[n.b. page numbers are unspoken, but match printed text for reference.]

When I was four years old I was put to work on the 
farm,Ñthat is, at such work as I could do, such as ridin 
a deaf and blind mule while my brother held the plow 
When I was six years old my four-year-old brother and 
I had to go two miles through a lonely forest every 
morning in order to carry my fatherÕs breakfast and 
dinner to a sawmill, where he was hauling logs for sixty 
cents a day. The white man, Frank Weathers, who em- 
ployed a large number of hands, both Negroes and whites, 
was considered one of the best and most upright men in 
that section of the country. 

In those days there were no public schools in that part 
of the country for the Negroes. Indeed, public schools 
for whites were just beginning to be established. This 
man set aside a little house in the neighborhood of the 
sawmill, employed a teacher, and urged all the Negroes 
to send their children to this school. Not a great many 
of them, however, took advantage of his generosity, for 
this was at the time when everybody seemed to think 
that the NegroÕs only hope was in politics. 

But my father and mother had great faith in ee. 
tion, and they were determined that their children should 
have that blessing of which they themselves had been 
deprived. 

Soon, however, Mr. Weathers had cut all the timber 


26 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


that he could get in that section, and he therefore moved 
his mills to another district. This left us without a 
school. But my father was not to be outdone. He called 
a meeting of the men in that community, and they agreed 
to build a schoolhouse themselves. They went to the 
forest and cut pine poles about eight inches in diameter, 
split them in halves, and carried them on their shoulders 
to a nice shady spot, and there erected a little school- 
house. The benches were made of the same material, 
and there was no floor nor chimney. Some of the other 
boysÕ trousers suffered when they sat on the new pine 
benches, which exuded rosin, but I had an advantage of 
them in this respect, for I wore only a shirt. In fact, 
I never wore trousers until I got to be so large that the 
white neighbors complained of my insufficient clothes. 

Those benches, I distinctly remember, were constructed 
for boys and girls larger than I was, and my feet were 
always about fourteen inches above the ground. In this 
manner J sat for hours at a time swinging my feet in an 
effort to balance myself on the pine-pole bench. My feet 
often swelled, so that when I did get on the ground to 
recite I felt as if a thousand pins were sticking through 
them, and it was very difficult for me to stand. For this 
inability to stand I often got a good flogging, for I could 
not convince the teacher that I was not trying to ÔÒÔmake 
believe.Ó 

School lasted two months in the year,Ñthrough July 
and August. The house was three miles from our home, 
and we walked every day, my oldest sister carrying me 
astride her neck when my legs gave out. Sometimes we 
would have nothing more than an ear of roasted green 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 27 


corn in our baskets for dinner. Very often we had simply 
wild persimmons, or ripe fruit picked from our land- 
lordÕs orchard, or nuts and muscadines from the for- 
est. If we had meat, ten to one it was because ÒOld 
BuckÓ had caught a Õpossum or a hare the night before. 
Many a night the dogs and I hunted all night in order to 
catch a Õpossum for the next dayÕs noon meal. 

Although we were young, we were observant, and in 
this way we learned some things in that school,Ñamong 
them, that the teacher, who was a married man, had 
fallen in love with his assistant teacher. He was con- 
stantly ÔÔmaking eyesÓ at her. She evidently reciprocated 
his affection, for at the end of the school year they eloped, 
and there was a great stir in the community in conse- 
quence. The people met at the little schoolhouse and 
very nearly decided that they would have no more school, 
but my father was there and counselled them that we had 
all suffered enough already from the affair and that we 
ought not to punish ourselves further. I attended the 
meeting myself with my father and I remember that 
my sympathies were all with ÒMiss Deely.Ó True, she 
had run away with the principal of the school and no- 
body knew where they were, but I could not see what 
right anybody had to interfere with her love affairs, and 
I ventured to tell my mother so. Mother did not argue 
the question, but sat down and took me across her lap 
and proceeded to correct my views on the subject. Then 
she put the matter to me in the form of a question. She 
asked me how would I like to have some nice little lady 
run away with my father and leave me there for her to 


28 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


take care of. That settled it with me. Miss Deely was 
forever afterward in the wrong. 

At the end of the first school year there was a trying 
time in our family. On this occasion the teacher ordered 
all the pupils to appear dressed in white. We had no 
white clothes, nor many of any other sort, for that mat- 
ter. Father and Mother discussed our predicament 
nearly all one night. Father said it was foolish to buy 
clothes which could be used for that occasion only. But 
my ever resourceful mother was still determined that her 
children should look as well on this important occasion 
as any of our neighbors. However, when we went to bed 
the night before the exhibition we still had no white 
clothes and no cloth from which to make them. Never- 
theless, when we awoke the next morning, all three of 
us had beautiful white suits. It came about in this way: 
my mother had a beautiful white Sunday petticoat, which 
she had cut up and made into suits for us. As there is 
just so much cloth in a petticoat and no more, the stuff 
had to be cut close to cover all three of us children, and 
as the petticoat had been worn several times and was, 
therefore, likely to tear, we had to be very careful how 
we stooped in moving about the stage, lest there should 
be a general splitting and tearing, with consequences that 
we were afraid to imagine. At the exhibition the next 
night we said our little pieces, and I suppose we looked 
about as well as the others; at least, we thought so, and 
that was sufficient. One thing I am sure of,Ñthere was 
no mother there who was prouder of her children 
than ours. The thing that made her so pleased was the 
fact that my speech made such an impression that our 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 29 


white landlord lifted me off the stage when I had fin- 
ished speaking and gave me a quarter of a dollar. 

If there happened to be a school in the winter time, I 
had sometimes to go bare-footed and always with scant 
clothing. Our landlady was very kind in such cases. 
She would give me clothes that had already been worn by 
her sons, and in turn I would bring broom straw, from 
the sages, with which she made her brooms. In this way 
I usually got enough clothes to keep me warm. 

So, with my motherÕs encouragement, I went to school 
in spite of my bare feet. Often the ground would be 
frozen, and often there would be snow. My feet would 
crack and bleed freely, but when I reached home Mother 
would have a tub full of hot water ready to plunge me 
into and thaw me out. Although this caused my feet and 
legs to swell, it usually got me into shape for school the 
next day. 

I remember once, when I had helped Òlay byÓ the 
crops at home and was ready to enter the little one-month 
school, it was decided that I could not go, because I had 
no hat. My mother told me that if I could catch a Õcoon 
and cure the skin, she would make me a cap out of that 
material. That night I went far into the forest with my 
hounds, and finally located a Õcoon. The Õcoon was a 
mighty fighter, and when he had driven off all my dogs 
I saw that the only chance for me to get a cap was to 
whip the Õcoon myself, so together with the dogs I went 
at him, and finally we conquered him. The next week I 
went to school wearing my new Õcoon-skin cap. 

Exertions of this kind, from time to time, strength- 


30 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


ened my will and my body, and prepared me for more 
trying tests which were to come later. 

As I grew older it became more and more difficult for 
me to go to school. When cotton first began to open,Ñ 
early in the fall,Ñit brought a higher price than at any 
other time of the year. At this time the landlord wanted 
us all to stop school and pick cotton. But Mother wanted 
me to remain in school, so, when the landlord came to the 
quarters early in the morning to stir up the cotton pickers, 
she used to outgeneral him by hiding me behind the skil- 
lets, ovens, and pots, throwing some old rags over me 
until he was gone, Then she would slip me off to school 
through the back way. I can see her now with her hands 
upon my shoulder, shoving me along through the woods 
and underbrush, in a roundabout way, keeping me all the 
time out of sight of the great plantation until we reached 
the point, a mile away from home, where we came to the 
public road. There my mother would bid me good-bye, 
whereupon she would return to the plantation and try to 
make up to the landlord for the work of us both in the 
field as cotton pickers. 

But when I became too large to be conveniently hidden 
behind our few small pots I had to take my place on the 
farm. When I was nine years old I began work as a 
regular field-hand. My mother now devised another plan 
to keep me in school: I took turns with my brother at 
the plow and in school; one day I plowed and he went to 
school, the next day he plowed and I went to school; what 
he learned on his school day he taught me at night and I 
did the same for him. In this way we each got a month 
of schooling during the year, and with that month of 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN at 


schooling we also acquired the habit of studying at home. 
That we learned little enough may be seen from the fol- 
lowing incident: I was ordered to get a United States 
history, and my father went to the store to get one, but 
the storekeeper, not having one, sold him a ÒBiography 
of Martin LutherÓ instead, without telling him the dif- 
ference, so I carried the book to school and studied it for 
a long time, thinking that I was learning something about 
the United States. My teacher had neglected to tell me 
the name of the land I lived in. 

It was hard enough for me to find a way to go to 
school. When it was not one obstacle, it was another. 
More than once I worked hard for eleven months in the 
year without receiving a single penny. Then, in order 
to enter school, I split rails at fifty cents a hundred dur- 
ing the month of December to get money with which to 
buy clothes. 

When I reached the age where my school days were 
for the time at an end I was hired out to a white man for 
wages, in order to help support the family. Seeing that 
there was no chance for further schooling, I became 
morose, disheartened, and pulled away from all social 
life, except the monthly religious meetings at the little 
cabin church. Nevertheless, I gathered all the books I 
could find or borrow and hid them in the white manÕs 
barn, where I spent every bit of my spare time in trying 
to satisfy my desire for knowledge of the world of books. 
In this manner I spent all my Sundays. It was during 
this time that I came across the ÒLife of Ignatius San- 
cho,ÕÓÕ who was an educated black West Indian. It was 
the first thing in the way of a biography of a colored 


32 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


man that I had found, and I cannot express the inspira- 
tion I received from learning for the first time that a 
colored man could really make history. 

It was in 1880 that my father finally despaired of get- 
ting ahead by working on the share system,Ñthat is, by 
working crops for half of the profit. Encouraged by the 
success of other Negroes around him and urged on by 
the determination of my mother and the persistence of 
us children, he determined to strike out for himself. His 
idea was, first, to rent land, furnish his own stock and 
farm implements, then after having paid for his stock, 
to buy land. I remember that when he announced this 
plan to us children we were so happy at the prospects of 
owning a wagon and a pair of mules and having only 
our father for boss that we shouted and leaped for joy. 

Sure enough, he carried out his plans,Ñin part, at 
least. He rented a farm of forty acres, for which he 
paid annually three bales of cotton, worth one hundred 
and fifty dollars. He bought a mule, a horse, and a yoke 
of oxen, and so we started out for ourselves. The effort 
brought about a transformation in the spirits of the whole 
family. We all became better workers and for the first 
time began to take an interest in our work. However, 
before the crops were laid by, many troubles arose: one 
of our oxen broke his neck, one mule was attacked with 
some peculiar disease (I think they called it the ÒhooksÓ ), 
and the horse became so poor and thin that he could not 
plow. 

I shall never forget that mule. His ailment was a 
peculiar one; he could plow all day with ease, seemingly 
in perfect health, but after he lay down for the night he 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 33 


could not get up again. If we would help him to his feet, 
he would eat a good meal and work faithfully all day 
long. Consequently, the first thing I heard in the morn- 
ing was my fatherÕs voice arousing me from sleep, say- 
ing, ÒSon, son, get up, day is breaking; letÕs go and lift 
the old mule up.Ó We also had to call in a neighbor each 
morning. Toward the end of the season old Jim began 
to get so weak that it was difficult for him to do any 
plowing, and before the crop was laid by he gave out 
entirely. At this juncture, not to be outdone, my brother 
and I took the muleÕs place at the plow, with my sister 
at the plow-handles, and in this way we helped to finish 
the crop after a fashion, so as to be ready to enter school 
the first day it opened in August. 

The faithful ox that was left to us was always on hand, 
and it was my duty to plow and haul with him. In order 
to plow with an ox one has to put a half inch rope around 
his head, and let it extend to the plow-handles, for use 
as a line and bridle. That oxÕs head was so hard that a 
sore was cut into my hand, from jerking him for four 
years, and the scar is still there. 

My father was without experience in self-direction 
and management, having always, up to that time, had a 
white man to direct him. As a consequence, our effort 
to do business for ourselves was not wholly successful. 
I have already spoken of our trials during that first year. 
Things went well during the early part of the second 
year, and the crop was laid by with little mishap, except 
that my father, who plowed without shoes, stepped on the 
stub of a cane, which, entering his foot, made him useless 
as a field-hand for the greater part of the year. I recall 


34 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


that Father carried a piece of cane two inches long in his 
foot for more than a month, until he finally drew it to 
the surface by the application of fat meat poultices. How 
much better it would have been if he could have had a 
modern surgeon who would have drawn the splinter in 
two minutes. The crops were laid by, however, by the 
first of August, and we entered the little school, where 
we remained for one month. Our corn crop that year 
was splendid. We gathered it and piled it in heaps in 
the field one Friday and Saturday. On Sunday there was 
a cloudburst, and all the corn was washed away by the 
little creek that passed through the plantation. This was 
a severe blow to us, one from which we were never 
wholly able to recover. 

However, we struggled on. The next year, just as we 
were ready to gather our crop, a disease called the Òslow 
feverÓ broke out in our family. It was a great scourge, 
and all the more serious because we were not able to 
employ a physician and because my father was compelled 
to be away from home during the day, working for food 
to keep us alive. My brother Lewis was born in the 
midst of this raging epidemic, and my mother was not 
able to leave her bed to wait on those who were sick. 
The only attention we got was that which neighbors 
could give, during the little time that they could spare 
from picking their own cotton. Although I never took to 
my bed during the two months that we suffered, I was 
almost as sick as any of the family. Mother had us put 
in little beds that hovered round her bed, and she waited 
on us the best she could until she was almost exhausted. 
But, in spite of her efforts, Lola, my oldest sister, and 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 35 


the most beloved member of the family, died. I dis- 
tinctly remember that this so affected me that I did not 
care to live any longer. The fact is, I wanted to join her, 
for in my youthful mind I felt that she was better off 
than we were. It was after she had been buried and 
after we had returned from the little cemetery, all of us 
being still far from well, that I heard my father pray 
his first prayer before the family altar. The calamity 
was a great blow to him and brought about a change in 
his life that lasted as long as he lived. 

The fourth and last year that we tried to get on by our 
own initiative we had several unique experiences. At 
the end of that year, we came out so far in debt that, 
after we had paid our creditors all the cotton we had. 
made, they came and took our corn and, finally, the vege- 
tables from our little garden as well as the chickens and 
the pig. I felt that we ought to fight and not to allow all 
our substance to be taken from us, and I told my father 
so, but he insisted that we must obey the law. My 
mother, however, was a woman with considerable fire 
in her make-up. When they came and entered the crib to 
take the corn we children commenced to cry; then my 
mother came out and with considerable warmth de- 
manded that a certain amount of corn be left there. She 
said that was the law. I do not know how she knew 
anything about the law, but I do know that the white 
man who was getting the corn respected her knowledge 
of the law and left there the amount of corn that she 
demanded. Having succeeded thus far, she demanded 
that he leave the chickens and vegetables alone, and this 
he also did. However, we were so completely broken 


36 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


up at this time that we applied to a white man for a 
home on his place,Ña home under the old system. My 
father only lived a short while after that, and he was 
never able again to lift himself from the condition of a 
share tenant. 

On the morning of Christmas Day, 1889, my father 
seated himself on the roots of a large oak tree in the 
yard just after breakfast, and, calling me to him, said: 
ÒSon, you are nearing manhood, and you have no edu- 
cation. Besides, if you remain with me till you are 
twenty-one, I will not be able to help you. For these 
reasons, your mother and I have decided to set you free, 
provided you will make us one promise,Ñthat you will 
educate yourself.Ó 

By that time Mother had come up, and there we all 
stood. My mother and I were crying, and I am not sure 
that my father was not. I accepted the proposition and 
hurried off across the forest, where about a mile away I 
secured work with a white man, at thirty cents a day and 
board. Although we usually took a week for Christmas, 
that day my Christmas ended. I was very much excited. 
It was difficult for me to restrain myself. I was free. I 
was now to enjoy that longed-for opportunity of being 
my own master. The white man for whom I worked 
could neither read nor write. For that reason I feared to 
let him see me with books-lest he should resent it, but 
nothing ever came of my apprehensions. 

At the end of six months I ran across quite acciden- 
tally,ÑI will say providentially,Ñthe Tuskegee Student, 
a little paper published by the Tuskegee Normal and In- 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 37 


dustrial Institute, at Tuskegee, Alabama. In it there was 
the following note: 

ÒThere is an opportunity for a few able-bodied young 
men to make their way through school, provided they are 
willing to work. Applications should be made to Booker 
T. Washington, Principal.Ó 

I scribbled up some sort of application and addressed 
it simply to ÒBooker T. Washington,Ó with nothing else 
on the envelope. All the same, it reached him, and I was 
admitted. 

Then came the question of clothes to wear to Tuskegee. 
Up to that time I had worn only two garments at a time, 
a cotton shirt and a pair of cotton trousers. I had never 
worn an undergarment of any kind, and I had an idea 
that such garments were only worn on Sundays to keep 
the starched top clothes from scratching. Now that I 
was about to be off for Tuskegee, I had not only to pro- 
vide myself with collars, cuffs, and at least one stiff-bos- 
omed shirt, but I had to learn to wear them. My white 
neighbor gave me collars, shirts, and so on, second-hand, 
and they were all too large by three sizes. Imagine a boy 
with a number thirteen neck circled by a number sixteen 
collar about an inch and one-half too high for him, and 
you have a picture of me as I prepared to go away to 
school. 

However, clothes was at this time one of my minor 
troubles. I was still giving my wages to my mother to 
help support the family. It was hard for me to forego 
the continuance of this help, especially as the family had 
grown so large by this time, and needed more money. 


38 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


Nevertheless,Õ the desire for education overcame all these 
scruples. 

But ÔthereÕ was still another subtle anence working 
against me. All the older neighbors counselled me not to 
go to Tuskegee. They said it was nothing but an old 


Baptist school where they fed you'on bread,Ñcorn bread, - 


Ñand worked you to death. They said that boys who 
Ôhad no money and had to work their way through would 
be looked down on by the more fortunate; that Booker 
T. Washington was an infidel; and, lastly, that I had 
Ôenough education anyway. I could teach school, and 
what else was there for me to do? 

This appeal to my ignorance and my vanity was hard 
to overcome. Nevertheless, I decided to go and spend 
three months, by which time I expected to get all that 
Tuskegee had for me, and return. 

The first day of October, 1890, therefore found me at 
Tuskegee. I presented myself at Mr. WashingtonÕs of- 
fice for my entrance examination. I was now a young 
man, but I could not tell in answer to his questions in 
what country I lived, nor what state, nor what county. 
I knew that I was from Roanoke, and to me Roanoke 
was the whole thing. Mr. Washington put his hands 
over his mouth and laughed a little, then he sent me to 
his wife (she was Miss Murray at that time) for further 
examination. JI remember one question she asked me,Ñ 
ÒWhat are the parts of speech?Õ I had never studied 
written language, so I answered, according to my knowl- 
edge, that the parts of speech were lips, teeth, tongue, 
and throat. My final examination was on the farm, 
where I was sent to strip fodder from some sorghum 


Booker T. WASHINGTON 


mal and Industrial Institute; President, National Negro 
Business League 


Principal, Tuskegee 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 39 


cane. Here I was much like the proverbial rabbit in the 
briar-patch,ÑI could easily make a hundred per cent. I 
stripped the cane so clean that it shone. 

Accordingly, I was admitted as a regular work stu- 
dent, working one year on the farm in the day time and 
attending school at night. The first night when I went 
to bed in Tuskegee I found myself between two sheets, 
something I had not been accustomed to. During the 
night an officer came in and asked me some questions 
about night-shirts, comb, brush, and tooth brush, with 
all of which I was but slightly familiar. He made me 
get up, pull off my shirt, collar, tie, and hose, and he told 
me I would rest better without them. I thought he was 
playing a college trick on me, but I obeyed. I could not 
see the reason for wearing one shirt in the day time and 
a different one at night. 

Before I left home we had some peculiar ideas about 
what a ÒcollegeÓ (as we called all boarding-schools at that 
time) was like. We all thought it was composed of one 
immense building with, say, four stories, and that the 
first year you were at school you were placed on the first 
floor, and promoted from floor to floor until you reached 
the top floor, when you would have finished school. Ex- 
ceptionally bright students might skip a floor. 

Well, it so happened that when I reached Tuskegee I 
was placed to begin with in the attic, and there was great 
rejoicing at home when I sent back the intelligence that 
I was on the highest floor. It was a confirmation of 
what the old folks at home had said,ÑI already knew 
enough without going to school. 

My education began at Tuskegee the first morning the 


40 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


sun rose upon me there. When I walked out upon the 
campus I took a cursory view of the situation, and was 
startled at what I saw. There, before my eyes, was a 
huge pair of mules drawing a machine plow, which to 
me at that time was a mystery. To my right, a little dis- 
tance, was a brick machine making bricks nearly as fast 
as I could count. To the rear was the sawmill, with its 
throbbing steam-engine, turning out thousands of feet of 
lumber daily. 

There were girls cultivating the flowers and picking 
berries, and boys erecting huge brick buildings, while 
others, suspended high in the air, were painting buildings. 
Some were hitching horses and driving carriages, while 
others were milking cows and making cheese. Then 
there were great fields of beef cattle, and other fields of 
young growing horses and mules. J wandered around 
among these things until I came to the blacksmith shop. 
There I found some boys studying drawing, and others 
hammering iron, each one with an intense earnestness 
that I had never seen before in young men. 

Close by was the machine shop where molten iron was 
being fashioned into various articles, from plow-shares 
to steam-engines. 

Out on the parade grounds was a host of young men 
dressed in beautiful blue uniforms as spotless as a min- 
isterÕs robe, marching to and fro about the campus to the 
exquisite music of a brass band. 

All these groups of boys and girls that I saw were pre- 
sided over by a man or a woman, whom I afterward 
learned was an instructor, and the complete, almost ab- 
ject, obedience accorded by the students was some- 


THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 4! 


thing that interested me greatly. The truth was that I 
saw so many things there that day that I was bewildered, 
but as I looked about me it gradually dawned on me that 
I had at last found the looked-for opportunity. 

Simultaneously with this opportunity for self-educa- 
tion came many real hardships,Ñto say nothing of imag- 
inary ones,Ñwhich nearly ruined my health. I was 
poorly clad, and the winter then setting in was unusually 
cold. I had only one undershirt and one pair of drawers. 
I could not, of course, put these articles in the laundry, 
and, therefore, I had to pull them off on Saturday nights, 
wash them in my room, and get them dry enough to wear 
to breakfast Sunday morning. Consequently many Sun- 
day mornings found me sitting at the breakfast table 
wearing damp underwear. I could do no better without 
leaving school, and this I was determined not to do. For- 
tunately, I had a small tough frame that it was difficult 
to shake. Then, too, the life that I had lived, back in 
the country, had taught me to rely on myself in times 
of difficulty. 

I now recall circumstances that assure me that it was 
only my determination that kept me at Tuskegee and 
enabled me to enjoy its opportunities. My hardest task, 
after all, was to ignore the advice of my student friends, 
who were always saying to me: ÒYou ought to go home. 
This work is too hard for you. This old school is work- 
ing you to death; this fare of cow peas and bread and 
molasses will kill you. What you need is nourishing 
food.Ó 

These arguments were hard to controvert, especially 
when there was truth in them, for Tuskegee was poor, 


42 THE BLACK MANÕS BURDEN 


and had difficulty in feeding her students in those days. 
But I could see no virtue in the argument so long as the 
very students that were advising me were themselves fac- 
ing the same hardships. 

I struggled on, and was at length promoted from the 
position of a common laborer to that of a hostler in 
charge of all the boys dealing with horses, and then to 
the much-sought position of special assistant to the farm 
manager.