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Primary sourceBook1904

Working With the Hands

Booker T. Washington · 1904

Booker T. Washington's 1904 sequel to Up from Slavery, describing industrial training at Tuskegee Institute.

Washington wrote this book himself to explain and promote the industrial training program he built at Tuskegee.

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Title page of 'Working With the Hands', 1904. Large capitals read 'WORKING WITH THE HANDS', with subtitle 'Being a sequel to Up From Slavery covering the author's experiences in industrial training at Tuskegee', 'By Booker T. Washington', 'Illustrated from photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston', a publisher's emblem, and 'New York, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1904'.
Booker T. Washington, Working with the Hands, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1904.

About this source

What it is

This 1904 book by Booker T. Washington was written as a sequel to his earlier memoir Up From Slavery. It covers his experiences with industrial training at Tuskegee Institute and is illustrated with photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston.

Why it matters

The book explains in practical detail the industrial education Washington promoted as the path to Black economic progress, a central and sometimes controversial part of his philosophy. The photographs by Johnston, a professional photographer, also document the school's daily life and work for readers unfamiliar with Tuskegee.

Look closer

  • Why might Washington have wanted photographs, rather than just words, to show readers what Tuskegee was like?
  • What does the title 'Working with the Hands' suggest about what Washington valued in education?
  • What might this emphasis on manual training have left out of the full picture of Black education at the time?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Booker T. Washington on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Booker T. Washington · 18 September 1895

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Up from Slavery

Booker T. Washington · 1901

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Booker T. Washington reading an excerpt from his 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech

Booker T. Washington · 5 December 1908

Title page of The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, Second Edition, with a printer's device reading A. C. McClurg, and imprint Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903.Book

Secondary source

The Souls of Black Folk

W. E. B. Du Bois · 18 April 1903

Black-and-white studio portrait of a seated man in a three-piece suit with a high-collared shirt, bow tie, and vest with a watch chain. He sits angled toward the viewer against a dark drape backdrop, looking directly at the camera.Photograph

Primary source

Portrait of Booker T. Washington

Frances Benjamin Johnston · c. 1895

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