Since that time I have owned many kinds of caps and hats, but never one of which I have felt so proud as of the cap made of the two pieces of cloth sewed together by my mother.
Washington reflects on the lasting significance of his first handmade cap, valuing it above all subsequent material possessions.
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More from Booker T. Washington
In order to defend and protect the women and children who were left on the plantations when the white males went to war, the slaves would have laid down their lives.
I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation.
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.
As a rule, not only did the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the war, but there are many instances of Negroes tenderly caring for their former masters and mistresses who for some…