Up From Slavery – Booker T. Washington – 1901 | First Edition

Booker T. Washington was a famous 19th-century American civil rights activist known for his anti-slavery platform during the height of Negro lynchings in the American South. Born as a slave child during the American Civil War, Washington describes his difficulties and obstacles in his autobiography Up From Slavery. This work follows more than forty years of his life, the state of race relations, and the rise and fall of the Negro social ladder.

While many authors and political leaders, such as WEB du Bois, were highly critical of Washington’s work, he still emphasized the importance of education among the black population, especially in the South, which was a realistic tactic to easing racial tensions. This book was also gives the first mention of extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Up From Slavery
• Author(s): Booker T. Washington
• Publisher: New York: Doubleday, Page & Company
• Edition: First Edition, 1901.
• Format: (8vo), single volume
• Binding: Red cloth hardcover
• Size:  8 in x 5.5 in (20.5 cm x 14 cm)
• Collation: ix, [1], 330 pp
• Illustrations: portrait frontispiece
• Contents Include:
  • Preface
  • Birth and Childhood in Slavery
  • Education and Work
  • Founding of the Tuskegee Institute
  • Public Life and Race Relation

Condition:

Very Good. Binding secure, cloth moderately rubbed at corners, spine lettering legible, text block clean, portrait frontispiece intact.

Why Collect This?

• Landmark autobiography of a major African American leader
• First edition
• Early reference to racial violence and the Ku Klux Klan
• Represents one of the earliest accounts of post-Civil War social realities

Item Number: # 29493