The Dover Anthology Of American Literature Volume II - Plot & Excerpts
WASHINGTON Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), who gave himself the last name Washington as a schoolboy, was born a slave in Virginia. One of the most important figures in American history, he has been esteemed as an educator and denigrated as a political compromiser. His autobiography, in any case, is fascinating and informative. He here tells of his family’s move to West Virginia, his work in a coal mine, and his passion for learning to read. Whatever the moral of his story, he writes, “I have great faith in the power and influence of facts.” From Up from Slavery (1901) Chapter 2: Boyhood Days After the coming of freedom there were two points upon which practically all the people on our place were agreed, and I find that this was generally true throughout the South: that they must change their names, and that they must leave the old plantation for at least a few days or weeks in order that they might really feel sure that they were free. In some way a feeling got among the coloured people that it was far from proper for them to bear the surname of their former owners, and a great many of them took other surnames.
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