Up from Slavery: an Autobiography

Publisher Marketing: I WAS born a slave on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. I am not quite sure of the exact place or exact date of my birth, but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time. As nearly as I have been able to learn, I was born near a cross-roads post-office called Hale's Ford, and the year was 1858 or 1859. I do not know the month or the day. The earliest impressions I can now recall are of the plantation and the slave quarters -- the latter being the part of the plantation where the slaves had their cabins. My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundings. This was so, however, not because my owners were especially cruel, for they were not, as compared with many others. I was born in a typical log cabin, about fourteen by sixteen feet square. In this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and sister till after the Civil War, when we were all declared free. Of my ancestry I know almost nothing. In the slave quarters, and even later, I heard whispered conversations among the coloured people of the tortures which the slaves, including, no doubt, my ancestors on my mother's side, suffered in the middle passage of the slave ship while being conveyed from Africa to America. I have been unsuccessful in securing any information that would throw any accurate light upon the history of my family beyond my mother. She, I remember, had a half-brother and a half-sister. In the days of slavery not very much attention was given to family history and family records - that is, black family records. My mother, I suppose, attracted the attention of a purchaser who was afterward my owner and hers. Her addition to the slave family attracted about as much attention as the purchase of a new horse or cow. Of my father I know even less than of my mother. I do not even know his name. I have heard reports to the effect that he was a white man who lived on one of the near-by plantations. Whoever he was, I never heard of his taking the least interest in me or providing in any way for my rearing. But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time. Review Citations: Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9781560005445, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2011 pg. 757 (EAN 9780199552399, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 1290 (EAN 9780199552399, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780385487290, Hardcover) Library Journal 09/01/2006 pg. 190 (EAN 9780977988303, Compact Disc) Audio File 02/01/2011 pg. 25 (EAN 9780977988303, Compact Disc) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780899685564, Library Binding) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780192823489, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780140390513, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780821601846, Paperback) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2007 pg. 611 (EAN 9780451527547, Mass Market Paperbound) Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 1093 (EAN 9780451527547, Mass Market Paperbound) Wilson Middle/Junior Hi Catalo 01/01/2009 pg. 628 (EAN 9780451527547, Mass Market Paperbound) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780679640141, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780192835628, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780517091227, Hardcover) Library Journal 03/01/1996 pg. 110 (EAN 9780486287386, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780486287386, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 843 (EAN 9780606034975, Prebound-Other) Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2010 pg. 67 (EAN 9781589807891, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Washington, Booker T Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was born a slave. He graduated from what is today Hampton University in 1875, and subsequently taught there. In 1881 he founded the forerunner of Tuskegee University. He made himself and his school two of the most well-known institutions in twentieth-century black America. He earned world-renowned recognition as an educator, social theorist, and spokesperson for African Americans.