A boys' life of Booker T. Washington

by Walter Clinton Jackson

What did his determination mean? Look at your map and you will see that Hampton is about five hundred miles from Malden. Booker was a boy of sixteen years. He did not know a soul beyond the borders of his own community. He had but a few dollars. His mother was not well, and he doubted very much whether he would ever see her alive again. But he must go and learn, and his good mother, noble and brave as she was, encouraged her boy and helped him to get away.

All the people in the community were much interested in his going. While they had never had a chance, they wanted to encourage this boy who was so determined to get an education. Some of them would give him a nickel, some a quarter, and others a handkerchief to show their desire to help him. By and by the day for his departure came. He put his few dollars in his pocket, picked up the little satchel containing his few clothes, said good-by to the neighbors, kissed his weeping mother good-by, and turned his face towards Hampton.

There was no through train in those days, and he had to travel by stagecoach as well as by train. He had no idea, when he started, how costly it was to travel, and he had not gone far before he realized that he did not have enough money to take him to Hampton. So he walked much of the way. He would ask for a ride with passers-by, and in this way made fairly good progress.

Early in his journey he had a new and trying experience. He had been riding, together with a number of white passengers, all day in the stagecoach. At nightfall they stopped at a house which was called a hotel, and all the passengers went in and were given rooms. When Booker went in and asked for a room, he was told that they could not take him, that they did not take negroes. He had not intended to offend. He himself says it was simply the first time that he realized that the color of his skin made a difference. He was so intent upon getting to Hampton, he never thought of getting angry. He simply walked about all night, as it was rather cold, and went on his journey next morning.

Let him tell his own story of another incident of this famous journey. “By walking,” he says, “begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way, after a number of days, I reached the city of Richmond, Va., about eighty-two miles from Hampton. When I reached there, tired, hungry, and dirty, it was late in the night. I had never been in a large city, and this was rather to add to my misery. When I reached Richmond, I was completely out of money. I had not a single acquaintance in that place, and being unused to city ways, I did not know where to go.

“I applied at several places for lodging, but they all wanted money, and that was what I did not have. Knowing nothing else better to do I walked the streets. In doing so, I passed by many places and foodstands where fried chicken and half-moon apple pies were piled high and made to present a most tempting appearance. At that time it seemed to me that I would have promised all that I expected to possess in the future to have gotten hold of one of those chicken legs or one of those pies. But I could not get either of these, nor anything else to eat.

“I must have walked till after midnight. At last I became exhausted and I could walk no longer. I was tired. I was hungry. I was everything but discouraged. Just about the time when I reached extreme physical exhaustion, I came upon a portion of the street where the board sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited for a few minutes, till I was sure that no passer-by could see me, and then crept under the sidewalk, and lay for the night upon the ground with my satchel for a pillow.”[^[6]]

When he awoke in the morning, he found that he was near a large ship which was unloading a cargo of pig iron. He went directly to the ship, told the captain his situation, and asked for work in order that he might earn money with which to buy some food. The captain gave him work and was so well pleased with him that he gave him employment for several days. Washington was anxious to get enough money to take him to Hampton as soon as possible. So in order to save as much of his wages as possible, he continued to sleep under the sidewalk where he slept the first night he arrived.

Many years after that, he was given a great reception in Richmond, at a place near this spot, and Washington says that his mind was more upon that sidewalk that night than it was upon the great reception given him by the two thousand people present.

After a few days of work in unloading the vessel, he felt that he had enough money to take him to Hampton; so he continued his journey. Several days later he reached Hampton, with just exactly fifty cents.