The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.3, page 372, Nov. 1893, U. of Illinois Press

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The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Papers He laid particular stress on the fact that this was a work done down in the black belt of Alabama by his own people. It was carried on there where the colored people outnumbered the whites three to! one and Great ~1 was being done. , ~ I,, ~ ~ AN ABANDONED COTTON PLANTATION The work was started twelve years ago on an abandoned cotton plantation with one teacher and thirty scholars. Now there were forty-one teachers and officers and 600 students. The place covers Moo acres of land and has nineteen industrial institutions in which work is carried on in wood, leather, machinery, agriculture, and other such branches. The property at present is worth nearly $~oo,ooo and no mortgages upon it. The annual expenses of the place run up to nearly $6s,ooo a year. A few students were found able to pay $8 a month, but many others who couldn't pay were allowed to work one-half of their board. AN OBJECT LESSON IT IS Five hundred acres clef land are cultivated on the farm which is made an object lesson to the students. No industry, said the speaker, is needed more among the colored people of the south than that of agriculture. All the buildings on the place with the exception of the larger ones were erected by the students. A three story brick building was now being erected by the students, all the brick being made in the brick yard of the institute. The students were doing the work on this building, even to the painting and finishing. T~ T HE lJIGNITY OF LABOR The speaker grew eloquent in saying one of the aims at the institute was to emphasize the dignity of labor. There was a sentiment not alone among the colored people that manual work was a disgrace and it was the work of the teachers to expel this idea for an education that did not teach the hands to work with the brain was a very sorry education. The state of Alabama, he said, was doing all it could which was very little, as the colored children drew but 78 cents from the public fund, while the white children drew but a few more cents. 372