103 - Book | Up From Slavery
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Booker T. Washington's life story has impacted me so deeply. I can honestly say, this is one of those books that has changed me. I have the utmost respect for this man, what he did to lift himself and thousands of others out of the awful repercussions of slavery, and to bring unity to white and black communities just years after slavery was abolished, was nothing short of heroic.
He was born a slave. He didn't know who his father was. He didn't even know his birthday.
His deep hunger for education drove him to take some massive risks and endure some incredibly difficult circumstances. But his tenacity and perseverance and hard work carved a path to create such an incredible life and legacy, which I'm going to talk more about today. I hope you'll listen in to his inspiring story, my top three takeaways, and I really, really hope that you're going to pick up this book.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below!
If you're not familiar with it, I have the Nancy Ray Book Club where, once a month, I share a summary of a book that I believe is worth reading and my top three takeaways from that book. Now, whether or not you're part of the Nancy Ray Book Club and reading along, or if you just like to listen to my recaps, I would just like to say these book episodes are some of my favorite ones to do.
I haven't always been a reader, but I have grown to appreciate that books represent a person's greatest life work or life experiences, their best ideas and life lessons. And the more I read, the more I have the opportunity for my life to be changed, as I learned from other people.
Many of you have joined my 2021 book club and are reading along with me this year. If you haven't, there's no pressure, but you can join at any point. You can even pick and choose what books you want to read. You can learn more about it by going to nancyray.com/bookclub. You can see what books I have already read and which books I plan to read the rest of this year.
Okay, I'm going to be honest. I don't quite know how to talk about this book and this man and do it justice. He will forever remain in my heart as one of America's greatest heroes. You know, I think just coming to terms with the fact that this podcast episode is just not going to do it justice, you need go read the book. I really think every American should read this book. That is the only thing giving me permission to just share a few of my thoughts and takeaways I had from his life story. It's just incredible. He's just an incredible man, and he's he has the most incredible story. So Booker T. Washington was born a slave. He was born in a slave hut in Virginia.
His mom was the cook for a plantation in the South. His dad was a white man that he did not know. He had two siblings. He grew up in this little hut, sleeping on the ground every night. His childhood was marked with work and only work. There's no work and play. It was just work hard, grueling work. Way advanced for his age. And he did that from the moment he got up to when he went to bed at night.
I mean, he was a boy when all the slaves on his plantation were called to gather around on the veranda of the main house to be read the Emancipation Proclamation by an officer in front of the master and his family, as well as all the slaves. And he recounts in the book and his story that his mom just cried and cried and held him and his siblings and just kiss them over and over because she didn't know that she would ever see this day come and as it happened, it was just so overwhelming. I want to read this little part to you because I just thought was so beautiful.
He says, “For some minutes after this reading, there was great rejoicing and thanksgiving and wild scenes of ecstasy, but there was no feeling of bitterness. In fact, there was pity among the slaves for our former owners. The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated colored people lasted for but a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabin, there was a change in their feelings, the great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children seem to take possession of them. It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of 10 or 12 out into the world to provide for himself.”
I mean, the weight of that paragraph was just astounding to me. What freedom and ecstasy and glory that they found in there. And just being freed after being slaves, their entire lives—that's all they've ever known—and then the responsibility in weight of their freedom without actually having been trained or given the tools to go out into the world and provide for themselves, and yet they had to.
So, then he and his family moved from the plantation. They started a life for themselves. He worked long, hard hours in a coal mine with his brother and his stepdad. I mean, all he did his work and in all his free time—and his work time—all he did was dream and scheme of ways to learn, to read and get an education. I mean, it was just amazing to me, how much he dreamed about reading and learning.
There's a story in the book where he had to walk I think his master's daughter to school every day and carry her books. And he looked so longingly in on the children learning. He thought to himself, that is like the greatest achievement of life. If I can just be in a classroom and learn, I will have made it. So he had this deep longing for education. And he worked in this coal mine.
He saved as much money as he could. He was even supported by his brother and his brother saved his money. His community also saved their money, but they were all saving it because they knew that he had this dream to get educated, and Booker had heard about this school for black people that sounded incredible to him. It was called the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. I mean, it was 500 miles from his home and he had no way of getting there, no transportation, and he barely had any money, but he worked so hard, and between the little money that he saved, the little money that his brother gave him, and the few donations that his community gave him, he gathered enough money to say, “I'm going to take a trip. I'm going to Hampton. I'm going to go there. And I'm going to get an education.” Even though it's 500 miles from his home and he had no idea how he was going to get there. So he had a satchel, all of his belongings, his clothes, everything was in that one satchel. He made his way say goodbye to his family and he started out on his adventure and only hours away from his home he realized, he’s going to run out of money. And that night, I think he rode by horse and buggy by, you know, several, several miles. But he got to a place where there's a hotel and it was bitterly cold. And he went to go get a room and some food at the hotel and he was turned away entirely because of the color of his skin, they wouldn't even have a conversation. And so what he did, that entire night, he just walked about to keep warm. He just tried to keep warm just by walking out in the cold and he made it to the next morning.
I mean, one of the most incredible parts of his story was just his journey and getting to Hampton. And I'm realizing, as I'm telling you a synopsis of his kind of life story before I get into my three takeaways is I can get carried away so easily because there are so many incredible moments throughout his story that really defined him. I mean, as he was traveling to Hampton, he had to just find, hit a stop and find work along the way to earn enough money to feed himself, and then finally save enough just to travel a little bit further, and then he would find more work and work some more and then get enough money to travel a little bit further.
And so, because he couldn't find lodging, I believe it was in Richmond, Virginia, that he, where he was working and trying to find work and a place to stay. He noticed there was this gap in the sidewalk between like there's a gap between the sidewalk and the ground beneath that. And when he saw that, that was a place he could have shelter for the night. He looked around and when no one was looking, he crawled underneath the sidewalk and he slept there through the night. That was his place to stay. It was a shelter for several nights and he used his satchel for a pillow. He says, he remembers people walking over him, directly above him. He remembered that sound. He did this for several nights and then he would look around and roll out of the sidewalk and then get to work the next day and find money for food.
I mean, just the tenacity and perseverance of that is astounding to me. It was just incredible. So, all right, I'm going to try to make this a little more brief. I feel like I could go on and on about his story. So he made his way to Hampton. He made it. And when he got there, he had no money to begin school.
He had no money to pay for his education, but he wanted it so badly, he had to prove himself to the administration there, to the people who were in charge of admissions, if you'd call it that. So he went there and he was trying to convince him he could earn his way and they looked at him and they were like, I don't know that this guy has what it takes. And he just said, let me prove it to you, anything. And so he cleaned this room and he cleaned it so well, there was not even a spot in the room that they could point to. And so the lady he was cleaning for said, okay, you, you have value, you can earn your way through an education if you will clean or do chores or work as a janitor and he was like, yes, I'm all in. So he was so grateful. So overwhelmingly grateful. He got a chance to get his education. He gave it his all. I mean, he loved learning. He loved being mentored. He was so hungry to learn anything and everything.
He worked his way all the way through Hampton. And at the end, I believe it was right towards the end or maybe right after he graduated, he was approached to be the head of the Tuskegee School in Alabama. And he showed up. He said, yes, of course he showed up, but there was no school. All there was, was a ton of eager black students that did not have an education, just like he was a few years ago. They were ready to do anything, to learn and make a way for themselves, and so he resolved in himself to make Tuskegee a success. I mean, the story of the Tuskegee Institute is so remarkable.
So he raised money from nothing. He went around asking, he really just walked it out every single day. He led the school, the teachers, the students, and most days he did not even know where the resources or money would come from to feed the students meals or to have enough money to provide a place for them to stay. Or, I mean, a lot of times the students would even sit outside overnight around a fire in the cold with no place to sleep, just to get the chance to keep learning. And the thing that kept the school going was Booker T. Washington's tenacity and the tenacity of the students and the teachers and their love for knowledge and desire to learn and, and just trust in God for the next thing.
It was remarkable to read this. So what he, I ended up doing is he designed the school so that the students would work their way through the school, earn their way through it and learn trades along the way. So they purchased land through a lot of donations, and then he had the students farm the land to make money for the school and make money for their tuition.
And then when it came time to build their first building, the students built it and learned the trade of building and being electrician and plumbing, all the things that go into building a building, they learned that as they went. When bricks were needed for the building, they decided to open a brick masonry as part of their school, which proved to be an incredibly challenging process, but also an incredibly valuable trade. And they overcame the process and they began supplying the best bricks in town, and as it grew as the Tuskegee Institute grew, the costs needs continued to grow. Of course. And there were several days where he, he just didn't know where the money would come and he just kept going.
The bottom line is, he built something so incredible after years and years and years of so much work. It became one of the leading educational institutes of his day, but he built so much more than just a school. He built a life and a legacy of his own that literally lifted other people up. He raised them up and lifted up their lives and their legacies too. And in the process, he became a national leader. He started catching the eye of the leaders of our country.
He became a renowned public speaker, speaking to thousands and thousands of people. An author. He even advised multiple presidents of the United States. And after reading his story, I just am so inspired. And I have been so challenged on so many levels in my own life. First with my passion for knowledge, I just want a deeper hunger to learn.
My own perseverance, I feel like weeks sauce when I compare my life to Booker T. Washington. I mean, the things that he did without complaining, it just, it like has wrecked me because I complain about the stupidest thing sometimes.
I have such a respect of renewed respect for hard work. I mean, really his life. I've been thinking, thinking about it almost every day since I read this book of his impact in my life for the better.
So now that you know a little bit about his story, which I feel like I just feel like I wanted to share that with you to hopefully convince you to read the book. And if you did read the book already, just to recall some of those really big moments that are so life-changing in the book, but anyway, my top three takeaways from the book…
Takeaway #1
First, the importance and dignity of work.
Just how important work is, but not how important it is. It gives us dignity. Like it is so important. And there are themes about this throughout the book, throughout his story. I mean, even from the very beginning, born as a slave, working as a slave all the way through running the Tuskegee Institute and being a leader like a national leader in our country.
There are just so many lessons to be learned. So one paragraph I want to read talks about how slavery, the institution of slavery really robbed not only the black man, but also the white man from the dignity of work. Let me read this to you.
He says “The whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to cause labor as a rule to be looked down upon as a badge of degradation of inferiority. Hence labor was something that both races on the slave plantation sought to escape. The slave system on our place in large measure, took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of the white people. My old master had many boys and girls, but not one, so as far as I know, even mastered a single trade of a special line of productive industry. The girls were not taught to cook, so, or take care of the house. All of this was left to the slaves. The slaves of course had little personal interest in the life of the plantation and their ignorance prevented them from learning how to do things in the most improved and thorough manner. So when freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life and new as the master, except in the matter of book learning and ownership of property. The slave owner and his sons had mastered no special industry. They unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labor was not the proper thing for them. On the other hand, the slaves in many cases had mastered some handicraft and none were ashamed and few unwilling to labor.”
So in a nutshell, then the white person looked down at work as beneath him and slaves weren't really motivated by it because it wasn't their own work. It was all for someone else. So they didn't do a great job or they weren't really motivated to do it in the best way or feel any dignity because of it because they're forced to do it. I'm going to state the obvious slavery is so evil on so many levels.
But for me this was really eye-opening. It stole from so many people, it stole the dignity of work. Not only from the black man by forcing them to do it. It robbed men of both races, the dignity and joy of doing good work, just like Booker T. Washington said it robbed them of the spirit of self-reliance and self help. I just thought that was really interesting.
Now, years later, when he ran the Tuskegee Institute, Washington often remarked in his book, how students would come and would be so eager for book knowledge. They were so burnt out on work and working for someone else and working in general, and understandably so, that they didn't understand why, why at this school at Tuskegee, is there such an emphasis on working with your hands and doing work and working your way through school, when I'm here to get educated, I've worked already. I don't, I don't want to work that hard anymore. I just want to learn to read, but Washington learned and saw the value of work. And he said, he learned this at Hampton, but he said that he wanted to basically re-teach the thinking on work. That work is good and noble and honorable and no matter what your skin color, work is not beneath you.
If you offered some work or trade or skill to a community, and you were the best at that thing, you're not going to go without a job or work.
He said of his own experience at Hampton, “At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace to labor, but I learned to love labor, not only for its financial value, but for labor's own sake and for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants done brings. At that institution, I got my first taste of what it meant to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the fact that the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and happy.”
Side note—I personally feel like our culture right now. We talk so much about self care and making ourselves happy that we forget this truth. And I want to write this on a post-it note or I don't know, maybe have it framed and put it somewhere I can see it every day, that the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and happy.
Takeaway #2
My second takeaway is that he was so conciliatory and gracious and he worked to bring the races together.
I was so struck throughout his life story about how he took such a gracious, conciliatory tone, specifically with white people, with his words and actions. He was born a slave. He had to build his life from nothing and overcome so much trauma, and yet he lived and walked in freedom and forgiveness. He held onto no bitterness. This astounded me. It was beautiful.
If anybody had a right to be bitter, it was him. I'll just read you a few excerpts from his story to illustrate what I'm talking about. Of slavery, he said, I pity from the bottom of my heart, any nation or body of people that is so as to get entangled in the net of slavery. I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction. And besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the general government. Having once got its tentacles fastened on the economic and social life of the Republic, it was no easy matter for the country to relieve itself of the institution.”
In regards to him being turned away from the hotel, when he was making his journey to Hampton, he said, “without asking to whether I had any money, the man at the desk refused to even consider their matter of providing me with food or lodging. This was my first experience in finding out what the color of my skin meant. In some way, I managed to keep warm by walking about and so, got through the night. My whole soul was so bent upon reaching Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness toward the hotel keeper.”
You know, right now, I feel like we're just living in this time of tension. When we talk about race in America. And it's hard for us to imagine it being worse than it is now, just because we have not lived through that. We haven't lived through the kind of tension that Booker T. Washington did, but he, he really dealt with tension. I'll never forget one part of the book much later when he was a really prominent speaker, he talked about a speech he had to deliver in Atlanta to thousands of people and, talk about tension, this was an audience filled with southern white people, black people, and northern white people, just years after the Civil War. He said it was very likely that his previous master could have been in the audience. I mean, he was pacing. He was so nervous. He talked a lot about how he had to work through a lot of feelings before he gave this talk. He was just, Oh, he was so nervous and all, all eyes were on him. And so he stepped into it, he delivered the speech and he said that the crowd just roared. I mean, they were so approving of the speech, and the reason is that the words he spoke were true and they were very gracious and pointed to different groups of people in the audience, but gracious to every single group in the audience and always marked with hope for both races. I think we can learn from him in that, you know, perhaps in race relations, yes, but even more broadly, like in our own lives. To seek to be gracious and forgiving, and to speak hope to other people.
You know, in contrast today in the media, we see people seeking to win every argument to prove that we're right. We fight for our perspective, our opinion. We seek to even take people down. We use something that they said recently, or several years ago to destroy their career, to tear them down, to prove them wrong publicly, to shame them .What a stark contrast to the conciliatory approach that Booker T. Washington took. To be honest, it was so refreshing and inspiring, it brought tears to my eyes, I literally could cry talking about it, to read his story and how he walked in forgiveness and hope. He gained the respect of so many people, regardless of color, regardless of gender. I mean, he, he gained it with his character and with his hopeful, kind words. It was remarkable.
Takeaway #3
And the third takeaway that I've had in addition to just the dignity and goodness of work and the beautiful conciliatory and hopeful tone he took with all people, the third takeaway is that he was just a simple man who loved truth and stating the facts.
He just stated things as they were. He didn't embellish them. I mean his entire autobiography, it was simple. It was driven by real life stories and facts. I mean, they were not emotionally emphasized in the book. They were just concise and simple. He let the facts and the truth speak for itself. One of the areas he did this, I thought this was so interesting, was in his fundraising. And he spent years and years and years of his life fundraising for Tuskegee. That was a big part of his role as the leader of the school was to keep the school going.
And he said, “I often tell people I've never begged any money and that I'm not a beggar. My experience and observation have convinced me that persistent asking outright for money from the rich does not as a rule secure help. I have usually proceeded on the principle that persons who possess sense enough to earn money, have sense enough to know how to give it away, and that the mere making known of the facts regarding Tuskegee, especially the facts regarding the work of the graduates has been more effective than outright begging. I think that the presentation of facts on a high dignified plane is all the begging that most rich people care for.”
Now, I don't know about you, I personally have the tendency to embellish some things in my own life. I, you know, if I have a hard day and Will comes home, I like to tell him all about it. If I had a great time somewhere, I'm going to go into every detail. I'm a very emotional person. I'm not saying that's bad, but I will just say this, I really admired reading his book. I re I admired the way he wrote it. I admired the way he recounted things in life. And ultimately I believe this was the way he lived his life. He was simple, yet full of wisdom and driven by truth. In fact, he experienced deep emotions, a hundred percent. I mean, he certainly recounted some emotions in this book, but it was always very thoughtful and in a concise way.
Bottom line is that he was more of a man of action than he was words, unafraid to do the work. And when he spoke, you wanted to stop and listen to what he had to say. I just feel like I have a lot to learn from that. The more I read through his life stories, the more my admiration grew.
So if you haven't read Booker T. Washington's autobiography called Up From Slavery, I highly highly recommend it. He was such an American hero.
I'm going to close with words from Booker T Washington:
“Character, not circumstance, makes the person.”
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.
