Working With the Hands: A Sequel to Up from Slavery Covering the Author's Experiences in Industrial Training at Tuskegee

by Booker T. Washington

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author and the dominant leader of the African-American community nationwide from the 1890s to his death. Born to slavery and freed by the Civil War in 1865, as a young man, became head of the new Tuskegee Institute, then a teachers' college for blacks. It became his base of operations. His "Atlanta Exposition" speech of 1895 appealed to middle class whites across the South, asking them to give blacks a chance to work and develop separately, while implicitly promising not to demand the vote. White leaders across the North, from politicians to industrialists, from philanthropists to churchmen, enthusiastically supported Washington, as did most middle class blacks. He was the organizer and central figure of a network linking like-minded black leaders throughout the nation and in effect spoke for Black America throughout his lifetime. Meanwhile a more militant northern group, led by W. E. B. Du Bois rejected Washington's self-help and demanded recourse to politics, referring to the speech dismissively as "The Atlanta Compromise". The critics were marginalized until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, at which point more radical black leaders rejected Washington's philosophy and demanded federal civil rights laws.

Reviews

[Gilbert III · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should have known how Tuskegee University is a premier and renown epicenter of American Black agricultural, industrial, mechanical, and scientific excellence long before I became an adult. I became completely aware back on December 3rd to December, 10th 2021 by spending time with two fellow Black men who assisted me to change the trajectory of my life: Brother John Bradley and Brother Mahdi Uwizeye. Brother John was the first individual to present a paperback edition of Working With The Hands to me. The wonderful fact is that I had the privilege to witness Brother John and Brother Mahdi apply the principles that Mr. Booker T. Washington listed throughout his masterpiece prior to reading one word of it.

Mr. Washington's legacy is now a very powerful influence for me as an author, community organizer, and social justice advocate. I have subsequently created a personal challenge for myself to exemplify excellence to "cast down your bucket" as I am gradually working to complete a full transition to homesteading.

The following are two of Mr. Washington's quotes that I have properly cited in the manuscript that I am currently writing for my second book.

"For the young farmer to be contented he must look forward to owning the land that he cultivates, and from which he may later derive not only all the necessities of life, but also some of the comforts and conveniences."

“The hands, the head, and the heart together should be so correlated that one may be made to help the others.”

I hope that the content of Mr. Washington's legacy will compel more people to be exceptional in every way.