From Slavery By Booker T Washington example essay topic

Up From Slavery, an autobiography of Booker T. Washington, expresses many important contributions of its author. Booker T Washington, born a slave, was freed after the American Civil War and then proceeded to help the African-American race in many ways. He is famously known as a black American educator, influential leader, and spokesman for the African-American race. Washington was politically clever and believed in negotiation and compromise between the white and African-American races. He strove for the equality of all people, no matter what ethnicity, throughout his quite successful life. Booker T. Washington is best known for his promoting and supporting of self-reliance among the black community of his time.

He was commonly heard motivating African-Americans to get an education in a specific skill, which he said would ultimately lead to a productive life. Booker T. Washington said that being educated economically would inevitably lead to the improvement of conditions for African-Americans. Washington believed that eventually blacks would earn the respect and love of the white man due to this, and civil and political rights would be given as a result. One quote that can be found in his autobiography, Up From Slavery, which expresses his ideas of the need for an education and economic advancement is "Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories".

(107) Because of his extensive promoting of education, Samuel Chapman Armstrong appointed Booker T. Washington the organizer and principal of a black normal school in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1881, the Tuskegee Institute. Washington molded the school into a major center for both industrial and agricultural training. A quote that explains Booker T. Washington's passion for Tuskegee Institute and its students is "Tuskegee seemed an ideal place for the school... While the coloured people were ignorant, they had not, as a rule, degraded and weakened their bodies by vices such as are common to the lower class of people in the large cities" (52) This showed that Washington had respect for these uneducated people, which is why he was so willing to teach them. Along with Washington's passion and ability to teach, he also used his talent of public speaking, which is accredited to his many years on the political and educational stage, to aid the cause of further bettering the African-American race. Booker T. Washington used his success in public speaking to get his messages across about the need for an education, which was his main goal for African-American people.

One quote that conveys Washington's purpose and affects of public speaking is "I believe that one always does himself and his audience injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels convinced that he has a message to deliver". (119) Booker T. Washington contributed greatly to the betterment of the African-Americans for these reasons and many more. By the end of his life, he had helped black people all over the country because of his extensive skills and willingness to learn. Booker T. Washington is considered one of the greatest African-Americans in history because of this.

He had a major influence on southern race relations and was the dominant figure in black public affairs from 1895 until his death in 1915. Washington was an important and controversial leader of his race at a time of racism in the United States which made it necessary for African-Americans to adjust themselves to the growing oppression. "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washington.