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Chapter III. The Struggle For An Education
One day, while at work in the coal-mine, I happened to overhear
two miners talking about a great school for coloured people
somewhere in Virginia. This was the first time that I had ever
heard anything about any kind of school or college that was more
pretentious than the little coloured school in our town.
In the darkness of the mine I noiselessly crept as close as I
could to the two men who were talking. I heard one tell the other
that not only was the school established for the members of any
race, but the opportunities that it provided by which poor but
worthy students could work out all or a part of the cost of a
board, and at the same time be taught some trade or industry.
As they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it
must be the greatest place on earth, and not even Heaven
presented more attractions for me at that time than did the
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, about
which these men were talking. I resolved at once to go to that
school, although I had no idea where it was, or how many miles
away, or how I was going to reach it; I remembered only that I
was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to
Hampton. This thought was with me day and night.
After hearing of the Hampton Institute, I continued to work for a
few months longer in the coal-mine. While at work there, I heard
of a vacant position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner,
the owner of the salt-furnace and coal-mine. Mrs. Viola Ruffner,
the wife of General Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont.
Mrs. Ruffner had a reputation all through the vicinity for being
very strict with her servants, and especially with the boys who
tried to serve her. Few of them remained with her more than two
or three weeks. They all left with the same excuse: she was too
strict. I decided, however, that I would rather try Mrs.
Ruffner's house than remain in the coal-mine, and so my mother
applied to her for the vacant position. I was hired at a salary
of $5 per month.
I had heard so much about Mrs. Ruffner's severity that I was
almost afraid to see her, and trembled when I went into her
presence. I had not lived with her many weeks, however, before I
began to understand her. I soon began to learn that, first of
all, she wanted everything kept clean about her, that she wanted
things done promptly and systematically, and that at the bottom
of everything she wanted absolute honesty and frankness. Nothing
must be sloven or slipshod; every door, every fence, must be kept
in repair.
I cannot now recall how long I lived with Mrs. Ruffner before
going to Hampton, but I think it must have been a year and a
half. At any rate, I here repeat what I have said more than once
before, that the lessons that I learned in the home of Mrs.
Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education I have ever
gotten anywhere else. Even to this day I never see bits of paper
scattered around a house or in the street that I do not want to
pick them up at once. I never see a filthy yard that I do not
want to clean it, a paling off of a fence that I do not want to
put it on, an unpainted or unwhitewashed house that I do not want
to pain or whitewash it, or a button off one's clothes, or a
grease-spot on them or on a floor, that I do not want to call
attention to it.
From fearing Mrs. Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one
of my best friends. When she found that she could trust me she
did so implicitly. During the one or two winters that I was with
her she gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour in the
day during a portion of the winter months, but most of my
studying was done at night, sometimes alone, sometimes under some
one whom I could hire to teach me. Mrs. Ruffner always encouraged
and sympathized with me in all my efforts to get an education. It
was while living with her that I began to get together my first
library. I secured a dry-goods box, knocked out one side of it,
put some shelves in it, and began putting into it every kind of
book that I could get my hands upon, and called it my "library."
Notwithstanding my success at Mrs. Ruffner's I did not give up
the idea of going to the Hampton Institute. In the fall of 1872 I
determined to make an effort to get there, although, as I have
stated, I had no definite idea of the direction in which Hampton
was, or of what it would cost to go there. I do not think that
any one thoroughly sympathized with me in my ambition to go to
Hampton unless it was my mother, and she was troubled with a
grave fear that I was starting out on a "wild-goose chase." At
any rate, I got only a half-hearted consent from her that I might
start. The small amount of money that I had earned had been
consumed by my stepfather and the remainder of the family, with
the exception of a very few dollars, and so I had very little
with which to buy clothes and pay my travelling expenses. My
brother John helped me all that he could, but of course that was
not a great deal, for his work was in the coal-mine, where he did
not earn much, and most of what he did earn went in the direction
of paying the household expenses.
Perhaps the thing that touched and pleased me most in connection
with my starting for Hampton was the interest that many of the
older coloured people took in the matter. They had spent the best
days of their lives in slavery, and hardly expected to live to
see the time when they would see a member of their race leave
home to attend a boarding-school. Some of these older people
would give me a nickel, others a quarter, or a handkerchief.
Finally the great day came, and I started for Hampton. I had only
a small, cheap satchel that contained a few articles of clothing
I could get. My mother at the time was rather weak and broken in
health. I hardly expected to see her again, and thus our parting
was all the more sad. She, however, was very brave through it
all. At that time there were no through trains connecting that
part of West Virginia with eastern Virginia. Trains ran only a
portion of the way, and the remainder of the distance was
travelled by stage-coaches.
The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles.
I had not been away from home many hours before it began to grow
painfully evident that I did not have enough money to pay my fair
to Hampton. One experience I shall long remember. I had been
travelling over the mountains most of the afternoon in an
old-fashion stage-coach, when, late in the evening, the coach
stopped for the night at a common, unpainted house called a
hotel. All the other passengers except myself were whites. In my
ignorance I supposed that the little hotel existed for the
purpose of accommodating the passengers who travelled on the
stage-coach. The difference that the colour of one's skin would
make I had not thought anything about. After all the other
passengers had been shown rooms and were getting ready for
supper, I shyly presented myself before the man at the desk. It
is true I had practically no money in my pocket with which to pay
for bed or food, but I had hoped in some way to beg my way into
the good graces of the landlord, for at that season in the
mountains of Virginia the weather was cold, and I wanted to get
indoors for the night. Without asking as to whether I had any
money, the man at the desk firmly refused to even consider the
matter of providing me with food or lodging. This was my first
experience in finding out what the colour of my skin meant. In
some way I managed to keep warm by walking about, and so got
through the night. My whole soul was so bent upon reaching
Hampton that I did not have time to cherish any bitterness toward
the hotel-keeper.
By walking, begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some
way, after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond,
Virginia, about eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached
there, tired, hungry, and dirty, it was late in the night. I had
never been in a large city, and this rather added to my misery.
When I reached Richmond, I was completely out of money. I had not
a single acquaintance in the place, and, being unused to city
ways, I did not know where to go. I applied at several places for
lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what I did not
have. Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets. In
doing this I passed by many a food-stands where fried chicken and
half-moon apple pies were piled high and made to present a most
tempting appearance. At that time it seemed to me that I would
have promised all that I expected to possess in the future to
have gotten hold of one of those chicken legs or one of those
pies. But I could not get either of these, nor anything else to
eat.
I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I
became so exhausted that I could walk no longer. I was tired, I
was hungry, I was everything but discouraged. Just about the time
when I reached extreme physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion
of a street where the board sidewalk was considerably elevated. I
waited for a few minutes, till I was sure that no passers-by
could see me, and then crept under the sidewalk and lay for the
night upon the ground, with my satchel of clothing for a pillow.
Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet over my head. The
next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but I was
extremely hungry, because it had been a long time since I had had
sufficient food. As soon as it became light enough for me to see
my surroundings I noticed that I was near a large ship, and that
this ship seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig iron. I went at
once to the vessel and asked the captain to permit me to help
unload the vessel in order to get money for food. The captain, a
white man, who seemed to be kind-hearted, consented. I worked
long enough to earn money for my breakfast, and it seems to me,
as I remember it now, to have been about the best breakfast that
I have ever eaten.
My work pleased the captain so well that he told me if I desired
I could continue working for a small amount per day. This I was
very glad to do. I continued working on this vessel for a number
of days. After buying food with the small wages I received there
was not much left to add on the amount I must get to pay my way
to Hampton. In order to economize in every way possible, so as to
be sure to reach Hampton in a reasonable time, I continued to
sleep under the same sidewalk that gave me shelter the first
night I was in Richmond. Many years after that the coloured
citizens of Richmond very kindly tendered me a reception at which
there must have been two thousand people present. This reception
was held not far from the spot where I slept the first night I
spent in the city, and I must confess that my mind was more upon
the sidewalk that first gave me shelter than upon the
recognition, agreeable and cordial as it was.
When I had saved what I considered enough money with which to
reach Hampton, I thanked the captain of the vessel for his
kindness, and started again. Without any unusual occurrence I
reached Hampton, with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which
to begin my education. To me it had been a long, eventful
journey; but the first sight of the large, three-story, brick
school building seemed to have rewarded me for all that I had
undergone in order to reach the place. If the people who gave the
money to provide that building could appreciate the influence the
sight of it had upon me, as well as upon thousands of other
youths, they would feel all the more encouraged to make such
gifts. It seemed to me to be the largest and most beautiful
building I had ever seen. The sight of it seemed to give me new
life. I felt that a new kind of existence had now begun--that
life would now have a new meaning. I felt that I had reached the
promised land, and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from
putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the
most good in the world.
As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton
Institute, I presented myself before the head teacher for an
assignment to a class. Having been so long without proper food, a
bath, and a change of clothing, I did not, of course, make a very
favourable impression upon her, and I could see at once that
there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as
a student. I felt that I could hardly blame her if she got the
idea that I was a worthless loafer or tramp. For some time she
did not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in my favour,
and I continued to linger about her, and to impress her in all
the ways I could with my worthiness. In the meantime I saw her
admitting other students, and that added greatly to my
discomfort, for I felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as
well as they, if I could only get a chance to show what was in
me.
After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me: "The
adjoining recitation-room needs sweeping. Take the broom and
sweep it."
It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I
receive an order with more delight. I knew that I could sweep,
for Mrs. Ruffner had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I
lived with her.
I swept the recitation-room three times. Then I got a
dusting-cloth and dusted it four times. All the woodwork around
the walls, every bench, table, and desk, I went over four times
with my dusting-cloth. Besides, every piece of furniture had been
moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly
cleaned. I had the feeling that in a large measure my future
dependent upon the impression I made upon the teacher in the
cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to the head
teacher. She was a "Yankee" woman who knew just where to look for
dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets;
then she took her handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork
about the walls, and over the table and benches. When she was
unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle of
dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, "I guess you
will do to enter this institution."
I was one of the happiest souls on Earth. The sweeping of that
room was my college examination, and never did any youth pass an
examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more
genuine satisfaction. I have passed several examinations since
then, but I have always felt that this was the best one I ever
passed.
I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton
Institute. Perhaps few, if any, had anything like the same
experience that I had, but about the same period there were
hundreds who found their way to Hampton and other institutions
after experiencing something of the same difficulties that I went
through. The young men and women were determined to secure an
education at any cost.
The sweeping of the recitation-room in the manner that I did it
seems to have paved the way for me to get through Hampton. Miss
Mary F. Mackie, the head teacher, offered me a position as
janitor. This, of course, I gladly accepted, because it was a
place where I could work out nearly all the cost of my board. The
work was hard and taxing but I stuck to it. I had a large number
of rooms to care for, and had to work late into the night, while
at the same time I had to rise by four o'clock in the morning, in
order to build the fires and have a little time in which to
prepare my lessons. In all my career at Hampton, and ever since I
have been out in the world, Miss Mary F. Mackie, the head teacher
to whom I have referred, proved one of my strongest and most
helpful friends. Her advice and encouragement were always helpful
in strengthening to me in the darkest hour.
I have spoken of the impression that was made upon me by the
buildings and general appearance of the Hampton Institute, but I
have not spoken of that which made the greatest and most lasting
impression on me, and that was a great man--the noblest, rarest
human being that it has ever been my privilege to meet. I refer
to the late General Samuel C. Armstrong.
It has been my fortune to meet personally many of what are called
great characters, both in Europe and America, but I do not
hesitate to say that I never met any man who, in my estimation,
was the equal of General Armstrong. Fresh from the degrading
influences of the slave plantation and the coal-mines, it was a
rare privilege for me to be permitted to come into direct contact
with such a character as General Armstrong. I shall always
remember that the first time I went into his presence he made the
impression upon me of being a perfect man: I was made to feel
that there was something about him that was superhuman. It was my
privilege to know the General personally from the time I entered
Hampton till he died, and the more I saw of him the greater he
grew in my estimation. One might have removed from Hampton all
the buildings, class-rooms, teachers, and industries, and given
the men and women there the opportunity of coming into daily
contact with General Armstrong, and that alone would have been a
liberal education. The older I grow, the more I am convinced that
there is no education which one can get from books and costly
apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact
with great men and women. Instead of studying books so
constantly, how I wish that our schools and colleges might learn
to study men and things!
General Armstrong spent two of the last six months of his life in
my home at Tuskegee. At that time he was paralyzed to the extent
that he had lost control of his body and voice in a very large
degree. Notwithstanding his affliction, he worked almost
constantly night and day for the cause to which he had given his
life. I never saw a man who so completely lost sight of himself.
I do not believe he ever had a selfish thought. He was just as
happy in trying to assist some other institution in the South as
he was when working for Hampton. Although he fought the Southern
white man in the Civil War, I never heard him utter a bitter word
against him afterward. On the other hand, he was constantly
seeking to find ways by which he could be of service to the
Southern whites.
It would be difficult to describe the hold that he had upon the
students at Hampton, or the faith they had in him. In fact, he
was worshipped by his students. It never occurred to me that
General Armstrong could fail in anything that he undertook. There
is almost no request that he could have made that would not have
been complied with. When he was a guest at my home in Alabama,
and was so badly paralyzed that he had to be wheeled about in an
invalid's chair, I recall that one of the General's former
students had occasion to push his chair up a long, steep hill
that taxed his strength to the utmost. When the top of the hill
was reached, the former pupil, with a glow of happiness on his
face, exclaimed, "I am so glad that I have been permitted to do
something that was real hard for the General before he dies!"
While I was a student at Hampton, the dormitories became so
crowded that it was impossible to find room for all who wanted to
be admitted. In order to help remedy the difficulty, the General
conceived the plan of putting up tents to be used as rooms. As
soon as it became known that General Armstrong would be pleased
if some of the older students would live in the tents during the
winter, nearly every student in school volunteered to go.
I was one of the volunteers. The winter that we spent in those
tents was an intensely cold one, and we suffered severely--how
much I am sure General Armstrong never knew, because we made no
complaints. It was enough for us to know that we were pleasing
General Armstrong, and that we were making it possible for an
additional number of students to secure an education. More than
once, during a cold night, when a stiff gale would be blowing,
our tend was lifted bodily, and we would find ourselves in the
open air. The General would usually pay a visit to the tents
early in the morning, and his earnest, cheerful, encouraging
voice would dispel any feeling of despondency.
I have spoken of my admiration for General Armstrong, and yet he
was but a type of that Christlike body of men and women who went
into the Negro schools at the close of the war by the hundreds to
assist in lifting up my race. The history of the world fails to
show a higher, purer, and more unselfish class of men and women
than those who found their way into those Negro schools.
Life at Hampton was a constant revelation to me; was constantly
taking me into a new world. The matter of having meals at regular
hours, of eating on a tablecloth, using a napkin, the use of the
bath-tub and of the tooth-brush, as well as the use of sheets
upon the bed, were all new to me.
I sometimes feel that almost the most valuable lesson I got at
the Hampton Institute was in the use and value of the bath. I
learned there for the first time some of its value, not only in
keeping the body healthy, but in inspiring self-respect and
promoting virtue. In all my travels in the South and elsewhere
since leaving Hampton I have always in some way sought my daily
bath. To get it sometimes when I have been the guest of my own
people in a single-roomed cabin has not always been easy to do,
except by slipping away to some stream in the woods. I have
always tried to teach my people that some provision for bathing
should be a part of every house.
For some time, while a student at Hampton, I possessed but a
single pair of socks, but when I had worn these till they became
soiled, I would wash them at night and hang them by the fire to
dry, so that I might wear them again the next morning.
The charge for my board at Hampton was ten dollars per month. I
was expected to pay a part of this in cash and to work out the
remainder. To meet this cash payment, as I have stated, I had
just fifty cents when I reached the institution. Aside from a
very few dollars that my brother John was able to send me once in
a while, I had no money with which to pay my board. I was
determined from the first to make my work as janitor so valuable
that my services would be indispensable. This I succeeded in
doing to such an extent that I was soon informed that I would be
allowed the full cost of my board in return for my work. The cost
of tuition was seventy dollars a year. This, of course, was
wholly beyond my ability to provide. If I had been compelled to
pay the seventy dollars for tuition, in addition to providing for
my board, I would have been compelled to leave the Hampton
school. General Armstrong, however, very kindly got Mr. S.
Griffitts Morgan, of New Bedford, Mass., to defray the cost of my
tuition during the whole time that I was at Hampton. After I
finished the course at Hampton and had entered upon my lifework
at Tuskegee, I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Morgan several
times.
After having been for a while at Hampton, I found myself in
difficulty because I did not have books and clothing. Usually,
however, I got around the trouble about books by borrowing from
those who were more fortunate than myself. As to clothes, when I
reached Hampton I had practically nothing. Everything that I
possessed was in a small hand satchel. My anxiety about clothing
was increased because of the fact that General Armstrong made a
personal inspection of the young men in ranks, to see that their
clothes were clean. Shoes had to be polished, there must be no
buttons off the clothing, and no grease-spots. To wear one suit
of clothes continually, while at work and in the schoolroom, and
at the same time keep it clean, was rather a hard problem for me
to solve. In some way I managed to get on till the teachers
learned that I was in earnest and meant to succeed, and then some
of them were kind enough to see that I was partly supplied with
second-hand clothing that had been sent in barrels from the
North. These barrels proved a blessing to hundreds of poor but
deserving students. Without them I question whether I should ever
have gotten through Hampton.
When I first went to Hampton I do not recall that I had ever
slept in a bed that had two sheets on it. In those days there
were not many buildings there, and room was very precious. There
were seven other boys in the same room with me; most of them,
however, students who had been there for some time. The sheets
were quite a puzzle to me. The first night I slept under both of
them, and the second night I slept on top of them; but by
watching the other boys I learned my lesson in this, and have
been trying to follow it ever since and to teach it to others.
I was among the youngest of the students who were in Hampton at
the time. Most of the students were men and women--some as old as
forty years of ago. As I now recall the scene of my first year, I
do not believe that one often has the opportunity of coming into
contact with three or four hundred men and women who were so
tremendously in earnest as these men and women were. Every hour
was occupied in study or work. Nearly all had had enough actual
contact with the world to teach them the need of education. Many
of the older ones were, of course, too old to master the
text-books very thoroughly, and it was often sad to watch their
struggles; but they made up in earnest much of what they lacked
in books. Many of them were as poor as I was, and, besides having
to wrestle with their books, they had to struggle with a poverty
which prevented their having the necessities of life. Many of
them had aged parents who were dependent upon them, and some of
them were men who had wives whose support in some way they had to
provide for.
The great and prevailing idea that seemed to take possession of
every one was to prepare himself to lift up the people at his
home. No one seemed to think of himself. And the officers and
teachers, what a rare set of human beings they were! They worked
for the students night and day, in seasons and out of season.
They seemed happy only when they were helping the students in
some manner. Whenever it is written--and I hope it will be--the
part that the Yankee teachers played in the education of the
Negroes immediately after the war will make one of the most
thrilling parts of the history off this country. The time is not
far distant when the whole South will appreciate this service in
a way that it has not yet been able to do.
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