ABSTRACT
Washington, the black American educator, was born a slave in Virginia, the son of an enslaved mother and an unknown white man. He worked in salt furnaces and coal mines before the age of ten and then as a house boy. He left work and went to school aged sixteen. Reputedly, he walked 200 miles to get to Hampton Institute, where he paid his way by working as a school janitor. Mentored by Samuel Armstrong, the antislavery Civil War commander who believed that African Americans should receive a practical education, in 1881 Washington became the first teacher of the Tuskegee Institute. By 1888 Tuskegee had 450 students and owned over 500 acres of land, teaching a range of vocational and craft subjects. By 1900 Tuskegee Institute owned 2,460 acres upon which stood sixty buildings, nearly all of which had been built by the students themselves as part of their practical education. During this period Washington secured the support of local white political leaders by arguing against democratic rights for African Americans. He felt that black people should show their loyalty to the United States by working hard without complaining before being granted the vote. The purpose of education for black people was to raise their moral outlook and train them for economic independence. Working with the Hands (1904) is an expression of his ideas about integrating industrial training within education. His views attracted substantial financial support from wealthy white magnates such as Carnegie and Huntington, who saw in Washington an acceptable leader of black opinion.
