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Entitles: Booker T. Washington's signs of play.(Up From Slavery)(Critical essay)

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From: The Southern Literary Journal
Date: 20070322
Author:Ashton, Susanna

"The first thing that came in my way of book learning was the number 18," wrote Booker T. Washington in his memoir Up From Slavery. He goes on to explain that in the darkness of the salt furnaces where he and his stepfather worked, the boss would go around and mark each barrel with an identifying number. Washington's stepfather was always "18," and Washington recalls that "after a while I got to the point where I could make that figure, though I knew nothing about any other figures or letters" (18). While Washington spends much time extolling his own hard work in mastering book ...