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<h1>FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT</h1>



<div class="bbox biggap">
<p class="center larger"><b>The "Lives Worth Living"</b></p>

<div class="smaller">
<p class="center smcap"><b>Series of Popular Biographies.</b></p>

<p class="center"><b>Illustrated. Crown 8vo, Cloth Extra, Gilt Edges,
3s. 6d. per Volume.</b></p>

<p class="littlegap hangindent boxpad"><b>1. LEADERS OF MEN.</b> By <span class="smcap">H. A. Page</span>, Author
of "Golden Lives." Sixth Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>2. WISE WORDS AND LOVING DEEDS.</b> By
<span class="smcap">E. Conder Gray</span>. Eighth Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>3. MASTER MISSIONARIES.</b> By <span class="smcap">A. H. Japp</span>,
LL.D., F.R.S.E. Sixth Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>4. LABOUR AND VICTORY.</b> By <span class="smcap">A. H. Japp</span>,
LL.D. Third Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>5. HEROIC ADVENTURE.</b> Illustrated. Third
Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>6. GREAT MINDS IN ART.</b> By <span class="smcap">William
Tirebuck</span>. Second Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>7. GOOD MEN AND TRUE.</b> By <span class="smcap">A. H. Japp</span>,
LL.D. Second Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>8. FAMOUS MUSICAL COMPOSERS.</b> By
<span class="smcap">Lydia Morris</span>. Second Edition.</p>

<p class="hangindent boxpad"><b>9. OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS TIMES.</b>
By <span class="smcap">G. Holden Pike</span>. With 8 Illustrations, including
the Bristol Portrait as Frontispiece.</p>
</div>
</div>

<div class="figcenter" style="width: 433px;">
<img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:g:g-holden-pike-from-slave-to-college-president-bookertwashington.png" width="433" height="663" alt="BOOKER T. WASHINGTON." title="" />
<span class="caption">BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.</span>
</div>

<h2 class="biggap">FROM SLAVE TO
COLLEGE PRESIDENT</h2>

<p class="center smaller">BEING THE</p>

<p class="center larger">LIFE STORY OF
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON</p>

<p class="center smaller biggap">BY</p>
<p class="center larger">G. HOLDEN PIKE</p>
<p class="center smaller">Author of
"Oliver Cromwell and His Times,"
Etc., Etc.</p>

<p class="center biggap"><i>With Frontispiece Portrait</i></p>

<p class="center biggap">London</p>
<p class="center">T. Fisher Unwin</p>
<p class="center smaller">Paternoster Square</p>
<p class="center smaller">1902</p>

<p class="center smaller">[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</p>


<div class="bbox biggap">
<p class="center larger"><b>CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN OF HARPER'S FERRY</b></p>

<p class="center smaller">BY</p>

<p class="center"><b>JOHN NEWTON</b></p>

<p class="center smallgap">Crown 8vo, Cloth, 6s. Fully Illustrated.</p>

<div class="smaller boxpad">
<p>There are few to whom the lines,</p>

<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">"John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">But his soul's marching on,"<br /></span>
</div></div>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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&mdash;nearly a
month&mdash;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.</p>
</div></div>




<h2 class="biggap">CONTENTS</h2>


<table summary="Table of Contents">
<tr>
<th class="smaller ralign">CHAP.</th>
<th></th>
<th class="smaller ralign">PAGE</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">I.</td>
<td>WANTED: A MAN&mdash;THE MAN FOUND</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">II.</td>
<td>THE ERA OF FREEDOM&mdash;REALISING THAT KNOWLEDGE IS POWER</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">III.</td>
<td>OFF TO HAMPTON&mdash;WAS HE A LIKELY CANDIDATE?</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">IV.</td>
<td>GENERAL ARMSTRONG&mdash;HIS PREDECESSORS AND COLLABORATORS&mdash;PIONEERS<br />
OF THE NEW ERA</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">V.</td>
<td>UPS AND DOWNS&mdash;PROGRESS AS A STUDENT&mdash;BEGINNING TO TEACH</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">VI.</td>
<td>AMERICAN INDIANS&mdash;WORK AT HAMPTON</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">VII.</td>
<td>THE BEGINNING OF A LIFE WORK</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">VIII.</td>
<td>SOME ACTUAL RESULTS&mdash;POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">IX.</td>
<td>CONTINUED PROGRESS&mdash;POPULARITY AS A SPEAKER</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="ralign vtop">X.</td>
<td>VISIT TO EUROPE&mdash;RETURN TO TUSKEGEE</td>
<td class="ralign vbottom"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td>
</tr>
</table>

<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>




<h2 class="biggap">FROM SLAVE TO COLLEGE PRESIDENT</h2>




<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>

<h3>WANTED: A MAN&mdash;THE MAN FOUND</h3>


<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>In regard to this man with his commanding
personality, the <i>International Monthly</i> of New York
says:&mdash;"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?"</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>At the time of his birth, some forty-three or forty-four
years ago&mdash;the exact place or time being alike
unknown&mdash;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 <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>.
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
saw that the days of slavery were numbered. "In
truth, it must be so," remarked one journalist at the
time when <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> 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.</p>

<p>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
<i>Two Years on the Farm of Uncle Sam</i>, which was
published in the decade of our hero's birth:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
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&mdash;no
matter of what colour, whether an Indian or an
African sun may have burned upon him&mdash;should
possess the liberty or right of securing his own
happiness to the extent of his ability. Then their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
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&mdash;a sumptuous palace in comparison with
the slave-cabins&mdash;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.</p>

<p>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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
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&mdash;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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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"&mdash;into Georgia.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>

<h3>THE ERA OF FREEDOM&mdash;REALISING THAT
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER</h3>


<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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 <i>niggers</i>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
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&mdash;"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.</p>

<p>Booker Washington testifies to the wild excess of
joy with which the slaves on all the plantations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
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&mdash;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&mdash;it was their own blissful possession!</p>

<p>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?</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>

<p>Mrs Washington&mdash;as by courtesy she may be
called&mdash;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&mdash;the man being only their stepfather&mdash;who
was then employed in the salt industry.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>

<p>Then something else occurred which cannot fail
to strike us as being almost a phenomenon&mdash;at all
events, a thing altogether extraordinary under the
circumstances. What, through the vista of a third of
a century, looks like a perfect <i>furore</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>When a school was established and a supposed
competent tutor was appointed, Booker Washington<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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."</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
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.'"</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
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 <i>Leisure Hour</i> 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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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?"</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
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-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>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.</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>

<h3>OFF TO HAMPTON&mdash;WAS HE A LIKELY CANDIDATE?</h3>


<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
"The Function of the Negro College," in the <i>Dial</i> of
Chicago, Mr Kelly Miller, of Howard University,
Washington, remarks:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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 <i>method</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
far-reaching in their consequence, and, withal, as
important a subject for study, as any ever involved in
the European peninsulas."</p>

<p>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. &mdash;&mdash;, 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,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
which ranks as one of the greatest establishments of
the kind in the British Isles.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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&mdash;the
general's wife&mdash;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 diffi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>culties
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&mdash;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 <i>Pilgrim's Progress</i>.</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>

<h3>GENERAL ARMSTRONG&mdash;HIS PREDECESSORS AND
COLLABORATORS&mdash;PIONEERS OF THE NEW ERA</h3>


<p>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.</p>

<p>What has been effected, and what is still being
done, is seen to be all very wonderful when it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>Some time ago an article in <i>Scribner's Magazine</i>
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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
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.'"</p>

<p>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,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"At this point there is massed a large population
of exceedingly ignorant, destitute and superstitious
people of every colour and condition&mdash;men, women
and children&mdash;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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>

<p>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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>

<h3>UPS AND DOWNS&mdash;PROGRESS AS A STUDENT&mdash;BEGINNING
TO TEACH</h3>


<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
might be necessary to spend strength and talent for
the benefit of others.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>

<p>While at Malden he saw something of the doings
of the members of the somewhat mysterious Ku-Klux
Klan, which in the <i>Cyclop&aelig;dia of Names</i> is
thus described:&mdash;"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&mdash;the Force Bill&mdash;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.</p>

<p>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 <i>Southern
Letter</i> 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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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, edu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>cated
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."</p>

<p>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 privi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>leges
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&mdash;a means of punishing
the States which had wished to secede and to found
a Commonwealth of their own&mdash;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?</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
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 Washing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>ton
recently remarked in the <i>International Monthly</i>:
"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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
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?'"</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
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 <i>Appleton's Popular Science Monthly</i>,
written by Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard University,
and Dean of the Scientific School. Take this
passage:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>

<h3>AMERICAN INDIANS&mdash;WORK AT HAMPTON</h3>


<p>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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
that Booker Washington saw his opportunity and
determined not to be diverted from it by any
considerations of self-interest.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>It was characteristic of General Armstrong that
he believed the American Indians, in common with
the negroes, were capable of being raised to a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>dition
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
strange pupils to be amenable to reason; they were
quite tractable when kindly treated.</p>

<p>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 <i>Chambers's Encyclop&aelig;dia</i>, 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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>In the fall of 1900, as he himself explains in
course of an article on "The Economic Value of the
Negro," in <i>The International Monthly</i> for December
of that year, Booker Washington received letters
showing that openings for negro labourers existed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
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, <i>e.g.</i>:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>To this may be added the testimony of Professor
Shaler, of Harvard University, in <i>Appleton's Popular
Science Monthly</i>:&mdash;"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."</p>

<p>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
&pound;2,500,000 a year.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
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 <i>Appleton's Popular
Science Monthly</i>, and quoted, with admiration, by
Booker Washington himself in <i>The International
Monthly</i>:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>"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."</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>

<h3>THE BEGINNING OF A LIFE WORK</h3>


<p>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.</p>

<p>A great change, which was nothing less than a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
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&mdash;admirable
human material, if turned to good account&mdash;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
<i>Century Magazine</i> for September 1895, by Mr G. T.
Speed, affords some notion of what the general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
outlook was in Alabama at the date in question:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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:&mdash;
'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.'"</p>

<p>Concerning the opinions, the aims and aspirations
of General Armstrong's disciple, the same friend
says:&mdash;</p>

<p>"Mr Booker T. Washington had become persuaded
that most of the efforts at training his people in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>

<p>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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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&mdash;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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
appear, from this date the progress made and the
growth of the Institute was no less rapid than
wonderful.</p>

<p>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 <i>Century Magazine</i> for 1889, Mr S. W. Powell
referred to such objections:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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."</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"If they had the industrial education now given
in some schools they might support themselves in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
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 <i>Southern
Letter</i> of December 1901, was spoken of as "now
being rushed to completion." This house has cost
Mr Carnegie &pound;4000, and when finished there was
already a large collection of books waiting to be
placed on its shelves.</p>

<p>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 &pound;2000, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>

<h3>SOME ACTUAL RESULTS&mdash;POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS</h3>


<p>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 <i>The
International Monthly</i> 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
which essentially are in close agreement with the
policy of his late master. <i>E.g.</i>:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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."</p>

<p>Mr Clark adds this cheerful note:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>We learn from an article by Mr Pitt Dillingham,
in <i>The Outlook</i> 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&mdash;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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"The two young women from New England&mdash;one
from Boston, one from New Haven&mdash;Hampton
teachers who first rang a school-bell ten years ago on
the old Shelby plantation in Lowndes County,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
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&mdash;28,000 to 4000. This meant maximum conditions
of ignorance and poverty&mdash;a county likely to
be Africanised if it could not be Americanised."</p>

<p>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&mdash;"I
always did want to own something that wouldn't
die; your mule, he'll die, but the land is gwine to
live."</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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&mdash;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."</p>

<p>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."</p>

<p>There are doubtless persons in the Republic who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
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 <i>Century
Magazine</i> remarks:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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."</p>

<p>The majority of those who are thus educated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
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 <i>Century Magazine</i> tells us:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
negroes is the latest enterprise, while a shop for
teaching mechanical trades was opened.... The
number of church societies is, of course, legion."</p>

<p>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 &pound;15,000, 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
&pound;2000 in the year was received under this head.
Various funds, including a grant from the State,
supplied near &pound;2000 annually. The cost of each
student is &pound;10 a year, board being paid for partly in
money and partly in labour. &pound;40 suffices one to
complete the four years' course, while a sum of
&pound;200 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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."</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>

<h3>CONTINUED PROGRESS&mdash;POPULARITY AS A SPEAKER</h3>


<p>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&mdash;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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
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.</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
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 <i>The World's</i> account of what actually occurred
may best enable us to realise the scene:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
his wonderful countenance without a blink of the
eyelids and began to speak. There was a remarkable
figure&mdash;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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
face. Most of the negroes in the audience were
crying, perhaps without knowing just why."</p>

<p>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&mdash;1837-1863&mdash;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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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 <i>f&ecirc;te</i> 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."</p>

<p>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&mdash;in 1885; but this
second Mrs Washington died about four years later,
leaving two sons. The third wife of the Principal&mdash;married
in 1893&mdash;was a Miss Murray, who was
trained at Fisk University.</p>

<p>The later developments of the work in its many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
departments at Tuskegee can best be realised by
reference to certain recent numbers of the Institute's
monthly paper, the <i>Southern Letter</i>.</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>A Tuskegee negro Conference is held annually, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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 &mdash;&mdash; has reached. Mr &mdash;&mdash; 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."</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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&mdash;more than ten to
one white person. The white people are moving to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
the towns. Thirty white persons in less than two
years&mdash;none coming in&mdash;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."</p>

<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>



<h2 class="biggap"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>

<h3>VISIT TO EUROPE&mdash;RETURN TO TUSKEGEE</h3>


<p>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.</p>

<p>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 <i>The Times</i>:&mdash;</p>

<p>"The Chairman expressed the pleasure which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
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&mdash;some &pound;15,000 a year&mdash;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."</p>

<p>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:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>&mdash;</p>

<p>"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."</p>

<p>At the present time the institution at Tuskegee
represents a value of &pound;100,000, if we include the
endowment fund; and the annual cost of training
1100 or more students is not less than &pound;16,000.
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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
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 <i>Daily Mail</i> of October 23, 1901:&mdash;</p>

<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
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."</p>

<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
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.</p>
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