Buy new:
Save with Used - Good

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
OK
Up from Slavery: An Autobiography (Complete and unabridged.) Hardcover – July 2, 2020
Purchase options and add-ons
Booker T. Washington (April 18, 1856 - November 14, 1915) was an African American educator, leader, author and orator and was an adviser to several US presidents. He was born into slavery on a plantation in Virginia, remembering
"I cannot recall a single instance during my childhood or early boyhood when our entire family sat down to the table together. On the plantation in Virginia, and even later, meals were gotten to the children very much as dumb animals get theirs... a piece of bread here and a scrap of meat there."
He was nine when his family gained their emancipation and he describes the rejoicing and the apprehension as freed slaves entered a new life. His mother took the family to the free state of West Virginia. The only name he had known was "Booker," but at school, when first asked his name by the teacher, he coolly added "Washington" to be like the other children who had at least two names. This established him on a path of fitting into the white world.
In the course of his life he established the Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, helped found the National Negro Business League, now eclipsed by the NAACP, and advised several US presidents. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary Black elite. He established a powerful political and financial network to advance the cause of African Americans through education and business known as the Tuskegee Machine.
Up from Slavery chronicles Washington's life from slave to schoolmaster to statesman. It was a best seller when published and for many years thereafter. In it he writes
"The temptations to enter political life were so alluring that I came very near yielding to them at one time, but I was kept from doing so by the feeling that I would be helping in a more substantial way ... through a generous education of the hand, head, and heart."
Up from Slavery along with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and du Bois's Souls of Black Folk are essential early African-American classics. This edition, set in an easy to read 11 point font, is complete and unabridged.
- Print length168 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBenediction Classics
- Publication dateJuly 2, 2020
- Dimensions6.14 x 0.5 x 9.21 inches
- ISBN-101789431166
- ISBN-13978-1789431162
- Lexile measure1260L
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

Frequently purchased items with fast delivery
Product details
- Publisher : Benediction Classics
- Publication date : July 2, 2020
- Language : English
- Print length : 168 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1789431166
- ISBN-13 : 978-1789431162
- Item Weight : 15.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.14 x 0.5 x 9.21 inches
- Lexile measure : 1260L
- Best Sellers Rank: #893,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #485 in Educator Biographies
- #844 in Social Activist Biographies
- #2,220 in Black & African American Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Customer reviews
- 5 star4 star3 star2 star1 star5 star94%5%1%0%0%94%
- 5 star4 star3 star2 star1 star4 star94%5%1%0%0%5%
- 5 star4 star3 star2 star1 star3 star94%5%1%0%0%1%
- 5 star4 star3 star2 star1 star2 star94%5%1%0%0%0%
- 5 star4 star3 star2 star1 star1 star94%5%1%0%0%0%
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2021Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseShould be required reading for every American high school student. Inspiring and uplifting. To hear this history not from an historian, but from someone who lived it, is a unique gift for posterity. There is much we can learn from Washington's story and example. If your politics are Left-leaning this book will be difficult for you to digest. Washington espouses the importance of the nuclear family, fathers and masculine role models, the importance of hard work and a strong work ethic, objectivity and reason, the dignity of labor, the value of capitalism, and how it was the promise of America's founding principles of freedom and liberty – and the commitment and sacrifice of decent Americans to strive to uphold those ideas – that ultimately lead to emancipation and abolition.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023Format: HardcoverVerified PurchasePlease read this book. You won’t regret it
- Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2022Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseIt was very enlightening. We gained more from him as the teacher then we probably would have if he had pursued a political career. Very good read.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2023Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseThis should be required reading for every American!
- Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2021Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseA must for everyone's library.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2021Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseFantastic book! Wonderful story!
- Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2022Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseBox arrived opened and damaged via USPS.
The product itself good condition.