Up from Slavery · Chapter
VII: Early Days at Tuskegee explained
Booker T.
What happens
Booker T. Washington recounts his arrival in Tuskegee, Alabama, in June 1881, after being recommended by General Armstrong to lead a new normal school for African Americans. He describes the dilapidated facilities—a shanty and a church—used for the school, the poverty and debt among local farmers, and the political attitudes of the time. Washington also details his travels through the countryside, observing the living conditions, schools, and churches, while noting the hunger for education among the people.
Themes in this chapter
Overcoming Adversity and Poverty
Washington faces a lack of buildings and resources, teaching in a dilapidated shanty with an umbrella during rain, and observes widespread poverty among local farmers.
Education and Self-Improvement
The chapter highlights the hunger for knowledge among African Americans, with hundreds of eager students despite poor facilities.
Race Relations and Compromise
Washington notes generally pleasant race relations in Tuskegee, exemplified by a joint black-white hardware store, and discusses the political tendency to vote opposite to white men.
Characters to notice
- Booker T. Washington
Narrator and protagonist; arrives in Tuskegee to start the normal school.
- General Samuel C. Armstrong
Recommended Washington for the Tuskegee position and sent a telegram confirming the offer.
- Dr. Hollis B. Frissell
Instructor at Hampton who taught Washington during his time there.
- Mr. George W. Campbell
One of the gentlemen who wrote to General Armstrong seeking a teacher for Tuskegee.
- Mr. Lewis Adams
Another gentleman involved in the request to General Armstrong for a teacher.
Key passages
“It seemed much like making bricks without straw.”
The task of starting the school with no land, buildings, or apparatus felt nearly impossible.
Washington uses a biblical metaphor to express the challenge of building a school from nothing.
“We watches de white man, and we keeps watching de white man till we finds out which way de white man's gwine to vote; an' when we finds out which way de white man's gwine to vote, den we votes 'xactly de other way. Den we knows we's right.”
A local man explains that the community watches white voters and then votes the opposite, believing that ensures they are correct.
Illustrates the political distrust and oppositional voting patterns among African Americans at the time.
“There were five of us; myself and brother and three mules.”
An elderly man recalls being sold into Alabama along with his brother and three mules.
Highlights the dehumanizing nature of slavery, equating people with livestock.