Early Childhood

Washington was born on the Burroughs tobacco farm in 1856. It was small but he still always referred to it as a plantation. He went to school in Franklin County, but not as a student. He carried books for one of James Burroughs's daughters. It was illegal to educate slaves, but Washington always dreamed of going to school and becoming educated. He slowly learned at work, and his mother began to see his interest in learning, so she purchased a book where he learned his alphabet. When Washington got word of the Hampton Institute, a school for blacks, he was determined to get in.

"I had the feeling

that to get into a schoolhouse and study

would be about the same as

getting into paradise"

"Booker T. Washington Biography"