xamples on
record of the successful pursuit of knowledge under difficulties; but
there have been many striking examples among slaves of lads showing this
mettle. My ex-slave friend, to whom reference has been made, is
certainly to be reckoned as one of these. It is probable that his mother
may have passed as a woman of education, seeing that she knew the
English alphabet and was able to count a hundred. Be this as it may,
however, like a genuine Christian mother, she determined that, in spite
of planters and their laws, her child should learn whatever she could
teach him. In due course the boy himself showed a flaming desire to
learn. By dint of remarkable diligence and perseverance, he got ahead of
his mother in knowledge. If learning was carried on in secret, there had
rarely been found a more ardent pupil. Without inconvenient questions
being asked, he succeeded in purchasing a copy-book and spelling primer,
which were well used on all possible occasions. He actually went through
the whole of the Bible when he could not master more than one in eight
of the words. This man afterwards enjoyed the benefit of a college
education in England, so that his case is worthy of being mentioned as
being similar to that of Booker Washington. Both instances alike show
that negroes may not only have good intellectual endowments, but may
also succeed in high aims by dint of unflagging energy and perseverance.

At length the era of freedom came; and although at that time Booker
Washington was still too young to realise what all the excitement and
commotion portended, those who looked upon him saw the child who would
develop into a benefactor of his race and the most distinguished negro
of his time. The Man who was wanted was found.

CHAPTER II

THE ERA OF FREEDOM--REALISING THAT KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

The great, long-looked-for and ardently-prayed-for day of freedom had
come at last, and probably one of the things which Booker Washington
remembers is the kiss which his mother gave him after listening to the
reading of President Lincoln's Proclamation, and to which the Southern
leaders were compelled to yield when the pressure of the Northern army
became too great to be longer resisted. In common justice to the
Southern planters, we have to remember that the crisis may have meant
little if anything short of actual ruin. The human chattels, as slaves
were often called, were not seldom very valuable b