Up from Slavery: An Autobiography

Front Cover
Doubleday, 1919 - 330 pages

From inside the book

Contents

I
1
III
23
IV
42
VI
63
VIII
80
X
92
XII
106
XIII
118
XVI
147
XVII
163
XVIII
177
XX
196
XXI
217
XXIII
238
XXIV
267
XXV
293

XV
133

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Page 221 - of your expectations but for the constant help that has come to our educational life, not only from the Southern states, but especially from Northern \ philanthropists, who have made their gifts a constant \ stream of blessing and encouragement. The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of
Page 37 - I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reach the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and
Page 220 - of man or God from the inevitable : — The laws of changeless justice hind Oppressor with oppressed ; And close as sin and suffering joined We march to fate abreast. Nearly sixteen millions of hands will aid you in
Page 221 - equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than
Page 124 - some one industry, together with the spirit of industry, thrift, and economy, that they would be sure of knowing how to make a living after they had left us. We wanted to teach them to study actual things instead of mere books alone. We found that the most of our students came
Page 50 - me. After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me : " The adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it." It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs.
Page 218 - opportunities. To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, " Cast down your bucket where you are." Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have
Page 221 - from these to the inventions and production of agricultural implements, buggies, steam-engines, newspapers, books, statuary, carving, paintings, the management of drug-stores and banks, has not been trodden without contact with thorns and thistles. While we take pride in what we exhibit as a result of our independent efforts, we do not for a moment forget that our part in this exhibition would fall far
Page 1 - especial fault with him. He was simply another unfortunate victim of the institution which the Nation unhappily had engrafted upon it at that time. The cabin was not only our living-place, but was also used as the kitchen for the plantation. My mother was the plantation cook. The
Page 200 - to do a common thing in an uncommon manner — had solved his problem, regardless of the colour of his skin, and that in proportion as the Negro learned to produce what other people wanted and must have, in the same proportion would he be ^respected. I spoke of an instance where one of our

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