Booker T. Washington left the Burroughs plantation in 1865 when he was nine years old. After President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Booker and his family were free - no longer slaves who belonged to Mr. Burroughs. They traveled to Malden, West Virginia to be with Booker's stepfather.
Booker's family was lucky because they were together. Despite the fact that they had to work hard at demanding and grueling jobs, they had food and somewhere to live. Many former slaves were not so lucky.
Educating slaves was against the law, so Booker never went to school before 1865. This is what he had to say when he remembered one of his jobs on the Burroughs' plantation - carrying books to school for one of Mr. Burroughs' daughters: I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study would be about the same as getting into paradise.
Booker worked persistently at many jobs to earn money to go after his dream of learning to read and write. Many generous people also helped him to reach his goal. He then became a teacher, and later founder and principal in 1881 of The Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
He had grand goals for his black students. He urged them to return to the plantation districts and show the people there how to put new energy and new ideas into farming as well as into the intellectual and moral and religious life of the people. Booker T. Washington, former slave, became the most important black teacher in the United States.
You may access a simple time line representing the life of Booker T. Washington by clicking here.
You might benefit from reading more about slave life here in the United States. Here are some books that will start you in that direction. You may access more information about these books by clicking on the book title of each.
Christmas In The Big House: Christmas In The Quarters
by Pat McKissack, Fredrick L. McKissack, John Thompson and Patricia C. McKissack, is appropriate for students 9 to 12 years old to read. However, younger students may want to look at the carefully researched and engaging illustrations with an adult helping to explain them.
The year is 1859, and it is Christmastime on a Virginia plantation. The U. S. Civil War is right around the corner and President Lincoln soon will sign the Emancipation Proclamation. At Christmas, slaves could take a break from work to celebrate with each other. Blacks and whites might share the day but celebrated separately.
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