Working With the Hands / Being a Sequel to "Up from Slavery," Covering the Author's Experiences in Industrial Training at Tuskegee

by Booker T. Washington

In the spring of '92, the first Negro Conference for farmers was held at Tuskegee. The purpose of this conference was to inspire the masses of coloured people to secure homes of their own, to help them to better ways of living, to insist upon better educational advantages for them, and so to raise their standards of living, morally, physically, intellectually and financially. Sitting in that first meeting of Negro farmers and hearing the resolutions which stood as the platform of the conference, I felt that history was repeating itself. In the days of Lucretia Mott, and the early struggles of Susan B. Anthony, women had no rights that were worth mentioning, and, notwithstanding the fact that there were many women present at this first conference, they had little actual place in it.

Perhaps they did not realise that they, too, had a most prominent part to play in the life which their lovers, or their sons and husbands, were urged to seek. Perhaps they did not dream that they would some day have a vital part in the uplifting of our people. This thought would not be stilled: What can these poor farmers do with the new ideas, new hopes, new aspirations, unless the women can be equally inspired and interested in conferences of their own?

Not many days passed before there was a fixed purpose in my mind that these women in the homes represented by the farmers should be reached. How to reach and help them was the question. After many weary days and sleepless nights, praying for some way to open, the thought came that the village of Tuskegee was a good place to begin work. The country women, tired of the monotony of their lives, came crowding into the village every Saturday. There should be a place for them to go to be instructed for an hour or more each Saturday. Like a flash the idea was caught up, and it was not let go until such a place was secured.

Our first conference was held in the upper story of a very dilapidated store which stands on the main street of the village. The stairs were so rickety that we were often afraid to ascend them. The room was used by the coloured firemen of the village, and was a dark and dreary place, uninviting even to me. It answered our purpose for the time. We had no rent to pay, and that was one less burden for us. How to get the women to the first meeting was not easily settled. For fear of opposition from friends, no mention had been made of the plan, except to the man who let me have the room.

That first Saturday I walked up the stairs alone, and sat down in the room with all its utter dreariness. My heart almost failed me, and not until I remembered these words: "No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God," did I throw off the despondency. At this moment a small boy entered the room. I said to him, "Go through the streets and say to each woman, so that no one else will hear you, there is a woman up those stairs who has something for you."

That first meeting I can never forget. There were six women who came, and each one as she looked at me seemed to say: "Where is it?" We talked it all over, the needs of our women, the best ways of helping each other, and there was begun the first woman's weekly conference, which now numbers nearly three hundred women.

We now have a large, roomy hall on the main street, where we come together each Saturday, and spend two hours talking of the things which go to make better and truer lives among women and children. Women come long distances on foot to these meetings. They soon brought with them their little girls, whom they could not afford to leave at home, and there arose a new question—what to do with the children? A plan was hit upon, and a room hired. These girls, now more than fifty in number, are taught simple lessons, and, at the same time, receive short practical talks on behaviour at home, on the streets and elsewhere. We also have a small library for them, and each one is allowed to draw the books she wants, to keep two weeks or longer. We also have picture books on the table for the younger children. We are now trying to get games for these children and pictures for the walls of the room. A friend gives two hours of her time on Saturday to these children, and it delights one's heart to see the improvement in them in all directions, especially in their quiet and becoming conduct on the streets.

The marked improvement among the women in the matter of dress has been frequently commented upon in the village. They are doing away with the wrapping of the hair, and substituting for it braiding or some other simple arrangement. The women no longer go barefooted, nor do they sit around the streets in a listless way. There is less familiarity among the men and women in the streets, and in many ways the women are being led into better ways of conduct, to say nothing of home improvements and the closer union of family life.

We visit the homes of the women and see that the lessons are put into practice. We have given out thousands of papers and picture cards, that the cracks might be closed against the wind and rain, and that the children of the home might have something besides the dark and cheerless logs to look at.

Soon the women began to see the importance of these conferences, and to do all in their power to promote their interests. Our talks were discussed on the farms and in neighbourhood chat. Their influence spread in indirect channels. These talks were planned along such simple and practical lines as the following subjects suggest: