Up From Slavery

The 1901 autobiography of American Educator Booker T. Washington is titled Up from Slavery (1856-1915). Up from Slavery details Washington's life for more than forty years, from his time as a slave through his time as a schoolteacher and his role as the face of racial relations in the South. Through laborious, manual effort, a good education, and connections with admirable people, Washington advances in this text's social hierarchy. He emphasizes the value of education for the black community throughout the book as a practical strategy to improve racial relations in the South (particularly in the context of Reconstruction). Washington's conventional, non-confrontational message is essentially what the book is about, and it is backed by the example of his life. It is the story of Education, Industriousness, Humility, The people's capacity for change and Poverty among the black population.