Up from Slavery

Up from Slavery

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3.97 of 5 stars 3.97  ·  rating details  ·  5,464 ratings  ·  330 reviews
Booker T. Washington, the most recognized national leader, orator and educator, emerged from slavery in the deep south, to work for the betterment of African Americans in the post Reconstruction period.



"Up From Slavery" is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans. Washington reveals his inner most...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published January 1st 2000 by Signet Classics (first published 1901)
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Skylar Burris
It's interesting that with all the emphasis on "multiculturalism" when I was going through school, we never actually read any first source books like "Up From Slavery." However, I can see why some modern educators might want to avoid assigning this book: it does violence to a certain brand of philosophy because of its profound anti-victimization message and its focus on individual responsibility, the power of merit to supplant racism, and the necessity of climbing gradually rather than expecting...more
Terence
I read this book in 2nd or 3rd grade. I can remember the scene: The teacher had spread out a group of biographies on the Willie Harris Elementary school library's table and asked us to chose one to read and do a report on. For whatever reason, I picked up Booker Washington's and enjoyed it. It was probably my first conscious introduction to slavery and blacks in American society; and his philosophy of self-reliance and education has influenced my own outlook to this day.

I don't know how I would...more
Aaron
A fascinating historical tidbit: Washington, upon the recommendation of his publisher, actually excised his originally proposed subtitle for Up from Slavery, which was, of course, Into Jim Crow.

Up from Slavery, contrary to what seems to be popular opinion around here, is not the inspirational tale of an ex-slave pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, but rather it's the story of a vile race traitor, who, just short of literally, sold his own people down river with his odious philosophy of acc...more
Kim
Booker T. Washington was born a slave around the year 1858-59. Slaves were set free in 1867 when Abraham Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation address. Booker then moved to West Virginia with his mother and two brothers and sister, they met up with his father. He worked as a salt grinder, worked in the mines and then as a laborer for a white lady. His goal was to get an education, he saved up to go to Hampton, working days while going to school at night. He then went back to Malden, We...more
Yearning To Read
Booker T. Washington: once a slave, beat down and told he could do nothing, accomplish nothing; now an example to all men, white and colored, raised above others. Why? Hard work and a desire to do good in this world. He accomplished more than a lot, from getting into a school by sweeping and cleaning a room, to teaching at a night school, to starting Tuskegee, to speaking at huge events at which no black man had ever spoken. He met great men, did great things, built a great community, and loved...more
Laine
May 23, 2008 Laine rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any person old enough to read
Recommended to Laine by: it was one that I read in high school and wanted to reaquaint my
I learned (what I had forgotten about this book) is that Booker never had trouble trusting that people would help him. He placed his trust in God and by doing so he knew that when the money was needed to build up the school at Tuskegee that it would be there. And it was and mostly from white people. it seems that they were more tolerant of the black population then that some are now. The school members worked as well as went to school and all succeeded in life. We need more of this kind of drive...more
Q
Incredible person...definitely in my top 5 people I'd most like to have dinner with (or more correctly, with whom I'd like to have dinner). He was living proof that a person's worth matters little where you start out in life and much more to do with how you choose to live that life.

For a man born into slavery in the South to have such a lifelong approach to equality for ALL people is amazing. Some of the bigotry and hate Booker T. Washington must have endured while growing up and getting educate...more
Thom Swennes
Oct 24, 2012 Thom Swennes rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All with a thirst for knowledge
“Too big to be small” is how Booker T. Washington described General Samuel C. Armstrong (1839-1893) but, in my opinion, would apply equally to this remarkable educator, author and orator. I was both surprised and impressed with this autobiography. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was born a slave in Virginia. As a young boy of 11 he was freed by the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation along with his family and all slaves in the United States. His recollections of his youth aren’t particular...more
Lora
This book was FABULOUS. I loved the wisdom and ideas--especially for today's political and economic climate. We read it on our trip through the south and after visiting the grandson of an ex-slave (who knew his grandfather well). A definite must read! So many nuggets of wisdom throughout! He speak of the importance of family connection and responsibility. "The very fact that the white boy is conscious that, if he fails in life, he will disgrace the whole family record, extending back through man...more
Brian
"The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized".

*From a speech given by Mr. Washington to whites and blacks in Atlanta on 9/18/1895

This was a great book that lets us get...more
Christine
May 02, 2012 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Sudents
Recommended to Christine by: Teacher
Freed during the Reconstruction Period, former slave Booker T. Washington desired to attain a position of importance in a culture struggling to adjust to the emancipation of blacks. In his autobiography Up from Slavery, Washington continually stressed his idea that, “… there is something in human nature which always makes an individual recognize and reward merit, no matter under what colour of skin merit is found.” After he found success for himself through hard work and, often, physical labor,...more
Evelyn
Booker T. Washington is officially added to my list of favorite people. His positive and nonjudgmental attitude is exemplary in so many ways. His way of stepping back, seeing a situation for what it really is, unprejudiced by pride or excessive passion, is truly amazing. His insights are so valuable that I think this book should be required reading for everyone.

Washington was born a slave, and was about 8 years old when Emancipation came. Life was little better afterwards, though, for a while. H...more
TeacherMrLoria
Although Booker T Washington doesn't get quite the respect as Frederick Douglass or other prominent abolitionist movement leaders he does have some valid things to say and a pretty compelling story. His legacy is contriversial, as he advocated working for whites and trade school as the way to structure the black community after the abolition of slavery. Washington was big on the value of manual labor, and felt that the ability to work with one own hand's made one a stronger person and it was not...more
David
This second ghost-written autobiography of Booker T. Washington presents the carefully crafted public persona that he wanted. Beneath the mask of a humble, saintly,acetic and patient Negro is a power-hungry, self-aggrandizing man. Washington played his cards close to the vest and was sure that he never offended white people from the North or the South. He curried favor with captains of industry such as Andrew Carnegie and Roger Baldwin who eventually set him up for life. Nevertheless, Washington...more
Tryn
No matter how modestly this man tries to tell his story, the facts of his life shine with the luster of greatness. Booker T. Washington spent his early childhood as a slave on a plantation in the south. After the Emancipation Proclamation was read from the porch steps of the “Big House,” Booker’s ambitions to gain an education and make something of himself propelled him through every obstacle to his goal. Booker T. Washington was a tireless promoter of education for his race and of Tuskegee, the...more
Rachael Szydlowski
The first of the nonfiction books I read was Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery. Before reading this text, I knew very little about the accomplishments of Booker T. Washington, only being familiar with the name–knowing he was important to African American and US history, but not why.

The short text (166 pages in total) highlights Washington’s childhood days, first as a slave and then as a struggling family in West Virginia. The book next delves into his time at Hampton Institute, where he wen...more
Rosanne Lortz
Born a slave in 1856, Booker T. Washington was only a child when the American Civil War commenced. After the war ended and the slaves were emancipated, young Booker moved to West Virginia with his mother, brother, and step-father. The newly freed slaves had to work hard to support themselves, and Booker (not even a teenager yet) did hard labor in the salt factories and coal mines to earn wages for the family. Even though he had few chances for education, Booker set his heart on learning to read,...more
Eric Daniel le Scalphinator
This book was one of two auotobiographies that Washington wrote, and is obviously the one tailored to the sensibilities of white readers of the time. It avoids too many gritty details, whether about slavery itself or the toil of his later education, but shares enough to make a believable memoir. In spots it takes a distant air, but these thankfully don't persist. For the most part, Washington wrote with a geniality that takes on an air of wisdom when considered with the content of the book itsel...more
Elizabeth Rapalo
I find it interesting that Booker T. Washington had such a close family unit as a slave. In other readings we have read the young slaves have always been separated from their mothers and put in the care of a caretaker slave for most of their young life. Washington was lucky and got to keep his family. He had true support from his mother and brother that made sacrifices for each other.
In respect to Chesnutt’s story and what I commented on why we accepted happy slaves I think it applies here as w...more
Abby
Nov 25, 2012 Abby added it
Honesty: If I was not currently in rural Australia with only an e-reader and Project Gutenberg, I wouldn't have picked this up.

That said, I'm not sure why this narrative is not wildly popular with modern audiences. Maybe it just needs to be put on a new shelf, since it reads like one of the better-selling self-help titles: Self Sufficiency 101, Starting Your Dream NonProf/Business/Institute of Higher Education, The Key to Financial Success, The Social Benefits of Dental Hygiene, The Power of Opt...more
Kris
The most amazing life, full of perserverance, vision and sacrifice. After emancipation and years of long, hard work, Booker T Washington educated himself and then instead of thinking about his needs and climb up the social ladder, he thought of the other freed slaves, one third of the south's population, and spent the rest of his life educating and advocating for them. While he, like so many others, recognized they were awash in financial poverty, he was one of the few who saw their only way out...more
Cody
This was an incredible novel. Insight into Washington's personal life, business endeavors, and controversial affairs give the reader a sense of hope for the degraded "second class citizens" of America, and Washington provides for a window through which we observe the struggles in pursuing the most fundamental rights of all civilized life--an education. His pleas to whites and building up of the African American spirit is inspiring to say the least, and at a deep enough level where he not only re...more
laysia!!!!
I Think this book is so good as Booker T. Washington works as many things with his sister and 2 brothers (1 was adopted) his stepfather and his mom who are all living together again .One day they reunited because of the emancipation proclamation even though the master and his family were really nice.But every since they got a free life it has been tough when your free you have to live on your own and provide for yourself as to a slave you have everything already provided its hard to do it when y...more
Staci Wigton
I absolutely loved Washington's simplistic nature and writing style which is vastly different from Du Bois and his radicalistic writing style. Even though Washington seemed to many scholars as "submissive" I found him to be more deliberate and strategic in that way. He states that he was a former slave who had been freed, and desperately wanted to become educated and go to school to learn. When the chance came up to be a kind of principal at a new institute for African American students in the S...more
Ruth
This is the story of a very poor black child of slaves who grew up to be one of the most powerful and influential black men in history. Booker T. Washington's service to his own race and to the Southern white slave owners was huge. He was recognized and lauded by the great leaders of the world. His childhood was very harsh with few family experiences but he was eager to learn and as he grew to adulthood he longed for a better way to teach his people how to survive in their new world of independe...more
Bianca
Engrossing and totally fascinating, and a surprisingly easy-to-read autobiography. Booker T Washington pulled himself "up from slavery" to found the Tuskeegee Institute, a school where newly-freed black men and women could advance themselves through learning a trade and becoming educated. Read this for his descriptions of his life during slavery and his unbelievable determination to become educated himself.
Kyle
Up from Slavery is an excellent insight into the life of Booker Taliaferro Washington, and his life-long desire to better himself as well as both the black and white people of the South. This autobiography begins with Mr. Washington’s childhood where he grew up as a slave, and continues throughout his adult life. Hard work is something that Mr. Washington believed in, and he felt it was essential that all students of the Tuskegee Institute must embrace.

One of the things that struck me the most a...more
Morgan
"School-read" books usually recieve negative reviews from me as they are a forced read and not one that I want to read, but this book was an autobiography. Not only that, but this was an autobiography of someone I had no interest in, so my level of enthusiasm as you can expect didn't quite reach any new heights.
Honestly I just felt like this book was either a lie, and if it wasn't than Booker T. Washington has to rank next to Buddha, or Gandhi in his ability to find no faults in others, and to...more
Etta Mcquade
When I learaned that 100 years ago in March, Booker T. Washington came to Utah and met with local leaders, attended receptions in his honor, and spoke to educators, University of Utah students and the African- American community, I knew I had to read his autobiography. He was a remarkable man and the most eminent African-American of his generation, rising from slavery, learning to read, becoming a teacher, establishing Tuskegee Institute, giving speeches before prominent groups, receiving an hon...more
Pete daPixie
I have plunged head first here into mid-late 19th century American history, which for me, is a murky, steaming, unknown lagoon, full of snapping reptilian creatures. Ask me who Booker T. Washington was and I would be off thinking of 'green onions' and Stax soul.
Reading this biography, first published in 1901, has exposed me to the moral and socio/political changes of post Civil War America. 'Up from Slavery' documents the incredible rise from slave plantation shanty shacks in Virginia to the 'I...more
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Up from Slavery (Paperback)
Up from Slavery (Paperback)
Up From Slavery: The Autobiography of Booker T. Washington
Up from Slavery (Paperback)
Up from Slavery (Kindle Edition)

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Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author and the dominant leader of the African-American community nationwide from the 1890s to his death. Born to slavery and freed by the Civil War in 1865, as a young man, became head of the new Tuskegee Institute, then a teachers' college for blacks. It became his base of operations. His "Atlanta Exposition" speech of 1895 appealed t...more
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Frederick Douglass The Negro Problem The Negro in the South The Story of My Life and Work (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press) Character Building

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