Booker T. Washington: “Why do they never fail to touch the tenderest chord--to bring tears from the eyes of rich and poor--from king and…”

Until that question was asked it had never occurred to me that there was no period of my life that was devoted to play.

In this connection I have never been able to understand how the slaves throughout the South, completely ignorant as were the masses so far as books or newspapers were concerned, were able to keep themselves so accurately and completely…

Despite this disappointment, however, I determined that I would learn something, anyway.

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.