Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0010/00106.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00106}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Up From Slavery An Autobiography
Chapter IX. Anxious Days And Sleepless Nights}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Washington, Booker T.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{school
tuskegee
work
time
money
white
first
building
christmas
dollars}
$Date{1902}
$Log{}
Title:       Up From Slavery An Autobiography
Author:      Washington, Booker T.
Date:        1902

Chapter IX. Anxious Days And Sleepless Nights

     The coming of Christmas, that first year of our residence in Alabama,
gave us an opportunity to get a farther insight into the real life of the
people.  The first thing that reminded us that Christmas had arrived was the
"foreday" visits of scores of children rapping at our doors, asking for
"Chris'mus gifts!  Chris'mus gifts!" Between the hours of two o'clock and five
o'clock in the morning I presume that we must have had a half-hundred such
calls.  This custom prevails throughout this portion of the South to-day.

     During the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally observed
throughout all the Southern states to give the coloured people a week of
holiday at Christmas, or to allow the holiday to continue as long as the "yule
log" lasted.  The male members of the race, and often the female members, were
expected to get drunk.  We found that for a whole week the coloured people in
and around Tuskegee dropped work the day before Christmas, and that it was
difficult to get any one to perform any service from the time they stopped
work until after the New Year.  Persons who at other times did not use strong
drink thought it quite the proper thing to indulge in it rather freely during
the Christmas week.  There was a widespread hilarity, and a free use of guns,
pistols, and gunpowder generally.  The sacredness of the season seemed to have
been almost wholly lost sight of.

     During this first Christmas vacation I went some distance from the town
to visit the people on one of the large plantations.  In their poverty and
ignorance it was pathetic to see their attempts to get joy out of the season
that in most parts of the country is so sacred and so dear to the heart.  In
one cabin I noticed that all that the five children had to remind them of the
coming of Christ was a single bunch of firecrackers, which they had divided
among them.  In another cabin, where there were at least a half-dozen persons,
they had only ten cents' worth of ginger-cakes, which had been bought in the
store the day before.  In another family they had only a few pieces of
sugarcane.  In still another cabin I found nothing but a new jug of cheap,
mean whiskey, which the husband and wife were making free use of,
notwithstanding the fact that the husband was one of the local ministers.  In
a few instances I found that the people had gotten hold of some
bright-coloured cards that had been designed for advertising purposes, and
were making the most of those.  In other homes some member of the family had
bought a new pistol.  In the majority of cases there was nothing to be seen in
the cabin to remind one of the coming of the Saviour, except that the people
had ceased work in the fields and were lounging about their homes.  At night,
during Christmas week, they usually had what they called a "frolic," in some
cabin on the plantation.  This meant a kind of rough dance, where there was
likely to be a good deal of whiskey used, and where there might be some
shooting or cutting with razors.

     While I was making this Christmas visit I met an old coloured man who was
one of the numerous local preachers, who tried to convince me, from the
experience Adam had in the Garden of Eden, that God had cursed all labour, and
that, therefore, it was a sin for any man to work.  For that reason this man
sought to do as little work as possible.  He seemed at that time to be
supremely happy, because he was living, as he expressed it, through one week
that was free from sin.

     In the school we made a special effort to teach our students the meaning
of Christmas, and to give them lessons in its proper observance.  In this we
have been successful to a degree that makes me feel safe in saying that the
season now has a new meaning, not only through all that immediate region, but,
in a measure, wherever our graduates have gone.

     At the present time one of the most satisfactory features of the
Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons at Tuskegee is the unselfish and beautiful
way in which our graduates and students spend their time in administering to
the comfort and happiness of others, especially the unfortunate.  Not long ago
some of our young men spent a holiday in rebuilding a cabin for a helpless
coloured woman who is about seventy-five years old.  At another time I
remember that I made it known in chapel, one night, that a very poor student
was suffering from cold, because he needed a coat.  The next morning two coats
were sent to my office for him.

     I have referred to the disposition on the part of the white people in the
town of Tuskegee and vicinity to help the school.  From the first, I resolved
to make the school a real part of the community in which it was located.  I
was determined that no one should have the feeling that it was a foreign
institution, dropped down in the midst of the people, for which they had no
responsibility and in which they had no interest.  I noticed that the very
fact that they had been asked to contribute toward the purchase of the land
made them begin to feel as if it was going to be their school, to a large
degree.  I noted that just in proportion as we made the white people feel that
the institution was a part of the life of the community, and that, while we
wanted to make friends in Boston, for example, we also wanted to make white
friends in Tuskegee, and that we wanted to make the school of real service to
all the people, their attitude toward the school became favourable.

     Perhaps I might add right here, what I hope to demonstrate later, that,
so far as I know, the Tuskegee school at the present time has no warmer and
more enthusiastic friends anywhere that it has among the white citizens of
Tuskegee and throughout the state of Alabama and the entire South.  From the
first, I have advised our people in the South to make friends in every
straightforward, manly way with their next-door neighbour, whether he be a
black man or a white man.  I have also advised them, where no principle is at
stake, to consult the interests of their local communities, and to advise with
their friends in regard to their voting.

     For several months the work of securing the money with which to pay for
the farm went on without ceasing.  At the end of three months enough was
secured to repay the loan of two hundred and fifty dollars to General
Marshall, and within two months more we had secured the entire five hundred
dollars and had received a deed of the one hundred acres of land.  This gave
us a great deal of satisfaction.  It was not only a source of satisfaction to
secure a permanent location for the school, but it was equally satisfactory to
know that the greater part of the money with which it was paid for had been
gotten from the white and coloured people in the town of Tuskegee.  The most
of this money was obtained by holding festivals and concerts, and from small
individual donations.

     Our next effort was in the direction of increasing the cultivation of the
land, so as to secure some return from it, and at the same time give the
students training in agriculture.  All the industries at Tuskegee have been
started in natural and logical order, growing out of the needs of a community
settlement.  We began with farming, because we wanted something to eat.

     Many of the students, also, were able to remain in school but a few weeks
at a time, because they had so little money with which to pay their board.
Thus another object which made it desirable to get an industrial system
started was in order to make it available as a means of helping the students
to earn money enough so that they might be able to remain in school during the
nine months' session of the school year.

     The first animal that the school came into possession of was an old blind
horse given us by one of the white citizens of Tuskegee.  Perhaps I may add
here that at the present time the school owns over two hundred horses, colts,
mules, cows, calves, and oxen, and about seven hundred hogs and pigs, as well
as a large number of sheep and goats.

     The school was constantly growing in numbers, so much so that, after we
had got the farm paid for, the cultivation of the land begun, and the old
cabins which we had found on the place somewhat repaired, we turned our
attention toward providing a large, substantial building.  After having given
a good deal of thought to the subject, we finally had the plans drawn for a
building that was estimated to cost about six thousand dollars.  This seemed
to us a tremendous sum, but we knew that the school must go backward or
forward, and that our work would mean little unless we could get hold of the
students in their home life.

     One incident which occurred about this time gave me a great deal of
satisfaction as well as surprise.  When it became known in the town that we
were discussing the plans for a new, large building, a Southern white man who
was operating a sawmill not far from Tuskegee came to me and said that he
would gladly put all the lumber necessary to erect the building on the
grounds, with no other guarantee for payment than my word that it would be
paid for when we secured some money.  I told the man frankly that at the time
we did not have in our hands one dollar of the money needed.  Notwithstanding
this, he insisted on being allowed to put the lumber on the grounds.  After we
had secured some portion of the money we permitted him to do this.

     Miss Davidson again began the work of securing in various ways small
contributions for the new building from the white and coloured people in and
near Tuskegee.  I think I never saw a community of people so happy over
anything as were the coloured people over the prospect of this new building.
One day, when we were holding a meeting to secure funds for its erection, an
old, ante-bellum coloured man came a distance of twelve miles and brought in
his ox-cart a large hog.  When the meeting was in progress, he rose in the
midst of the company and said that he had no money which he could give, but
that he had raised two fine hogs, and that he had brought one of them as a
contribution toward the expenses of the building.  He closed his announcement
by saying: "Any nigger that's got any love for his race, or any respect for
himself, will bring a hog to the next meeting." Quite a number of men in the
community also volunteered to give several days' work, each, toward the
erection of the building.

     After we had secured all the help that we could in Tuskegee, Miss
Davidson decided to go North for the purpose of securing additional funds. For
weeks she visited individuals and spoke in churches and before Sunday schools
and other organizations.  She found this work quite trying, and often
embarrassing.  The school was not known, but she was not long in winning her
way into the confidence of the best people in the North.

     The first gift from any Northern person was received from a New York lady
whom Miss Davidson met on the boat that was bringing her North.  They fell
into a conversation, and the Northern lady became so much interested in the
effort being made at Tuskegee that before they parted Miss Davidson was handed
a check for fifty dollars.  For some time before our marriage, and also after
it, Miss Davidson kept up the work of securing money in the North and in the
South by interesting people by personal visits and through correspondence.  At
the same time she kept in close touch with the work at Tuskegee, as lady
principal and classroom teacher.  In addition to this, she worked among the
older people in and near Tuskegee, and taught a Sunday school class in the
town.  She was never very strong, but never seemed happy unless she was giving
all of her strength to the cause which she loved.  Often, at night, after
spending the day in going from door to door trying to interest persons in the
work at Tuskegee, she would be so exhausted that she could not undress
herself.  A lady upon whom she called, in Boston, afterward told me that at
one time when Miss Davidson called to see her and sent up her card the lady
was detained a little before she could see Miss Davidson, and when she entered
the parlour she found Miss Davidson so exhausted that she had fallen asleep.

     While putting up our first building, which was named Porter Hall, after
Mr. A. H. Porter, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who gave a generous sum toward its
erection, the need for money became acute.  I had given one of our creditors a
promise that upon a certain day he should be paid four hundred dollars.  On
the morning of that day we did not have a dollar.  The mail arrived at the
school at ten o'clock, and in this mail there was a check sent by Miss
Davidson for exactly four hundred dollars.  I could relate many instances of
almost the same character.  This four hundred dollars was given by two ladies
in Boston.  Two years later, when the work at Tuskegee had grown considerably,
and when we were in the midst of a season when we were so much in need of
money that the future looked doubtful and gloomy, the same two Boston ladies
sent us six thousand dollars.  Words cannot describe our surprise, or the
encouragement that the gift brought to us.  Perhaps I might add here that for
fourteen years these same friends have sent us six thousand dollars each year.

     As soon as the plans were drawn for the new building, the students began
digging out the earth where the foundations were to be laid, working after the
regular classes were over.  They had not fully outgrown the idea that it was
hardly the proper thing for them to use their hands, since they had come
there, as one of them expressed it, "to be educated, and not to work."
Gradually, though, I noted with satisfaction that a sentiment in favour of
work was gaining ground.  After a few weeks of hard work the foundations were
ready, and a day was appointed for the laying of the corner-stone.

     When it is considered that the laying of this corner-stone took place in
the heart of the South, in the "Black Belt," in the centre of that part of our
country that was most devoted to slavery; that at that time slavery had been
abolished only about sixteen years; that only sixteen years before that no
Negro could be taught from books without the teacher receiving the
condemnation of the law or of public sentiment - when all this is considered,
the scene that was witnessed on that spring day at Tuskegee was a remarkable
one.  I believe there are few places in the world where it could have taken
place.

     The principal address was delivered by the Hon. Waddy Thompson, the
Superintendent of Education for the country.  About the corner-stone were
gathered the teachers, the students, their parents and friends, the county
officials - who were white - and all the leading white men in that vicinity,
together with many of the black men and women whom these same white people but
a few years before had held a title to as property.  The members of both races
were anxious to exercise the privilege of placing under the corner-stone some
memento.

     Before the building was completed we passed through some very trying
seasons.  More than once our hearts were made to bleed, as it were, because
bills were falling due that we did not have the money to meet.  Perhaps no one
who has not gone through the experience, month after month, of trying to erect
buildings and provide equipment for a school when no one knew where the money
was to come from, can properly appreciate the difficulties under which we
laboured.  During the first years at Tuskegee I recall that night after night
I would roll and toss on my bed, without sleep, because of the anxiety and
uncertainty which we were in regarding money.  I knew that, in a large degree,
we were trying an experiment - that of testing whether or not it was possible
for Negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large educational
institution.  I knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race.  I knew
that the presumption was against us.  I knew that in the case of white people
beginning such an enterprise it would be taken for granted that they were
going to succeed, but in our case I felt that people would be surprised if we
succeeded.  All this made a burden which pressed down on us, sometimes, it
seemed, at the rate of a thousand pounds to the square inch.

     In all our difficulties and anxieties, however, I never went to a white
or a black person in the town of Tuskegee for any assistance that was in their
power to render, without being helped according to their means.  More than a
dozen times, when bills figuring up into the hundreds of dollars were falling
due, I applied to the white men of Tuskegee for small loans, often borrowing
small amounts from as many as a half-dozen persons, to meet our obligations.
One thing I was determined to do from the first, and that was to keep the
credit of the school high; and this, I think I can say without boasting, we
have done all through these years.

     I shall always remember a bit of advice given me by Mr. George W.
Campbell, the white man to whom I have referred as the one who induced General
Armstrong to send me to Tuskegee.  Soon after I entered upon the work Mr.
Campbell said to me, in his fatherly way: "Washington, always remember that
credit is capital."

     At one time when we were in the greatest distress for money that we ever
experienced, I placed the situation frankly before General Armstrong.  Without
hesitation he gave me his personal check for all the money which he had saved
for his own use.  This was not the only time that General Armstrong helped
Tuskegee in this way.  I do not think I have ever made this fact public
before.

     During the summer of 1882, at the end of the first year's work of the
school, I was married to Miss Fannie N. Smith, of Malden, W. Va.  We began
keeping house in Tuskegee early in the fall.  This made a home for our
teachers, who now had been increased to four in number.  My wife was also a
graduate of the Hampton Institute.  After earnest and constant work in the
interests of the school, together with her housekeeping duties, my wife passed
away in May, 1884.  One child, Portia M. Washington, was born during our
marriage.

     From the first, my wife most earnestly devoted her thoughts and time to
the work of the school, and was completely one with me in every interest and
ambition.  She passed away, however, before she had an opportunity of seeing
what the school was designed to be.