The strangest - and most important - feeling that one takes away from Up From Slavery is that the book isn't at all about Booker T. Washington, even though it is his autobiography. What one feels is that he is not the hero of his own story, that in fact the hero exists in the personified form of a principle - a principle called "Freedom", defined by Washington, temporarily exemplified by him throughout the course of the story. This principle ultimately triumphs in the form of an institution - Tuskegee. The villain is, of course, institutional slavery. Washington is a brilliant rhetorician; the moment he introduces the polar opposites of Freedom and Slavery around which the narrative revolves, he insitutionalizes both. In the case of slavery, his talent with words allows him to shuffle off the guilt of the crime onto a separate entity - the institution itself. And in the case of freedom, he borrows the word and imbues it with a proper-noun quality that makes it obvious that Freedom, in the Washington sense, is not a passive experience - it is, in fact, a sort of burden. Freedom brings, according to Washington, the "responsibility of freedom", which means that an individual who adheres to Washington's concept of Freedom is in a sense propelled through life by it. This is Washington's story; he is driven by the "responsibility of freedom" and thus takes a back seat in his own narrative. .
It is here that there is a key separation between Washington and DuBois, however. What Washington sees is a corrupt institution - the remnants of slavery - being overcome through commitment to the "responsibility of freedom", which we learn, by example, from Washington. This commitment entails adhering to a Protestant work ethic that is so intense it borders upon Draconian - witness Washington's "entrance exam" into Hampton. In order to gain entrance to the school, in order to get an education to further free himself, Washington has to clean a schoolroom four times over (or so he claims), so much so that his Yankee inspector was "unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of dust on any of the furniture- (p.
As the nineteenth century approached, America was facing many problems: political, economic, and, arguably the most critical - social. Even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, African Americans struggled to end the racial division that had conquered the United States for centuries. Two men ...
Both Booker T. Washington and WEB Dubois were radical men of their time, and each managed to have great contributions to the overall welfare of blacks. However, their methods for increasing black status differed greatly. While Booker T. Washington believed that respect for blacks would come graduall...
W. E. B. DuBois once stated, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." This statement summarizes a significant issue that most African Americans recognized and sought to change during this era. Although these leaders recognized that there was a problem, they strongly...
Dubois and Booker T. ... Many African Americans supported the program of Booker T. ... One of these voices was that of Booker T. ... In his famous Atlanta Compromise Address, Booker T. ... Many of Du Bois theories were in response to the writings of Booker T. ...
Booker T. Washington was born a slave on a tobacco farm in Hales Ford, Virginia on April 5, 1856. Booker T. was a great public speaker who mainly spoke about blacks earning the white man's respect rather than keep fighting for freedom. W.E.B. DuBois on the other hand was born in Great Barrington, M...
The Distinctly Different Viewpoints of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. ... Two of these forward-looking men were Booker T. ... Despite this, Booker T. ... Rather, it would take much time and hard work to gain the respect of whites and complete equality, both socially and economically, for all.23 As the foremost champion of black education and equality, Booker T. ...
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. ... Booker T. ... Dubois had a much different philosophy. ... While Dubois" ideas were more popular with the African American Community than Washington, he was often accused of elitism due to favoring of highly educated African Americans. ...
Booker T. Washington The end of the Civil War brought a time known as the Reconstruction. During this time, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. The newly freed slaves needed jobs, housing, and education in order to enter society, but the rejection of th...
To serve the cause of human freedom, a person has to be brave, a leader, patient and unselfish. Throughout history many people have fought for what they believed in to gain freedom for their people. One man who did this is Booker T. Washington. Washington was an African American advocate who wan...
