Books with title Up From Slavery

This carefully crafted ebook: "UP FROM SLAVERY (An Autobiography)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Excerpt:Up From Slavery chronicles the life of Booker T. Washington from his days as a child slave during American Civil War to his journey though self-education and towards his growth as a prominent African American leader. This book became a best seller upon its publication in 1905 and impressed Theodore Roosevelt so much that he invited Washington to dine at White House."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."Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. He was also a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League.

Named one of the best non-fiction books of the twentieth century by Modern Library, Up from Slavery is the poignant telling, in plain language, of Booker T. Washington’s rise from slavery to become a preeminent advocate for civil rights of his time.Although Up from Slavery was initially criticized by African-American leaders for Washington’s perceived soft-pedalling of his message of racial equality and progress, the autobiography was a best-seller that furthered the idea that education was the key to the advancement of their cause in the United States.HarperTorch brings great works of non-fiction and the dramatic arts to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperTorch collection to build your digital library.

The 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery chronicles his work to rise up from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the Hampton Institute, to his work establishing vocational schools - most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama - to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills, and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. A controversial figure in his own time, Washington's Up from Slavery consistently ranks in the top 50 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century.

Some chroniclers have called black history from 1881 to 1915 'The Age of Booker T. Washington' and the label is apt, for he was without question the most prominent spokesman for his race during the post-Reconstruction period. Many of his contemporaries deemed him a savior -- the one man who could bring concrete improvement to the lives of African-Americans while also promoting racial harmony. Others, particularly black intellectuals, called him a traitor to his race, asserting that his accommodationist position not only contributed to black disenfranchisement and dejure segregation but, in the words of W. E. B. Du Bois, 'practically accepts the alleged inferiority of blacks.' But however one judges Booker T. Washington, his vast influence is inescapable, and his autobiography, "Up From Slavery," winner of the National Book Award, is essential reading for anyone seeking insight into the black experience in the early 20th century. In "Up From Slavery," Washington does not dwell on his relatively brief period of enslavement, focusing instead on his struggle to rise above it. For a more balanced look at the experience of slavery itself, this special Collector's Edition includes excerpts from the slave narratives of five less-well-known black writers, offering perspective and background to Washington's story. The text is further enhanced by a rich mix of archival material from the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of American educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). Born in a Virginia slave hut, Washington rose from a slave child during the Civil War to worldwide recognition for his many accomplishments, becoming the most influential spokesman for African Americans of his day.In this eloquently written book, Washington describes his impoverished childhood and youth as a child in bondage, and the difficulties he faced in his unrelenting struggle for an education. These challenges helped propel him into a dedicated obsession with the Hampton Institute until he achieved being enrolled there as a student. He covers his early teaching assignments and his work establishing vocational schools, including his selection in 1881 as the head of the famed Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, designed to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful and marketable skills to help them find jobs and pull themselves up as a race.Reflecting on the generosity of teachers and philanthropists who helped educate blacks and Native Americans, Washington describes his efforts to instill manners, health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational philosophy of education as the best route to advancement stressed combining academic subjects with learning a trade, believing that the integration of practical subjects helped reassure the white community as to the usefulness of educating black people. Washington disapproved of civil-rights agitation thereby facing the opposition of many black intellectuals. Yet today he’s regarded as a major figure in the struggle for equal rights, who furthered the cause and worked tirelessly to educate and unite African Americans.

Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success.

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” --- Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery: An Autobiography Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his personal experiences in working to rise from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools---most notably the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama---to help black people and other disadvantaged minorities learn useful, marketable skills and work to pull themselves, as a race, up by the bootstraps. He reflects on the generosity of both teachers and philanthropists who helped in educating blacks and native Americans. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding, health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational philosophy stresses combining academic subjects with learning a trade (something which is reminiscent of the educational theories of John Ruskin). Washington explained that the integration of practical subjects is partly designed to reassure the white community as to the usefulness of educating black people. This book was first released as a serialized work in 1900 through The Outlook, a Christian newspaper of New York. This work was serialized because this meant that during the writing process, Washington was able to hear critiques and requests from his audience and could more easily adapt his paper to his diverse audience. Washington was a controversial figure in his own lifetime, and W. E. B. Du Bois, for example, criticized some of his views. The book was, however, a best-seller, and remained the most popular African American autobiography until that of Malcolm X. In 1998, the Modern Library listed the book at No. 3 on its list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the 20th century.

[Read by Noah Waterman] Booker T. Washington fought his way out of slavery to become an educator, statesman, political shaper, and proponent of the ''do it yourself'' idea. In his autobiography, he describes his early life as a slave on a Virginia plantation, his steady rise during the Civil War, his struggle for education, his schooling at the Hampton Institute, and his years as founder and president of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which was devoted to helping minorities learn useful, marketable skills. He gives an account of his travels, speeches, and meetings with various leaders, including Theodore Roosevelt in the White House. Employing a didactic tone, Washington deftly sets forth his belief that the black man's salvation lies in education, industriousness, and self-reliance. This is the true-life story of a man of real courage and dedication.

This hardcover collector's edition is cleanly formatted for easy reading. In his book, Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington shares his personal experiences and how he rose from a slave child during the Civil War to a successful and influential speaker, educator and leader. In it he describes the extreme difficulties and obstacles he had to overcome to acquire an education and to help other black people and people of minorities to do so as well. This book is a call to action for disadvantaged groups to lift themselves up and make something great of their lives. It is an invitation to the underdog to aim for excellence, with no excuses.Despite his low beginnings, or perhaps because of them, Booker T. Washington surpassed not only the slave life and mentality but went above and beyond and became an advisor and friend to the presidents of the United States. His hard work and message still have far-reaching and permanent effects today.Washington was an incredibly strong man, of exquisite mind and character, and to know him, through his book, is to be improved forever.

For half a century from its publication in 1902 Up from Slavery was the best-known book written by an African American. The life of ex-slave Booker T. Washington embodied the legendary rise of the American self-made man, and his autobiography gave prominence for the first time to the voice of a group which had to pull itself up from extreme adversity.