Booker T. Washington, Builder o - African American History

Booker T. Washington, Builder of a Civilization. 188
been typewritten by his stenographer they produced only three and one-half
pages--an amount of copy discouragingly inadequate for the first installment.
He
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mailed the material, however, with a line of apology for its inadequacy and
promising to send more the next day. On receipt of this scant initial copy the
editors wrote him a letter of congratulation and approval which greatly
encouraged him, in spite of his heavy and unrelenting administrative duties, to
push ahead with new courage. Notwithstanding, however, the best intentions on
the part of the writer and the most patiently insistent reminders on the part of the
editors there were many and wide gaps in the supposedly consecutive series of
chapters before the story was finally finished. Much of the story he dragged
from his tired brain, and jotted down on odds and ends of paper on trains, while
waiting in railway stations, in hotels, and in ten and fifteen minute intervals
snatched from overburdened days in his office. The fact that it was a physical
impossibility to give adequate time and attention to so important a piece of work
distressed him and made him feel even more apologetic about the product.
The enthusiastic reception of his story by the editors and later by the public was
accordingly particularly surprising and gratifying to him. After its serial
publication he was soon almost overwhelmed with congratulatory letters and
laudatory reviews. Julian Ralph in the New York Mail and Express wrote in
part:
"It does not matter if the reader feels a prejudice against the Negro, or if he be a
Negrophile, or if he has never cared one way or the other whether the Negro
does or does not exist. Whatever be his feelings, 'Up from Slavery' is as
remarkable as the most important book ever written by
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an American. That book is 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' Booker Washington's story is
its echo and its antithesis. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was the wail of a fettered, hopeforsaken
race. 'Up from Slavery' is the triumphant cry of the same race, led by
its Moses upon a trail which leads to an intelligent use of the freedom that came
to it as an almost direct result of Mrs. Stowe's revolutionary novel. 'Up from
Slavery' and 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' are inseparably linked in the history of our
relations with our dark-skinned fellow-citizen. One book begins precisely where
24.03.2006