Booker T. Washington · Public domain edition · 62 cards · 20 chapters
Up from Slavery recounts Booker T. Washington's life from enslavement in Virginia through his education at Hampton Institute, arguing that self-reliance, industrial training, and character matter more than political agitation. This deck covers his early life, emancipation, schooling, and admission to Hampton.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What does Washington know about his birth date and parentage?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
Washington states he is not sure of the exact place or date of his birth, estimating Hale's Ford, Virginia, and the year 1858 or 1859, with no month or day known. He knows almost nothing of his ancestry beyond his mother; of his father he knows even less, not even his name, having heard reports he was a white man on a nearby plantation.
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Chapter I.4 cards
What does Washington know about his birth date and parentage?
Washington states he is not sure of the exact place or date of his birth, estimating Hale's Ford, Virginia, and the year 1858 or 1859, with no month or day known. He knows almost nothing of his ancestry beyond his mother; of his father he knows even less, not even his name, having heard reports he was a white man on a nearby plantation.
Chapter 1
How did slaves on remote plantations learn news of the war?
Washington describes the "grape-vine" telegraph: the enslaved man sent for the mail lingered where white people discussed the latest news, then relayed it to the slaves on his return. Washington says slaves often heard of important events before the white people at the "big house," and that they understood the war's primal issue was slavery.
Chapter 1
What was Washington's earliest knowledge that he was a slave?
Washington recalls being awakened before day one morning by his mother kneeling over her children and praying fervently that Lincoln and his armies might succeed and that she and her children might one day be free. He notes he never understood how slaves, largely ignorant of books and newspapers, stayed so accurately informed about national questions.
Chapter 1
What does Washington say about play and schooling in his childhood?
Washington says he had no schooling while a slave, though he once carried a young mistress's books to the schoolhouse door and thought studying there would be like paradise. Asked about sports and pastimes, he realized no period of his life had been devoted to play; almost every day was occupied in labour such as cleaning yards, carrying water, and hauling corn to the mill.
Chapter 1
Chapter II.4 cards
After freedom, what two things did nearly all the people on the plantation agree to do?
Washington states that practically all the people on the place, and generally throughout the South, agreed on two points: they must change their names, and they must leave the old plantation for at least a few days or weeks so they could feel sure they were really free. Many older slaves later returned and contracted with former owners to stay on the estate.
Chapter 2
How did Washington first learn a figure, and what was it?
While working in the salt-furnace, each salt-packer's barrels were marked with a number; his stepfather's was "18." The boss put "18" on their barrels daily, so Washington soon recognized the figure anywhere and eventually could make it himself, though he knew no other figures or letters. This was his first book knowledge.
Chapter 2
How was the first school for Negro children in that part of Virginia funded and staffed?
No free schools existed there yet, so each family agreed to pay a certain amount per month, with the teacher to "board 'round" — spending a day with each family, who tried to provide the best on its guest day. A young former soldier from Ohio with considerable education was engaged as teacher; the earlier Ohio youth was considered but rejected for his age.
Chapter 2
Why was Washington kept from day-school, and how did he finally attend?
His stepfather found him financially valuable at the salt-furnace and refused to spare him when school opened. Washington arranged night lessons with the teacher, then won permission to attend day-school for a few months on condition he work in the furnace until nine each morning and two more hours after school. He moved the furnace clock to arrive on time until the boss locked it in a case.
Chapter 2
Chapter III.4 cards
How did Washington first learn about the Hampton Institute?
While working in the coal-mine, Washington overheard two miners talking about a great school for coloured people in Virginia. They described a school open to any race that let poor but worthy students work off all or part of their board while learning a trade or industry. Washington resolved at once to go to Hampton, though he did not know where it was or how far away.
Chapter 3
What did Washington learn while working for Mrs. Viola Ruffner?
Washington worked for Mrs. Ruffner, a strict "Yankee" woman from Vermont, for about a year and a half at $5 per month. He learned she wanted everything clean, done promptly and systematically, with absolute honesty and frankness. He later said these lessons were as valuable as any education he received elsewhere, and they gave him lifelong habits of tidiness and repair.
Chapter 3
How did Washington's race affect his journey to Hampton?
Travelling about five hundred miles from Malden, Washington ran out of money. At a mountain hotel, the man at the desk refused him food and lodging without asking about money; Washington calls this his first experience of what the colour of his skin meant. In Richmond he slept under an elevated board sidewalk and earned breakfast money unloading pig iron from a ship.
Chapter 3
How did Washington gain admission to Hampton Institute?
The head teacher hesitated to admit Washington because he looked unkempt after his journey. She finally told him to sweep the adjoining recitation-room. Remembering Mrs. Ruffner's training, he swept it three times and dusted all woodwork, benches, tables, and desks four times, moving furniture and cleaning closets and corners. The teacher inspected with a handkerchief and could find no dirt.
Chapter 3
Chapter IV.4 cards
What did Washington learn about happiness from the Hampton teachers' unselfishness?
During his second year at Hampton, Washington was deeply impressed by the teachers' unselfishness, finding it hard to understand how anyone could be so happy working for others. By year's end he began learning that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others, a lesson he says he tried to carry with him ever since.
Chapter 4
What did Miss Nathalie Lord teach Washington, and how did it affect his habits?
Miss Nathalie Lord, a teacher from Portland, Maine, taught Washington to use and love the Bible, which he came to value both for spiritual help and as literature. The lessons took such hold that at home he made it a rule to read a chapter or portion each morning before beginning work. She also gave him private lessons in breathing, emphasis, and articulation for public speaking.
Chapter 4
What did Washington conclude about strikes from observing miners in Malden?
During his vacation in Malden, Washington found the salt-furnaces and coal-mine idle because miners were on strike, which he says usually happened once men got two or three months ahead in savings. He observed that strikers spent their savings and often returned to work in debt at the same wages or moved at expense. He concluded the miners were worse off after the strike, and that professional labor agitators caused even thrifty miners' savings to disappear.
Chapter 4
What two greatest benefits did Washington say he gained from Hampton?
Washington names two chief benefits of his Hampton years: first, contact with General S.C. Armstrong, whom he calls the rarest, strongest, and most beautiful character he ever met; second, learning for the first time what education was expected to do for an individual. He abandoned the prevalent idea that education meant an easy life free from manual labor, learning instead that labor was not a disgrace but something to love for its independence and self-reliance.
Chapter 4
Chapter V.4 cards
According to the chapter, what two ideas agitated coloured people during Reconstruction?
The author says that during the Reconstruction period (1867–1878) two ideas constantly agitated the minds of a large part of the coloured race: a craze for Greek and Latin learning, and a desire to hold office. He treats both as understandable but misguided priorities given how little formal education the race had yet received.
Chapter 5
What did Washington see as the flaw in how many viewed education after freedom?
The author argues the idea was too prevalent that a little education would, in some unexplainable way, free a person from most hardships and let him live without manual labour. He also notes the feeling that even slight knowledge of Greek and Latin would make one almost supernaturally superior. He calls the ambition to get an education praiseworthy but the expectations mistaken.
Chapter 5
What did Washington observe comparing his Washington, D.C. school with Hampton Institute?
At the Washington institution there was no industrial training; students were often better dressed, had more money, and were sometimes more brilliant mentally, but many had their expenses paid for them. Hampton required students to cover board, books, clothing, and room by work or partly cash. He found Hampton students more self-dependent and more willing to work in poor Southern districts, while the others knew more Latin and Greek but less about life.
Chapter 5
What franchise policy did Washington say he wished had been adopted?
Looking back, the author says he cannot help feeling it would have been wiser if a plan had been put in operation making possession of a certain amount of education or property, or both, a test for exercising the franchise, with the test applied honestly and squarely to both white and black races. He acknowledges it is easy to find fault and that those in charge may have done the only thing possible at the time.
Chapter 5
Chapter VI.1 cards
What did Washington conclude about Indian versus coloured students' learning?
Once the difficulty of learning English was set aside, Washington found little difference between the coloured and Indian students in learning trades and mastering academic studies. He delighted in how coloured students gladly took Indians as room-mates to teach them English and civilized habits, though a minority felt Indians should not be admitted to Hampton.
Chapter 6
Chapter VII.4 cards
How did General Armstrong respond to Alabama's request for a white teacher?
The Alabama gentlemen assumed no suitable coloured man could be found and expected Armstrong to recommend a white man. Armstrong instead wrote that he knew of no white man to suggest, but if they would accept a coloured man, he had one to recommend, and gave Booker T. Washington's name. A telegram later replied: "Booker T. Washington will suit us. Send him at once."
Chapter 7
What did Washington find at Tuskegee regarding buildings and funding?
He expected a building and apparatus ready for teaching but found none. The state Legislature had granted an annual appropriation of two thousand dollars, but it could be used only for instructors' salaries, with no provision for land, buildings, or apparatus. He described the task as like making bricks without straw, and opened school in a dilapidated shanty and the coloured Methodist church.
Chapter 7
How does Washington define the term "Black Belt"?
He says the term was first used to designate a part of the country distinguished by the colour of its soil — thick, dark, naturally rich soil where slaves were most profitable and thus taken in largest numbers. Later, especially since the war, the term came to be used wholly in a political sense, designating counties where black people outnumber white people.
Chapter 7
What contrast does Washington draw between cabin possessions and daily needs?
He found sewing-machines bought on instalments for as much as sixty dollars and showy clocks costing twelve or fourteen dollars, often unused or worthless. In one cabin, five people at the table shared a single fork while a sixty-dollar organ sat in the corner. He notes the machines went unused, the clocks kept bad time, and the organ was rarely played for want of a player.
Chapter 7
Chapter VIII.1 cards
What fears did some white Tuskegee residents have about the new school?
Some looked on the project with disfavour, questioning its value and fearing it might cause trouble between the races. Others believed that as the Negro received education, his value as an economic factor would decrease, fearing educated Negroes would leave the farms, making it hard to secure them for domestic service. They pictured an educated Negro living by his wits.
Chapter 8
Chapter IX.4 cards
What Christmas customs did Washington observe among the people near Tuskegee?
Washington describes children making "foreday" visits between two and five in the morning asking for Christmas gifts, a custom he says still prevailed in that part of the South. He also found that during Christmas week the people dropped work, many drank heavily though they abstained at other times, and there was widespread hilarity with free use of guns, pistols, and gunpowder, so that the sacredness of the season seemed almost wholly lost.
Chapter 9
How did Washington try to make the Tuskegee school part of the local community?
Washington resolved that the school should not feel like a foreign institution dropped among the people. He noted that asking local people to contribute toward buying the land made them feel the school would largely be theirs. He argues that just as the white people felt the institution was part of community life and that the school wanted white friends in Tuskegee as well as friends in Boston, their attitude became favourable.
Chapter 9
How was the five hundred dollars for the hundred-acre farm raised?
After three months enough was secured to repay the two hundred and fifty dollar loan to General Marshall, and within two more months the entire five hundred dollars was secured and a deed for one hundred acres received. Washington says most of the money came from white and coloured people in the town of Tuskegee, obtained largely by holding festivals and concerts and from small individual donations.
Chapter 9
What did the sawmill owner offer for the new building, and on what terms?
When word spread that a large new building was being planned, a Southern white man operating a sawmill near Tuskegee offered to put all the necessary lumber on the grounds, with no guarantee beyond Washington's word that it would be paid for once money was secured. Washington told him frankly they did not have a dollar of the needed money, but the man insisted, and they let him deliver after securing some portion.
Chapter 9
Chapter X.4 cards
Why did Washington insist students erect Tuskegee's buildings themselves?
Washington was determined that students build the school's structures so they would learn the latest and best labour methods and see beauty and dignity in work, lifting labour above drudgery. He told doubters that although student-built buildings would be less comfortable and finished than those by experienced workmen, teaching civilization, self-help, and self-reliance more than compensated. He expected mistakes but believed they would teach valuable lessons.
Chapter 10
What happened across Washington's first three attempts to burn bricks?
After moulding about twenty-five thousand bricks, the first kiln failed because it was improperly constructed or burned; the second also failed. A third kiln, requiring about a week to burn, collapsed in the middle of the night just as thousands of bricks seemed near. Each failure made it harder to get students to help, and most teachers then advised abandoning brickmaking.
Chapter 10
How did Washington fund the fourth brickmaking attempt, and what resulted?
With no dollar left and most teachers advising abandonment, Washington pawned a watch in Montgomery for fifteen dollars, rallied the discouraged forces, and the fourth attempt succeeded. He never recovered the watch after the time limit expired but never regretted its loss. Brickmaking became a major industry: students made twelve hundred thousand first-class bricks in the last season, and many mastered the trade.
Chapter 10
What did brickmaking teach Washington about race relations in the South?
Washington argues that white people with no contact or sympathy with the school bought its bricks because they were good, discovering the school supplied a real community want. Trading made business interests intermingle, helping lay the foundation for pleasant relations with white residents that extended throughout the South. He concludes that the visible and tangible softens prejudice more than pages of discussion.
Chapter 10
Chapter XI.4 cards
What did Washington learn about General Armstrong's attitude toward Southern whites?
Washington had assumed Armstrong, having fought the Southern white man, harbored bitterness toward the white South and cared only for the coloured man. Armstrong's visit to Tuskegee convinced him otherwise: Armstrong was as anxious for the prosperity of the white race as the black, cherished no bitterness, and never spoke a bitter word against Southern whites. Washington drew the lesson that great men cultivate love and only little men cherish hatred.
Chapter 11
What did Washington argue is the most harmful effect of suppressing the Negro's ballot?
The author argues the most harmful effect is not wholly the wrong done to the Negro, which he calls temporary, but the permanent injury to the morals of the white man. A man who perjures himself to break the black man's ballot soon practises dishonesty elsewhere; one who begins by cheating a Negro usually ends by cheating a white man, and one who lynches a Negro soon yields to lynching a white man.
Chapter 11
How did Tuskegee solve its mattress problem in the early days?
Students initially slept on the floor waiting for bedsteads, and the rough student-made bedsteads often collapsed by morning. To make mattresses, the school obtained cheap cloth, sewed pieces into large bags, and filled them with pine straw or pine needles gathered from nearby forests. Mattress-making grew into a systematically taught branch of work, and Tuskegee mattresses became about as good as those bought in an average store.
Chapter 11
How did Washington try to make students feel responsible for Tuskegee?
Washington sought to impress on students that Tuskegee is their institution, not his or the officers', and that he is their friend and adviser rather than overseer. He encouraged direct, frank speech about school life, asked students two or three times a year to write letters criticising or suggesting improvements, and held chapel heart-to-heart talks. He argued that placing responsibility on a person and trusting him helps greatly, and that employers might avoid strikes by consulting employees.
Chapter 11
Chapter XII.3 cards
What two rules did Washington follow when raising money?
Washington says he followed two rules: first, always to do his whole duty in making the school's work known to individuals and organizations; second, not to worry about the results. He admits the second rule was hardest, since meeting bills with no money in hand made worry difficult to avoid, though he came to see worry only consumes strength needed for effective work.
Chapter 12
What advice did General Armstrong give Washington about public speaking?
Washington recalls one piece of advice from General Armstrong about the addresses he was to give in the North: "Give them an idea for every word." Washington says it would be hard to improve on this advice and that it might apply to all public speaking. He kept it in mind from that time onward.
Chapter 12
What did Washington observe about wealthy donors and the practice of "begging"?
Washington argues that persistent outright asking rarely secures help, and says he never "begged" money. He holds that people who can earn money can decide how to give it, so presenting facts about Tuskegee and its graduates on a dignified plane works better. He also defends the rich, noting many give quietly and face constant requests, and that sudden large giving could harm business.
Chapter 12
Chapter XIII.4 cards
What were the requirements for students admitted to Tuskegee's night-school?
Students were admitted only if they had no money to pay any part of their board in the regular day-school. They had to work ten hours a day at a trade or industry and study academic branches for two hours each evening during their first one or two years. They were paid something above the cost of board, with nearly all earnings reserved in the school treasury to pay future day-school board.
Chapter 13
Why did Washington place high value on the night-school?
He saw it as a severe test of a student's worth and backbone. Anyone willing to labor ten hours a day in the brick-yard or laundry for one or two years just to study academic branches for two hours in the evening, he argued, had enough bottom to warrant further education. Some of the institution's most successful graduates began there.
Chapter 13
What policy did Washington follow in his speeches about the South?
He determined never to say anything in a Northern address that he would not be willing to say in the South. He argued that abusing people rarely converts them, and that giving credit for praiseworthy actions works better. Yet he claimed he still called attention to Southern wrongs at the proper time and place, holding that criticism belongs in the South, not Boston.
Chapter 13
What was Washington's argument in his 1895 Madison address on race relations?
He argued the races should be brought together through friendly relations rather than embittered. The Negro's future rested on making himself, through skill, intelligence, and character, of undeniable value to his community. He cited a graduate who grew 266 bushels of sweet potatoes per acre where the average was 49, earning white farmers' respect, and said such success laid foundations for descendants' higher achievements.
Chapter 13
Chapter XIV.1 cards
What central metaphor does Washington use in his Atlanta Exposition address?
Washington tells of a lost ship signaling for water and being told repeatedly, "Cast down your bucket where you are." The bucket comes up full of fresh water from the Amazon. He applies this to both races: black people should make friends and build careers in the South, and white employers should hire the Black laborers already around them rather than relying on foreign immigrants.
Chapter 14
Chapter XV. (part 1)2 cards
What image did Washington use to describe race relations in his Atlanta speech?
He told the white people of the South, on behalf of his race, "In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." Creelman describes the audience erupting in applause at this line.
Chapter 15
What conditions did Washington set for accepting public speaking invitations after Atlanta?
He accepted invitations, especially to territory where pleading his race's cause would pay, but always with the understanding that he was free to talk about his life-work and his people's needs. He also stipulated he would not speak as a professional lecturer or for mere commercial gain.
Chapter 15
Chapter XV. (part 2)4 cards
What motto does Washington adopt instead of doing everything himself?
Washington rejects the old maxim "Do not get others to do that which you can do yourself" and replaces it with "Do not do that which others can do as well." He credits this delegation with letting him superintend Tuskegee while often away, since the school's eighty-six-person executive force runs the daily work independently of any one individual.
Chapter 16
How does Washington keep informed about Tuskegee while traveling?
Washington arranged a system of daily reports so a record of the school's work reaches him every day of the year, wherever he is. Through them he knows what students are excused and why, the school's daily income, dairy output in milk and butter, the bill of fare, and whether meat was boiled or baked and vegetables bought or farm-raised.
Chapter 16
What did Washington tell the Birmingham editor about his Chicago address?
After Southern papers criticized part of his Chicago address, Washington replied to the Age-Herald editor that he never says before a Northern audience anything he would not say in the South. He said his seventeen years of work in the South should suffice as explanation, and that he made the same Atlanta plea for ending race prejudice in "commercial and civil relations," never discussing social recognition.
Chapter 16
What did Sergeant William H. Carney do at Fort Wagner?
Carney, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, was the coloured colour-bearer at Fort Wagner who held the American flag despite much of his regiment being killed. After the battle he exclaimed, "The old flag never touched the ground." At the Boston event he sat on the platform holding that flag and rose to raise it when Washington referred to him, setting off the audience's wildest demonstration.
Chapter 16
Chapter XV. (part 3)2 cards
What does Washington say about his ability to enjoy games in later life?
Washington states that he might care for games now if he had had any time in his youth to give to them, but that this was not possible. He presents his lack of youthful leisure as the reason he does not take up games later, framing it as a consequence of his early life rather than a lack of interest.
Chapter 17
How does Washington characterize the leisure of his youth?
Washington indicates that he had no time in his youth to give to games or play. Rather than describing specific hardships in this passage, he simply notes that youthful leisure for recreation was not possible for him, and uses that absence to explain why games hold little appeal for him in the present.
Chapter 17
Chapter XVI.3 cards
Who arranged the Boston meeting and the funds for Washington's 1899 Europe trip?
Good ladies of Boston arranged a public meeting at the Hollis Street Theatre, attended by prominent people of both races, with Bishop Lawrence presiding. When Washington said he had never been to Europe, friends including Mr. Francis J. Garrison raised money for a three- or four-month trip for him and Mrs. Washington, insisting they must go. Mr. Henry L. Higginson and unnamed friends raised funds to keep the school running during his absence.
Chapter 18
Why did Washington hesitate to accept the European trip?
He had worked steadily at Tuskegee for eighteen years and believed the school depended on him daily for its expenses, so he said it could not survive financially while he was absent. He also feared people might think he and Mrs. Washington were 'stuck up' and showing off, and his conscience troubled him about taking a vacation while so much work remained.
Chapter 18
What did Washington say about his family and his regrets?
Washington married Margaret James Murray in 1893; she was Lady Principal at Tuskegee and led mothers' meetings, plantation work, and a women's club, and presided over the Federation of Southern Coloured Women's Clubs. His keenest regret was that public affairs kept him away from family, and he envied those who could spend evenings at home. Portia learned dressmaking and music; Booker Taliaferro mastered brickmasonry; Ernest planned to be a physician.
Chapter 18
Chapter XVII. Last Words1 cards
How does the Introduction describe the effect of hearing Tuskegee students sing the old melodies?
The author sat in the chapel as a thousand students sang familiar religious melodies. He had known these songs only in connection with the plantation, cabin, and slave, not the freedman seeking education. Hearing educated Negroes sing them brought the whole history of the Negro to mind and made its pathos felt as never before.
Chapter 19
Chapter XVII.4 cards
What did Washington call the greatest surprise of his life?
Washington says the greatest surprise of his life was a letter from Harvard President Charles W. Eliot, dated May 28, 1896, inviting him to be present at Commencement so Harvard could confer an honorary degree. Washington notes such a recognition had never entered his mind, and that Harvard was the oldest and most renowned university in America.
Chapter 20
What degree did Harvard confer on Washington, and what did he say about fame?
Harvard conferred the honorary degree of Master of Arts on Washington on June 24, 1896, the first honorary degree a New England university gave a Negro. Washington says he never sought or cared for fame, viewing it as something to be used for accomplishing good, just as wealth may be used as an instrument for doing good.
Chapter 20
What resolution did Washington form secretly at the start of Tuskegee?
Washington resolved in secret that he would try to build a school of such service to the country that the President of the United States would one day come to see it. He calls this a bold resolution and kept it hidden for years, not daring to share it. In November 1897 he secured a visit from Agriculture Secretary James Wilson.
Chapter 20
How did General Armstrong's last visit to Tuskegee unfold?
Six months before his death, nearly a year after being stricken with paralysis, Armstrong wished to visit Tuskegee again. White owners of the Tuskegee Railroad ran a special train free from Chehaw. Students and teachers gave him a pine-knot torchlight reception; he stayed nearly two months, still devising ways to help the South, urging aid to poor whites as well as Negroes.
Chapter 20
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #2376 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-24. Cards reviewed 2026-10-24.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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