Synopses & Reviews
Up From Slaveryis one of the most widely read African American autobiographies in the English language. It details how prominent African American leader Booker T. Washington rose from slavery to become one of the nations most prominent orators and educators at the turn of the 20th century. This reprint of the original 1901 edition is enhanced by 12 related documents and an essay by W. Fitzhugh Brundage that provides students with the necessary background and context to appreciate the role of Up From Slavery in American history. It addresses Washingtons life and career, criticisms of Washington from within the African American community, the social and political context in which the book was published, reactions to its publication, and the ways in which Washington carefully crafted his autobiography to further his cause among white audiences. Document headnotes, a chronology of Washingtons life, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography provide further pedagogical support.
About the Author
W. Fitzhugh Brundage has taught history at the University of Florida and is now William B. Umstead Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A specialist on the South and modern U.S. history, he is the editor of Where These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity (2000) and Under Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South (1997); author of A Socialist Utopia in the New South: The Ruskin Colonies of Tennessee and Georgia, 1894-1901 (1996) and Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930 (1993), which won the OAH's Merle Curti Award in 1994. He has received fellowships and grants from the National Humanities Center, the American Philosophical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Table of Contents
Foreword Preface
PART ONE
Introduction: An Exemplary Citizen
Washington's Life
Writing Up From Slavery
Critical Response to Up From Slavery
Washington's Leadership Style
Up From Slavery and Traditions of Black Autobiography
Washington's Program of Racial Uplift
Washington's Career After Up From Slavery
Washington's Legacy
PART TWO
The Document
Up From Slavery
PART THREE
Related Documents
1. Timothy Thomas Fortune, Letter to Booker T. Washington, 1895
2. Booker T. Washington, Letter to Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney, 1895
3. Booker T. Washington, An Open Letter to Benjamin Ryan Tillman, 1895
4. Booker T. Washington, A Statement on Southern Politics, 1900
5. Booker T. Washington, Letter to John A. Hertel, 1900
6. Lyman Abbott, Letter to Booker T. Washington, 1900
7. Booker T. Washington, Letter to Lyman Abbott, 1900
8. W. E. B. Du Bois, Book Review of Up From Slavery, 1901
9. William Dean Howells, A Review of Up From Slavery, 1901
10. Booker T. Washington, Letter to Edgar Gardner Murphy, 1904
11. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Booker T. Washington and His Critics, 1904
Appendixes
A Washington Chronology (1856-1915)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index