B.T.Washington

For todays class we had to start Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery". The story narrates the life of the author from the time of his birth. He was born into slavery in West Virginia. What i found most interesting of his childhood is the overall attitudes that the slaves had for their masters. In his instance it was not out of hate and despise but respect. For example, during the Civil War, when one of his masters was injured from battle, the slave population would be honored to stand at his bedside and care for him. It was also stated that since there was no man in the house, a slave was given the position to defend the household and would sacrifice his life if necessary. These statements voided all previous conceptions i had of slavery. There was no mention of runaway slaves and bitter hatred of their masters.
The story than goes into detail of the coming to an end of slavery. The family moved to a salt producing town in West Virginia. Here Booker worked at first in a salt mine and later in a coal mine. He started his first schooling by taking night classes and started a collection of books. He overheard of a college for negros in Hampton Virginia. At that point he set that as his main goal in life to get an education there. I found it interesting that he never really experienced segregation and racism until he left the salt town to pursue his college education. The salt town was mixed white and black but i guess the whites of the town were so uneducated that they were not any racially superior to the blacks. When he traveled to Hampton, he was refused recommendations at a hotel because he was black.
When he finally arrived after a 500 mile journey, he went strait to the head teacher to gain admittance into class. She ignored him at first but eventually gave him the task of cleaning a recitation room. Basically he got into college because he was good at cleaning... his exam was to clean a room. After that he was given position of janitor to pay for his room and schooling.