Booker T. Washington: “It seemed much like making bricks without straw.”

I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race.

I think that the presentation of facts, on a high, dignified plane, is all the begging that most rich people care for.

I cannot remember having slept in a bed until after our family was declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation.

When freedom came, the slaves were almost as well fitted to begin life anew as the master, except in the matter of book-learning and ownership of property.