‘no influence would ever make me a slave in soul’: Booker T. Washington (Born April 5, 1856)

“I have been a slave once in my life-a slave in body. But I long since resolved that no inducement and no influence would ever make me a slave in soul, in my love for humanity, and in my search for truth.” – Booker T. Washington, (1907) _The Negro in the South_

In a little-known, yet most noteworthy moment in the history of both American and African American literary history, Booker T. Washington jointly published the book _The Negro In the South (1907)_ . It contains 2 essays from himself and 2 other essays from none other than W.E.B. Du Bois. (And this was not their first co-publication. This would be the second book containing these two stalwarts in American and African American educational and intellectual history.)

All the same, in the first of Mr. Washington’s two essays, he makes the distinction between being a “slave in body” versus being a “slave in soul.” Note the following concerning the remarks of the founding principal and president of Tuskegee (Institute) University: He made a strategic, calculated set of decisions to ensure that his outward circumstance would not determine his future circumstances. (And these decisions revolved around a “love for humanity” and a “search for truth”, which will always place the “lover” and “seeker” of such beyond the pale of those whose pursuits alternatively lead to self-interest and “slavishly” fearful actions designed solely for self preservation.

First, a lover of humanity is unafraid to come to learn to love others because he or she has first come to love himself. One can hardly come to love others if one does not possess a deep love for one’s self, and this includes learning to love both the learned and the ignorant. For a man or woman who ascended to leadership, as Mr. Washington had done, not only encountered both but had been both during his long ascent ‘Up From Slavery’.

Second, the seeker of truth seeks after that which is right without regard to where this truth leads. Leo Tolstoy eloquently suggests the following about such a principle: “If you wish to know the truth, first of all free yourself from all considerations of self-interest.” Whether the truth Mr. Washington discovered was for the benefit or detriment to himself or not—“integrity” is the single greatest 9-letter word—this pursuit is without question what leads to ongoing, consistent and enduring “character”—the second greatest 9-letter word. (Character is not your highest moment nor your lowest moment but your most consistent moment.) And unbroken, undivided and unwavering consistency in character is perhaps the closest description of those who seek “truth” in the interest of “lov[ing] humanity.”