Up from Slavery: Book Review

“Up from Slavery” Book Review
Booker T. Washington, wrote the autobiography titled Up from Slavery. This book is about what life was like growing up as a black person after the revolutionary war. The difference between this book and many other books written by former slaves is this autobiography is not as much about what life was like during slavery, but more about how Booker T. Washington was treated as a freedman, and how his life evolved as a free man.
Booker starts the book in the preface by stating how the book came to life. Instead of most authors who write a book from finish to end, Dr. Washington exclaims how the book is a compilation of articles he had written for the magazine Outlook. Next the author starts the story with the beginning of his life. One understanding that a person would get from reading the first chapter of this book is how slaves were kept from the outside world. Booker T. was not able to pinpoint the year or day of his birthday, but had some idea about where he was born, thus proving that keeping slaves away from current events was another downside to slavery that one would not have pontificated about.
The author continues to talk about his childhood showing in his writings that his memories were very foggy. One interesting point that he talks about is when he realized that he was a slave, which was brought upon by his mother praying that Lincoln and his armies would be successful, and that one day, she and her children would be free. Another interesting part about the beginnings of the book is the author stating that blacks felt no hostility, or held no hard feelings against whites for what they had done. This thought could be heavily debated but I would have to assume that this was a feeling shared by very few colored people at that time.
Booker T. Washington then goes into the story of where he started to become a fan of education. Although at this time he was in school, he also exclaimed the drudgery of having to work salt mines at 4am, while having to be in school at 9am. He also talks about how horrible the living conditions were and how he appreciated his slave quarters better than his housing as a free man. Booker goes on to show the emphasis placed on his education, and what he would go through to achieve his dream. Along the way he gives credit to the people who helped him more than he does his-self.
Eventually Booker begins to talk about Hampton where his true education had begun. In this time Booker explains about how kind the people were at Hampton, and he begins to understand what true happiness is. He also gives credit to Hampton exclaiming that the reason he gives so much to others is because of the unselfishness that he had learned from the people at Hampton. After an understanding of where Booker received his education he goes on to talk about the mistakes the Federal Government made after the Civil War, and the idea of entitlement passed through the generations and Booker’s concept of the dignity of labor was destroyed by the failure of the government to plan for the process of citizenship for black people and the inability of the black race to not switch their dependency from their masters to the government.
Next Booker goes on to write about how much he learned from educating Indians, and that he believed that blacks would always be at the bottom of the caste system in America. Booker then dives into his own teaching and discusses about how he would visit his students and try to understand where they came from in order to provide them with a better education. Then Booker’s explanation for how he set up his school in Tuskegee is a metaphor for how to succeed in life. Every setback made him look for a new door to open. And he eventually persevered.
From then on Booker showed in the book how he had gone from Booker the slave to Booker the head of the Tuskegee Institute. He often talks about how he taught his students, how he raised money, and how he made his institute such a well-rounded place of education. He also explains how he became such an influential voice in times of unreason, giving much of the credit to The Atlanta Exposition Address. Then the book goes onto his successes with public speaking, and how he only would speak where he hoped it would pay to plead the cause of his race. Then the author states how he had went to Europe and learned so much from different countries and ideologies that he still had hope for the American Negro, and show how much optimism he had for the future of his people in the summary of the book.
After reading this book it is easy to assume that Booker was a man of his people. Many things that he had said or done led many to believe that he was an “uncle tom”. I on the other hand do somewhat agree with this idea but there is no doubt that he truly believed in education, and teaching the underprivileged was a great joy of Booker T. Washington. Regardless of whether some of his views where nefarious in nature, I do believe that ultimately he cared about his race, and was willing to do anything he could to save his people from the horrors of slavery and post slavery effects.