The most important part of his experience at Hampton was his association with Armstrong, who he described in his autobiography as "a great man - the noblest, rarest human being it has ever been my privilege to meet." From Armstrong, Washington derived much of his educational philosophy.Īfter graduating from Hampton with honors in 1875, Washington returned to Malden to teach. He was jubilant when he was chosen to speak at his commencement. His special interest was public speaking and debate.
He also learned lessons in personal cleanliness and good manners. He was given work as a janitor to pay the cost of his room and board, and Armstrong arranged for a White benefactor to pay his tuition.Īt Hampton, Washington studied academic subjects and agriculture, which included work in the fields and pigsties. The teacher inspected his work with a spotless, white handkerchief. His entrance examination to Hampton was to clean a room. Washington traveled most of the distance from Malden to Hampton on foot, arriving penniless. The dominant personality at the school, which had opened in 1868 under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, was the principal, Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of American missionaries in Hawaii.Īrmstrong, who had commanded Black troops in the Civil War, believed that the progress of freedmen and their descendants depended on education of a special sort, which would be practical and utilitarian and would at the same time inculcate character and morality. Washington entered Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. In 1871, he went to work as a houseboy for the wife of Gen.
He attended school while continuing to work in the mines. Between the ages of ten and twelve, he worked in a coal mine. At age nine, Booker was put to work packing salt. In 1865, his mother took her children to Malden, West Virginia, to join her husband, who had gone there earlier and found work in the salt mines. Booker's elder brother, John, was also the son of a White man.īooker spent his first nine years as a slave on the Burroughs farm. James, Booker's younger half-brother, was adopted. A daughter, Amanda, was born to this marriage. Sometime after Booker's birth, his mother was married to Washington Ferguson, a slave. Booker gave himself the surname "Washington" when he first enrolled in school. Jane named her son Booker Taliaferro but later dropped the second name. Founder and First President of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Instituteīorn April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia, Booker Taliaferro was the son of an unknown White man and Jane, an enslaved cook of James Burroughs, a small planter.
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