48 pages • 1 hour read
Booker T. WashingtonUp From Slavery
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1901A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Reconstruction Period”
In Chapter 5, Washington shares his views about how the Reconstruction Period (which he defines as spanning from 1867-1878), affected Black people in the South and in Washington, DC. He notices that many of his fellow men are “called” to become preachers as soon as they learn to read, enter government positions they are not prepared for, or become teachers even though they are not trained in academic subjects. Washington sees this as a dangerous trend. For one thing, he believes that many Black people see manual labor as less respectable than intellectual work. He also worries that if Black people gain positions of power without the necessary qualifications, they will end up looking foolish. Furthermore, he believes that many of these men are supported by white philanthropists whose only real goal is to make themselves look good.
Washington also worries about the increased dependence on the federal government that he sees among many of his peers. He understands that the government was instrumental in ending slavery and is therefore highly regarded among many Black people, but he believes that by relying on it for too much, people will lose their independence. These feelings increase when he moves to Washington, DC, to study for eight months. He speaks somewhat disparagingly of the unnamed institution where he studies. At Hampton, he says, students were obligated to pay for everything other than tuition, so almost everyone had to work hard alongside their studies. He believes this instilled a sense of responsibility in the Hampton students and reminded them that even if their social stature rose, menial labor would never be beneath them. In Washington, he sees his fellow students dressed in fashionable clothes and learns that many of them have all their school expenses paid for by others. Although he admires how academically intelligent the Washington students are, he worries that their knowledge of Greek and Latin will not help them succeed in the real world or in building stable family foundations.
Washington dreams of taking the Washington students to the rural villages of the South, where they could have the opportunity to build lives for themselves. He believes that many of them, if they remain in Washington, will do little to lift themselves up and will end up working in service to the wealthy elite while they wait for the government to create career paths for them. He writes that even those who do find government work, such as the few Black congresspeople, often end up in poverty as soon as their position ends because they lack a foundation of real-world skills.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Black Race and Red Race”
Washington begins to gain recognition for his leadership and public speaking skills soon after returning from Washington, DC. To his surprise, he is invited to campaign on behalf of the city of Charleston, West Virginia as part of an effort to move the state capital there. The campaign is ultimately successful, and many of Washington’s colleagues encourage him to enter politics. He chooses not to, as he views a political career as a selfish endeavor compared to directly helping the impoverished people of the South improve their lives. As in previous chapters, he wishes to help Black people build a solid foundation for success, and he worries that entering powerful jobs too quickly will ultimately backfire.
After rejecting politics, he is pleased to receive an invitation to speak at Hampton’s graduation. While there, he is reminded how much he loves the school’s teaching model, and when General Armstrong offers him a teaching position, he reluctantly leaves Malden to accept it. He is charged with leading a new program for Indigenous students. As part of a nationwide program aimed at forcing Indigenous youth to adopt Anglo-American cultural norms, one hundred boys from Western reservations were brought to the school and lived with Washington in a single dormitory. Washington is nervous about the position at first, as he believes that the Indigenous Americans see themselves as superior to both Black and white people. He slowly gains the students’ trust and convinces them that learning English and wearing Western clothing will help them succeed in the world of white people. He writes that most of the Black students at Hampton welcomed their Indigenous peers, and he is surprised to find that the new students are quick learners.
Later in the chapter, Washington discusses the increasing complexity and racial hypocrisy within American society during these years. For example, while taking a sick Indigenous student to Washington, DC, he finds that the Indigenous boy is often permitted to enter places where he is not, even though he and the boy have almost the same skin color.
The following year, General Armstrong asks Washington to develop a night school for potential students who cannot afford to attend Hampton. For one or two years, the students are given the chance to work for the school all day and attend classes at night. This program is wildly successful. Washington credits its success to the formula he has promoted throughout his life; students learn academic subjects while at the same time learning the value of industrial labor.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Early Days at Tuskegee”
In 1881, General Armstrong recommends Washington to lead a new school for Black people in Tuskegee, Alabama. This school will eventually become Washington’s greatest achievement, but at the time he struggles to see how building the institution is possible. The state of Alabama has set aside a small fund for the school, but all the money is designated for teacher salaries, with no plan for how to buy land or build a schoolhouse. Despite this challenge, Washington views Tuskegee as an ideal place for a new school. The area has an enormous Black population and has long been a center for white education, so he finds the people there well educated and racial tension relatively mild. He notes that there is even a local hardware store co-owned by a Black man and a white man.
During his first months in Tuskegee, Washington observes what he sees as major flaws within the Black community. He visits many homes and finds that people buy expensive luxuries like clocks and organs but do not keep up with their housework and can barely afford food. Rather than growing food in gardens, they eat a diet of cornbread and pork bought from town at high prices. Their land is dedicated to growing exclusively cotton, which does not provide enough income to keep most of the population from incurring serious debt. Education is also lacking. The few schools that exist are usually lacking in supplies, uncomfortable, and only open for a few months out of the year. In speaking with locals, he finds that Black people do not keep up with local politics, choosing whom to vote for based only on the candidates’ unpopularity among white people. Washington does not understand this, and he hopes to teach people to vote for the candidates whose views they actually agree with, as he believes this will help people of both races.
Although Washington is critical of the Tuskegee population, he ends the chapter feeling hopeful about the future of his new school. He sees a great need for education in the community and believes that he will find many eager pupils once he gets the school built.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Teaching School in a Stable and a Hen House”
Washington sets to work building a school in Tuskegee. Although he still has no access to suitable land or buildings, he finds a local church and a small shack and starts holding classes there as the sole teacher. He is aided by the men who originally proposed the school, Mr. George Campbell, who is white and a former enslaver, and Mr. Lewis Adams, who is Black and was formerly enslaved. Washington is impressed at the men’s ability to respectfully work side by side despite their histories.
The school begins its first year with 30 students, most of whom are already somewhat educated and working as public-school teachers. Immediately, Washington begins to see similar issues among his student body to those he identified in Washington, DC. Many of the students are eager to study Latin, Greek, or complex mathematics, but have not learned basic arithmetic or how to set a dinner table. This reaffirms Washington’s commitment to the Hampton system of teaching; he vows to give his students a solid base of practical skills before turning to complicated intellectual topics.
The student body steadily grows, and within two months Washington hires a second teacher, Miss Olivia A. Davidson, a fellow Hampton graduate. Miss Davidson is a light-skinned Northerner who refused the opportunity to assume a white identity while living in New England, instead moving south to teach in rural schools for fellow Black people. Miss Davidson and Washington are aligned in their commitment to industrial education, and Washington notes that they will eventually marry.
With the student body quickly outgrowing its meager accommodations, Washington and Davidson realize they need to find a bigger building as soon as possible. An old plantation becomes available for $500, and Washington reluctantly writes the Hampton treasurer to ask for $250 as a down payment. The treasurer lends him the money from his personal account. Miss Davidson begins holding fundraiser events to raise money to improve the building and buy school supplies, and she asks the Black citizens of Tuskegee to donate whatever household goods they can spare to be sold at the festivals. Washington notes that although they did not ask white people for help, many white locals were eager to donate as well. He is most touched by an old woman who, though poor herself, donates six eggs, saying she wants to help in any way she can.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
These chapters outline the beginning of Washington’s career as an educator and public speaker, showing the events that led to his eventual worldwide fame. He continues to become more convinced that industrial education is the only way to lift Black people out of poverty and end racial discrimination. Much of the text in this part of the book is dedicated to describing what he sees as flaws in the Black community’s efforts to improve their social standing. Overall, he believes that his community is trying to gain too much power and leisure too quickly. Those who achieve a little education, he says, tend to become teachers or preachers: “While among those two classes there were many capable, earnest, godly men and women, still a large proportion took up teaching or preaching as an easy way to make a living” (81). Often, according to Washington, these people do not have the specific training needed to excel in their professions. He is also critical of Black people who attempt to enter politics, who he finds equally under-educated. Washington’s disapproval of the ministers, politicians, and other Black professionals is multi-faceted. On an individual level, he worries that they will ultimately fail to keep their congregations or political seats and will have nothing to fall back on. On a societal level, he believes that “ignorant” Black people in positions of power reflect badly on all Black people. This critique forms part of the foundation of Washington’s key theme: The Nobility of Manual Labor. By learning practical, useful trades, Washington believes, Black people will ensure their own employability while also proving their usefulness and respectability to the white-dominated society around them.
Washington is careful to point out that he does not think of Black people as inherently beneath white people, and he believes that racial discrimination is a social issue that will only end in destruction for Southern society as a whole. He illustrates the mental gymnastics that many white people go through to maintain segregation, and how hypocritical the system often becomes. This is shown through examples, including a scene he saw play out on a train in which a light-skinned man was seated in the “colored” coach. The man identified as Black and was known as a Black person within the community, but the train conductor, a stranger, was clearly confused as he believed the man to be white. The conductor was caught in a paradox; he could not offend a white person by asking if he was Black, but he did not want to let a white person remain seated in the “colored” section.
He also suggests that Reconstruction-era American racism is not inherently a question of skin color, but rather a response to fear from white people about the large population of newly free Black people who can now compete against them for jobs and resources. He again uses examples as evidence of this, such as the story about the Moroccan visitor. When the man speaks fluent English, he is assumed to be a Black American, and is treated poorly and prevented from entering white spaces. When he reveals himself as a foreigner, though, the attitude toward him immediately changes. Washington compares this story to his experience traveling to Washington with the Indigenous American boy, concluding his belief that skin color has little to do with white people’s dislike of Black people. Instead, he believes that the real threat comes from Black Americans’ potential to encroach on white dominance. This way of thinking reveals Washington’s participation in the prevailing attitude toward Indigenous Americans at the time, as well. While many white people saw Black people as a group on the rise, with the potential to become educated and “civilized” to the same degree as white people, the idea that Indigenous people were inherently different and therefore not a threat to the status quo prevailed among both white and Black communities.
Near the end of this section, Washington suggests that Black people have a deep-seated sense of inferiority and dehumanization that must be overcome before they are able to participate in society to the same degree as white people. He especially finds this among the older population, who spent much of their lives enslaved. This mindset is shown through a quote attributed to an older man during a discussion about the man’s and his family’s experience being enslaved. The man says, “There were five of us; myself and my brother, and three mules” (117). To Washington, this shows that despite being free the man still views himself as a commodity on the same level as the livestock that was sold alongside him.
