A boys' life of Booker T. Washington

by Walter Clinton Jackson

His work as janitor was very hard. He often had to work late at night, for he had many rooms to clean. He always got up at four o’clock in the morning to build his fires and do some of his studying. He had a hard time working and making expenses too. He usually borrowed his books from other students. He soon got some more clothing from the barrels of clothing sent to the school by people from the North. Board was ten dollars a month, part of which he could pay by his work as janitor, but a part of it he was supposed to pay in cash, and he had no cash. His work was so satisfactory, however, that in a short while he was told that his work would pay all of his board. S. Griffitts Morgan, of New Bedford, Massachusetts, paid his tuition. At the end of the year he owed the college only sixteen dollars.

When the college closed at the end of the term, all the students went home. Booker could not go. It was too far, and he had no money. He wanted to get away and get a job, so that he could pay the sixteen dollars he owed. He had an extra secondhand coat; so he decided to sell that to get money to go away on. He cleaned and pressed the coat, and then let it be known that it was for sale. After a while a man came to see it. He looked at it and asked the price. Booker told him three dollars. The man said, “Well, I think I will take it. I will tell you what I will do. I will pay you five cents cash, and the rest as soon as I can get it.” How do you suppose Booker felt about that?

He finally got a job as a waiter in a restaurant at Fortress Monroe. They did not pay him enough for him to save anything. One day when he was cleaning up the place, he found a nice, crisp ten-dollar bill under a table. He was very happy. Now he could pay back the money he owed at Hampton. However, he thought he ought to tell the proprietor about finding the ten dollars. He did so, and the proprietor coolly took the ten-dollar bill, saying that, since the place belonged to him, everything that was found in it naturally belonged to him.

After vacation was over, he returned to Hampton and was told that he could have as long to pay the sixteen dollars as he wanted, and that he could have a job as janitor again. So, his second year passed much the same as the first. He devoted much of his time this year and the next to the debating societies. He says that he never missed a single meeting while he was at Hampton. He also organized a new society. He had twenty minutes every night after supper before work began. Most of the students, he observed, wasted this time. He proposed that good use be made of this period in reading and speaking, and he organized a society for that purpose. He says that no time he spent in college was more valuable than this.

After the close of his second year, he went home to Malden to spend his vacation. His brother John had sent him some money, and he had earned some extra money. So he had enough to take him home. Everybody was delighted to see him, but most of all, his mother. All the neighbors insisted on his visiting them and taking a meal with them and telling all about his college days. He also spoke at Sunday schools, at the day school, and at churches, telling about his life at Hampton.

This was all very nice, but he wanted some work, so that he could earn enough to take him back to Hampton in the fall. He was unable to find any work because the salt furnaces and the coal mines were closed. One day he went further than usual looking for something to do but without success. On his way home he became so tired that he went into a deserted cabin by the road to spend the night. About three o’clock some one woke him up. It was his brother John, who told him that their mother had just died.

This was a terrible shock to Booker. He had had no idea his mother was so ill. He had always wanted to be with her and care for her. He had looked forward to the time when he might make enough money for her to live in comfort. He loved her very dearly, and her death was the hardest blow he had ever received.

It was not long after this that he got some work and saved enough money to take him back to Hampton. During his third year at college he worked harder than ever. He was still working as janitor, but every single minute he had after his work was done he spent on his studies. College boys in those days did not have time to play football, baseball, and tennis. They did not have time to go on picnics or have dances.

Booker T. Washington’s Class (1875) at Hampton Institute
Washington is the second from the left in the front row. Miss Mary Mackie is the first on the left in the row of women. General Armstrong is standing directly behind Miss Mackie.