Daria Doering

Up From Slavery

By Booker T. Washington

One of my favorites, this book has it all, as far as what I want my children to know.  The parts that struck me most were Washington’s utter deprivation in childhood … living in a cabin with open holes for windows in an intemperate climate … sleeping on a pallet of dirty rags for a bed … never sitting down for a meal, but eating a scrap here or there.

Many of the major lessons that Booker learned were exactly what I struggle with: basic hygiene such as bathing, tooth brushing and sleeping between two sheets; learning the value and dignity of manual labor; learning that the happiest people are those who give the most to others; the value of reading the Bible.

His attitude was so unfailingly gracious, grateful, generous and determined.  He never harbored resentment against whites, and gave the highest praise to many who crossed his path and helped him.

The volume of hard work he did during his life, from the earliest childhood, was prodigious.

Other parts I remember:

• Story I read in my childhood about his brother “breaking in a shirt” for him …
• I remember another story from my childhood about how he got the name Washington …
• His working for a Nazi-like woman who wanted things perfectly clean.  Nobody else cold last in her employ, but booker did.  It served him well when he applied to Hampton, and was told to clean a room …
• His trip to Hampton, sleeping under a bridge …
• He urged blacks to help themselves more than to demand their rights … to learn skills, work hard, practice good habits such as cleanliness …
• He urged blacks to buy a house … keep it painted and in good repair … add a room whenever they could … such good, practical advice.
• He was married two or three times … outlived his wives.
• These days, Booker T. Washington is controversial and kind of looked down on, because of his philosophy of helping yourself instead of demanding from others.