Negative Effects Of Booker T Washington On Slavery

The Positive Aspect of Slavery Booker T. Washington is a historic figure during the time of slavery. Washington found that his path was not determined by his current situation yet, by his own aspirations. During one of the most dynamic times in history, Booker was determined to find a transformation for African-Americans. Atypically, his critics claimed he would keep the colored people down and he would slow down improvements. Booker had many accomplishments, such as writing a narrative about his life during this time period. Washington refused to see slavery has a hostile, brutal, and immoral situation, his perspective on life is still relevant to African-Americans and to all people who are determined to make a good pathway for themselves. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Hales Ford, Virginia, around 1856, though there are no birth certificates of his actual birth. His mother was a cook and his father, a unknown white man. Washington worked during his childhood but valued family and education since a young boy. Though Washington never acknowledged his father, Booker learned a lot from his mother, lifelong lessons of
courage, grit, inventiveness, and optimistic concepts, which influenced many of his philosophies and approaches about women and family. He never saw his supposed ‘struggles’ as a force to hold him back from his dreams. “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed” (Gates Jr.; McKay, p. 593). Washington overcame a great deal of struggles. During his life he learned many things, including how to deal with his differences. While he only experienced slavery for nine years, it still had an impact on his life and for the other African-American’s around him. Washington began at Hampton Institute, now Hampton University, where he pursued an education in teaching. He was for blacks receiving a higher education. Booker believed that this would improve their chances of becoming a citizen. Booker learned at an early age that no one was going to help him further himself except himself. Most of his education was taught by himself, his motivation was implausible. With this motivation, Washington started on the road to begin his own school, to teach African-Americans all he had taught himself. Washington believed that if blacks had a strong educational background, it would be the first stepping-stone in bettering themselves. With a strong foundation, African-Americans could work their way to the top, no matter what the white community had instilled in them previously. Washington’s most important indication was the “self-education” plus “self-help”, and from the founding of Tuskegee Institute in 1881, until his death in 1915, Booker T. Washington tried to make these ideas a reality.
Another very influential African-American leader of that time was William E. B. Du Bois, whom was a historian and sociologist. His concept of the “talented-tenth” represented those who thought that Washington placed too much importance on industrial education. Du Bois brought a lot of negative feedback towards Washington’s ideas. Booker says in “Up From Slavery,” “The thing to do when one feels sure that he has said or done the right thing and is condemned is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.” He did not argue with others ideas. Washington did not see differences. He shared his ideas, and people seemed to really enjoy them. He did not see a reason in blacks pursuing education without having the support of white people behind them. Du Bois criticized Washington 's educational and political viewpoint and practices. Du Bois supported higher education for “talented” African Americans who could serve as leaders. He did not see success in every African-American, like Booker Washington did. “I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed” (Gates Jr.; McKay, p. 581). Du Bois wanted white people to believe in the blacks dreams and aspirations, not laugh when they did not succeed. Du Bois feared that the success of Washington 's industrial school would limit the development of true African-American leaders. He just focused on getting help from the whites and accepting their place as blacks on earth. Dubois focused on opposite things that Booker T. Washington fixated on. Dubois focused on a strategy called the ‘gradualist political strategy’; a strategy for blacks to be ‘book smart’ instead of gaining common-sense ideas.
Booker T.
Washington asked the white people for support not equality. Booker T. Washington believed that African-Americans would not make it any where in society if they focused solely on equality. Washington wanted to have blacks trained for society and real life situations; he thought that this would improve black’s lives greatly. Instead of blacks being looked at as solely useless individuals, they would gain knowledge of real world situations and how to handle them. He did not see white and black as a difference anyways, he wanted all people to be fairly the same. Washington wanted job-education for blacks so they could learn how to do their jobs and do it properly. No more whites teaching blacks how to ‘do their job,’ but for blacks to already have the knowledge they needed to be their own bosses or someone else’s
boss. Although Washington always tried to show other black men and women how to improve their lives, his guidance became controversial. Booker became one of the biggest political influences in the black community. He started in slavery and from there became one of the greatest influential speakers for African Americans. Many referred to him as “Uncle Tom.” Booker never found his differences of color or prestige to hold him self at a different standard. He had a keen sense of the dishonesty that was involved in politics. He did not want to be a politician’s puppet, one that solely spoke to black Americans. He was thought to be liberal in his beliefs about educating and empowering blacks.
Booker T. Washington is known as being a excellent public speaker. He did not focus on talking to his race only but to the white people as well. The white community respected Booker’s ideas because he focused on stereotypes and injustices for blacks. He did not seek justice for blacks and how they had been treated, misused, and sometimes killed, but to make a new path, a new future for all races, as one. Booker would speak to the black community about how they should not hide in the shadows of the white people, they should break their stereotype and pursue higher education and freedom that they now had. In all things considered, Washington focused on blacks getting economic equality.
To understand Booker T. Washington’s ideas and concepts it is necessary to take a look at his life. Booker had a hard time understanding how life worked until he realized you have to accept yourself before you can improve your own life. Therefore, I sought to show the story of Booker T. Washington, his childhood and how he was raised to be a leader of the African-American people in this paper. What Washington’s mother instilled at an early age, made Washington refuse to see slavery has a hostile, brutal, and immoral situation. His perspective on life is still relevant to African-Americans and to all people who are determined to make a good pathway for themselves. His struggles made him a stronger individual, which we should all aspire to do.

Works Cited
Gates, Henry Louis., and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American

Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. Print.