Up From Slavery: An Autobiography | Page 7

Hampton-Tuskegee idea the races are coming into a closer sympathy and
into an honourable and helpful relation. As the Negro becomes economically independent,
he becomes a responsible part of the Southern life; and the whites so recognize him. And
this must be so from the nature of things. There is nothing artificial about it. It is
development in a perfectly natural way. And the Southern whites not only so recognize it,
but they are imitating it in the teaching of the neglected masses of their own race. It has
thus come about that the school is taking a more direct and helpful hold on life in the
South than anywhere else in the country. Education is not a thing apart from life--not a
"system," nor a philosophy; it is direct teaching how to live and how to work.
To say that Mr. Washington has won the gratitude of all thoughtful Southern white men,
is to say that he has worked with the highest practical wisdom at a large constructive task;
for no plan for the up-building of the freedman could succeed that ran counter to
Southern opinion. To win the support of Southern opinion and to shape it was a necessary
part of the task; and in this he has so well succeeded that the South has a sincere and high
regard for him. He once said to me that he recalled the day, and remembered it thankfully,
when he grew large enough to regard a Southern white man as he regarded a Northern
one. It is well for our common country that the day is come when he and his work are
regarded as highly in the South as in any other part of the Union. I think that no man of
our generation has a more noteworthy achievement to his credit than this; and it is an
achievement of moral earnestness of the strong character of a man who has done a great
national service.
Walter H. Page.

UP FROM SLAVERY


Chapter I.
A Slave Among Slaves
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. This was so, however, not because my owners were especially cruel, for
they were not, as compared with many others. I was born in a typical log cabin, about
fourteen by sixteen feet square. In this cabin I lived with my mother and a brother and
sister till after the Civil War, when we were all declared free.
Of my ancestry I know almost nothing. In the slave quarters, and even later, I heard
whispered conversations among the coloured people of the tortures which the slaves,
including, no doubt, my ancestors on my mother's side, suffered in the middle passage of
the slave ship while being conveyed from Africa to America. I have been unsuccessful in
securing any information that would throw any accurate light upon the history of my
family beyond my mother. She, I remember, had a half-brother and a half-sister. In the
days of slavery not very much attention was given to family history and family
records--that is, black family records. My mother, I suppose, attracted the attention of a
purchaser who was afterward my owner and hers. Her addition to the slave family
attracted about as much attention as the purchase of a new horse or cow. Of my father I
know even less than of my mother. I do not even know his name. I have heard reports to
the effect that he was a white man who lived on one of the near-by plantations. Whoever
he was, I never heard of his taking the least interest in me or providing in any way for my
rearing. But I do not find especial fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate
victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time.
The cabin was not only our living-place, but was also used as the kitchen for the
plantation. My mother was the plantation cook. The cabin was without glass windows; it
had only openings in the side which let in the light, and also the cold, chilly