Booker T. Washington: “I felt that I had in some degree accomplished my object—that of getting a hearing from the dominant class of the South.”

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.

I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time.

I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one who would return to slavery.

The Negro boy has obstacles, discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to those not situated as he is.