The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build.
Washington emphasizes the superior impact of tangible accomplishments over abstract arguments in demonstrating the capabilities of Black individuals.
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But taking place at the time it did, and for the reason that it did, no one could ever make me believe that my mother was guilty of thieving.
I think I never saw a community of people so happy over anything as were the coloured people over the prospect of this new building.
The whole machinery of slavery was so constructed as to cause labour, as a rule, to be looked upon as a badge of degradation, of inferiority.
Even the most ignorant members of my race on the remote plantations felt in their hearts, with a certainty that admitted of no doubt, that the freedom of the slaves would be the one great result of the war, if the Northern armies conquered.