own +race:-- + +"I am now at this place, and am Principal of a school which opened +December 9 last year. We have bought and paid for fifteen acres of land, +on which a two-storey building now stands. A part of the glass windows +needed we have been able to put in. We are now preparing to build a +dormitory on our grounds for our students next term. We shall be glad +to have you send anything you can in the way of reading matter. We are +trying to establish a library for the people of this community." + +In some instances, as, for example, in Nashville, to which reference has +been made, negroes are becoming prosperous men of business. In his +monthly newspaper for February 1902, Booker Washington gave the picture +of a large house of business owned by a coloured trader, and remarked:-- + +"While there are not many coloured people perhaps, as yet, who own such +valuable pieces of property in the South, still there are many who are +very fast approaching the point Mr ---- has reached. Mr ---- is not only +a successful business man, having the respect and confidence of both +races in Nashville, but he and his wife are leaders in religious and +charitable work in the city of Nashville, and their home is a constant +resort for those who represent all that is best and purest in the life +of the negro race." + +The following extract from a letter to Booker Washington from a white +gentleman in the South (December 16, 1901), shows in what light even +ex-planters themselves and their associates regard the work in +progress:-- + +"Being more and more impressed with the importance of the favourable +opportunity offered in this community for the educational uplift of your +people, I am again prompted to write you and more fully explain the +situation and the need of help to accomplish this important work. This +community is densely populated with negroes--more than ten to one white +person. The white people are moving to the towns. Thirty white persons +in less than two years--none coming in--and negroes occupying the +premises vacated. The few white people here are anxious to see the negro +educated up to a higher standard of citizenship in morality, thrift and +economy, as well as intellectual advancement. The negro school building +is under way, but they have not the means to finish it, and nothing with +which to furnish it, nor sufficient means to pay the teachers necessary +for the school. I know of no community where the needed funds would be +more appreciated or could possibly do more good for advancing the +negroes' interest along educational lines." + +Thus, no one can foresee whereunto the ever-developing work at Tuskegee +may extend. The graduates, who are constantly going forth, become +teachers and leaders among their own people; but, large as it is, the +number trained is still too few. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + VISIT TO EUROPE--RETURN TO TUSKEGEE + + +In the summer of the year 1899 Mr and Mrs Booker Washington had a sum of +money given them by a number of friends, which was to be spent in making +a tour in Europe. The travellers, after a prosperous voyage, landed at +Antwerp and, after seeing something of Holland and France, came to +England, where they were entertained by a number of friends. + +On Monday, July 3, Dr and Mrs Brooke Herford gave a reception to meet Mr +and Mrs Booker Washington, which took place at Essex Hall, Essex Street, +Strand, and after this reception a meeting, at which a number of +well-known and distinguished persons were present, also took place, and +at which Mr J. H. Choate, the United States Ambassador, presided. The +many who attended, and the quality of a large number, gave significance +to this meeting, and testified in no equivocal manner to the esteem in +which Booker Washington and his work were held in Great Britain. The +following summary of the American Ambassador's speech on this occasion +was given in _The Times_:-- + +"The Chairman expressed the pleasure which he felt at having been asked +to preside and to introduce to the meeting his friend, Mr Booker T. +Washington. There were 10,000,000 coloured persons in the United States +living side by side with some 60,000,000 of whites. The freedom of which +the negroes had been deprived for more than 200 years had been restored +to them, but the question was how best they could be enabled to take +advantage of it. The blacks were an interesting race. Fidelity was their +great characteristic. During the Civil War, when the South was stripped +of every man and almost every boy to sustain their cause in arms, the +women and children were left in the sole care, he might say, of these +slaves, and no instance of violence or outrage that he had been able to +learn was ever reported. He thought it would be admitted, therefore, +that on that occasion they amply manifested their loyalty and fidelity +to their masters. The black people had done much for themselves. About +one-tenth of the men had acquired some portion of land, and they had +made a certain advance. Mr Washington was a pupil of the late General +Armstrong, who devoted many years of his life to the establishment and +maintenance of the leading school at Hampton, Virginia. Mr Washington +had qualified himself to follow in Armstrong's path. He also had founded +a school, or training college, at Tuskegee, Alabama, where the pupils +were not only given a primary education, but were afforded the means of +earning a livelihood. There were now 1100 pupils in the school. About +half the number of those who passed through it went out as teachers to +spread the light and the knowledge they had acquired there among their +own race, and the other half were put into a position to support +themselves by manual trades. The Government of the United States thought +well of the work. It gave the school a grant of 25,000 acres of land in +Alabama only last year. The State of Alabama, in which it was placed, +gave it an annual donation. In addition it derived something from the +funds left by the great philanthropist, George Peabody, and from another +fund founded by an American philanthropist. The remainder of the sum +needed for carrying on the work--some L15,000 a year--was derived from +voluntary contributions, which were stimulated by the appeals made by Mr +Washington, whom he regarded as the leader of his race in America." + +There were no long speeches at this reception and after meeting. Booker +Washington himself was brief in his speech while describing the +condition and outlook of the coloured race in the United States. He +said:-- + +"Immediately after receiving their freedom the negroes, for the most +part, got into debt, and they had not been able to free themselves to +the present day. In many places it was found that as many as +three-fourths of the coloured people were in debt, living on mortgaged +land, and in many cases under agreements to pay interest on their +indebtedness ranging between fifteen and forty per cent. The work of +improving their condition was far from hopeless, and he was far from +being discouraged. If his people got no other good out of slavery they +got the habit of work. But they did not know how to utilise the results +of their labour; the greatest injury which slavery wrought upon them was +to deprive them of executive power, of the sense of independence. They +required education and training, and this was gradually being provided. +Starting in 1881 in the little town of Tuskegee with one teacher and +thirty students, they had progressed until in the present day they had +built up an institution which had connected with it over a thousand men +and women. They had some eighty-six instructors, and in all that they +did they tried to make a careful and honest study of the condition of +the negroes and to advance their material and moral welfare. Industrial +education was a vital power in helping to lift his people out of their +present state. Twenty-six different industries were taught, and every +student had to learn some trade or other in addition to the studies of +the class-room. The coloured students came from upwards of twenty States +and territories, and the labour which they performed had an economic +value to the institution itself. There were thirty-eight buildings upon +the grounds of the college, including a chapel having seating capacity +for 2500 persons, built by the students themselves. The value of the +entire property was about $300,000. Seeing that one-third of the +population of the South was of the negro race, he held that no +enterprise seeking the material, civil or moral welfare of America could +disregard this element of the population and reach the highest good." + +Mr Bryce, M.P., also gave a brief speech, and showed that he was in +agreement with what the founder of the institution of Tuskegee had said +in reference to the importance of basing the progress of the negroes on +an industrial training:-- + +"Having made two or three visits to the South he had got an impression +of the extreme complexity and difficulty of the problem which Mr +Washington was so nobly striving to solve. It was no wonder that it +should be difficult, seeing that the whites had such a long start of the +coloured people in civilisation. He believed that the general sentiment +of white people was one of friendliness and a desire to help the +negroes. The exercise of political rights and the attainment to equal +citizenship must depend upon the quality of the people who exercised +those rights, and the best thing the coloured people could do, +therefore, was to endeavour to attain material prosperity by making +themselves capable of prosecuting these trades and occupations which +they began to learn in the days of slavery, and which now, after waiting +for twenty years, they had begun to see were necessary to their +well-being." + +At the present time the institution at Tuskegee represents a value of +L100,000, if we include the endowment fund; and the annual cost of +training 1100 or more students is not less than L16,000. The work +continues to expand, as must ever be the case with all healthy +enterprises of the kind. Perhaps the most hopeful symptom of all is the +sanguine enthusiasm of Booker Washington himself, who, happily for +himself and for those whom he seeks to benefit, is, and must ever be, an +optimist. He believes that his race has a future, and that it is capable +of being so uplifted as to become a benefit to the world. We must all +allow that the right means are being used to bring about this new +reformation; but, at the same time, we need not close our eyes to the +fact that there are observers and even well-wishers of the coloured +people who are not so hopeful. By way of giving what may be regarded as +the more pessimistic view, take the following passage from an article in +the _Daily Mail_ of October 23, 1901:-- + +"Frederick Douglass was an honoured guest in hundreds of Northern homes; +his career as United States senator was marked with every token of +respect and admiration, and many others like him were expected to +appear. But in the forty years since the war the North has become more +conservative in this respect, although it has been untiring in its +efforts to foster the negro's education, to direct his energy wisely, +and to make him capable of enjoying the liberties of the American +Republic. In the South there may still be oppression to-day and the +restriction of the negro's constitutional rights, but such a charge has +never been made against the North, even by the black man's most +prejudiced apostles. If the North refuses to-day to grant social +equality to the negro, the reasons are that it is considered not only +impossible to accomplish, but dangerous even to attempt. It is +considered impossible because the feeling has deepened instead of being +dispelled since the war, that the negro is greatly inferior by nature +and will never be otherwise. In his forty years of freedom he has +advanced more in crime and lawlessness, according to statistics, than he +has in education or development. Taking the blacks and mulattos together +they form sixteen per cent. of the entire population, and furnish thirty +per cent. of the penitentiary convicts. Crimes against the person +especially constitute a menace from the negro almost unknown before the +war, and Frederick Douglass said, shortly before he died, 'It throws +over every coloured man a mantle of odium, and sets upon him a mark for +popular hatred more distressing than the mark set upon the first +murderer. It has cooled our friends and fired our enemies.' The race +has, as a matter of fact, shown almost no power to fight its own +battles, and its problems hang like a weight of lead around the neck of +the American people, a weight growing heavier and causing more +hopelessness as the years go on." + +If the above is not actually too dark a picture, the evil is certainly +one which a great Republic need not regard as an evil incapable of +correction. Booker Washington himself is not so sanguine as to ignore +difficulties; he foresees clearly enough that the earlier half of this +present century must needs be a time of much rough pioneering service on +the part of those who are the most earnest friends of the negro race. As +lookers-on from afar on the European side of the broad Atlantic, we are +able to descry many reassuring signs. Both in the North and the South, +Booker Washington has met with abundance of sympathy, and a good deal of +honest, practical help. When Harvard University bestowed on him the +degree of Master of Arts, he was the first negro who had ever received +that distinction. That good Christian man and enlightened politician, +the late President M'Kinley, paid a visit to Tuskegee at the end of +1899, and on behalf of the nation he was thankful for what was being +done. His successor, President Roosevelt, entertained Booker Washington +at dinner at the White House, thus showing that he was of the same mind +as his predecessor. Thus the great work goes on from the beginning to +the end of each year, the aim of the continued and far-reaching effort +being to bring two races together, one being able to help the other +because both have interests in common. + ++---------------------------------------------------------------------+ +| TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES | +| | +| General: Changes to punctuation and formatting not individually | +| documented | +| | +| Page 21: Nothwithstanding corrected to Notwithstanding | +| | +| Page 39: Removed duplicate as | +| | +| Page 50: every-day standardised to everyday | +| | ++---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From Slave to College President, by +Godfrey Holden Pike + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT *** + +***** This file should be named 27258.txt or 27258.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/5/27258/ + +Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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