Up from Slavery · Chapter
VIII: Teaching School in a Stable and a Henhouse explained
Booker T.
What happens
Booker T. Washington describes the early struggles of establishing the Tuskegee Institute, including the acquisition of an abandoned plantation, the use of a stable and henhouse as classrooms, and the challenges of educating students who initially sought book learning over practical skills. He highlights the support of local leaders Mr. George W. Campbell and Mr. Lewis Adams, and the arrival of co-teacher Miss Olivia A. Davidson.
Themes in this chapter
Dignity of Labor
Washington emphasizes the value of manual work by using a stable and henhouse as classrooms and having students build and clean the facilities, countering the notion that education should exempt one from physical labor.
Overcoming Adversity and Poverty
The chapter details the severe financial and material challenges of starting the school with no money, no credit, and only dilapidated buildings, yet Washington perseveres through loans and community support.
Racial Uplift Through Industrial Education
Washington argues that mere book learning is insufficient for lifting up the freedmen; instead, practical skills and trades are essential for economic independence and community leadership.
Characters to notice
- Booker T. Washington
Founder and sole teacher at the opening of Tuskegee, he secures a loan from General Marshall to buy the plantation and oversees the conversion of a stable and henhouse into schoolrooms.
- General J. F. B. Marshall
Treasurer of Hampton Institute who personally lends Washington $250 to purchase the abandoned plantation for the school.
- Miss Olivia A. Davidson
Arrives as a co-teacher after the first six weeks; later becomes Washington's wife. She had previously taught in Mississippi and Memphis.
- Mr. George W. Campbell
White ex-slaveholder, merchant, and banker who, along with Lewis Adams, wrote to General Armstrong for a teacher and consistently supports the school financially and with advice.
- Mr. Lewis Adams
Black ex-slave and mechanic who learned trades during slavery; co-founder of the school effort and a key advisor to Washington.
Key passages
“the chief ambition among a large proportion of them was to get an education so that they would not have to work any longer with their hands.”
Most students wanted an education to escape manual labor.
Washington critiques the students' initial misconception that education meant avoiding physical work.
“I confess that the securing of this money in this way was a great surprise to me, as well as a source of gratification. Up to that time I never had had in my possession so much money as one hundred dollars at a time, and the loan which I had asked General Marshall for seemed a tremendously large sum to me.”
Washington was astonished and grateful to receive the loan, as he had never before possessed even a hundred dollars.
Highlights Washington's personal poverty and the magnitude of the financial risk he took.
“What you mean, boss? You sholy ain’t gwine clean out de henhouse in de daytime?”
An old man expresses disbelief that Washington would clean the henhouse during daylight hours.
Illustrates the local cultural attitudes toward manual labor and the novelty of Washington's approach.