Book List: "Up From Slavery"

This story is an autobiography by a slave, during the transition from slavery to freedom. Booker T. Washington, a young boy who was born to a plantation cook, moves away with his family during the emancipation, to work in a coal mine. His dreams of education push him to go to Hampton Institute, finding his way by working for food and board. He gets his education, and begins to teach others after returning to his hometown. He also starts to study speech, and gives speeches to his students in the community. He meets inspirational people, and learns about respect and discipline during the first half of his life, which have a major effect on his later half.

Washington, with his wife by his side, started the Tuskegee Institute. This school was designed to give the flailing negro population with the skills to enter the white man's world. Right at the time of the Industrial Revolution, this school served thousands of students. It taught former slaves proper manners, dress, and etiquette-- this sort of education was particularly needed for those who had grown up as slaves. The book shows the progression of not just Washington's progression from slavery, but it also details society's climb out of prejudice and into acceptance.