Up From Slavery

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Up From Slavery tells the story of Up From Slavery, his life and his achievements. It explains the difficulties of his childhood, the challenges he faced in the pursuit of his education, and the successes of his adult life. While the purpose of Up From Slavery was to recap Booker T. Washington’s life and experiences, he spent much of the book discussing love and tolerance. His life was filled with race-related obstacles, but he used these as examples to demonstrate the best ways to face one’s oppressors. Both his love of knowledge and his love of teaching are transparent as one looks through his life and decisions. Part of the assignment of this paper was to investigate the author’s bias and the ways in which that bias played a role in both his book and his life, but upon investigation of the life and personality of Mr. Washington, his bias seems almost nonexistent. To quote the man himself, “I…resolved that I would permit no man, no matter what his color may be to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. With God’s help, I believe that I have completely rid myself of any ill feeling toward the southern white man for any wrong that he may have inflicted upon my race….I pity from the bottom of my heart any individual who is so unfortunate as to get into the habit of holding race prejudice.” (page 62, Up From Slavery) Booker T. Washington was without hate for his fellow man and was very humble. While his book may have seemed to be his memoirs, it was actually the story of tolerance and humility. Booker T. Washington worked hard for everything in his life. He constantly fought an uphill battle. Having never met his father, he spent the younger years of his life as a slave. After emancipation, he lived with his stepfather, w... ... middle of paper ... ...ring specific details of events while glossing over other major life events such as his marriages, and how his first and second wife both died within five years of marriage. As the main purpose of the book seems to be for the reader to understand the events that led up to the creation of the Tuskegee Institute and the work that Mr. Washington did as a civil rights leader, it is understandable that certain events that he did not consider pivotal to the story were glossed over. In all, Up From Slavery is a classic autobiography that tells the story of Mr. Booker T. Washington and the events which led to his renown as a leader of the civil rights movement and director of his Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama. I found it to be an interesting, but sometimes dry, read which was very informative of the story behind the brilliant yet humble man who was, Booker T. Washington.

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