When sharing his opinions on the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, Washington alludes to people considered to be “carpetbaggers,” such as “ex-Governor Bullock,” defending them in the process:
Neither were all the class designated as carpetbaggers dishonourable men. Some of them, like ex-Governor Bullock, of Georgia, were men of high character and usefulness.
The “class designated as carpetbaggers” were primarily white men who moved from the North to the South after the Civil War in order to benefit from Reconstruction socially, financially, and/or politically. The phrase comes from the fact that many of the people moving to the South would carry their personal belongings in “carpet bags,” an affordable form of luggage made out of carpet that was popular at the time. The term was a derogatory one primarily employed by conservative white Southerners who resented Northerners moving to their territory and influencing their culture.
“Ex-Governer Bullock” is an allusion to Rufus Brown Bullock, a progressive white man from New York who moved to the South after the War and was elected the governor of Georgia from 1868 to 1871. He was eventually run out of the state by the Ku Klux Klan due to his support of political rights for Black Americans.
Washington’s description of Bullock as a man “of high character and usefulness” here, near the beginning of his autobiography, is also a subtle form of foreshadowing, as he will go on to meet Bullock later in the book. In fact, Bullock is one of the commissioners of Washington’s famous Atlanta Exposition Address and is on stage with Washington when he gives it. Like Washington, Bullock was a supporter of gradual racial progress.
Chapter 10 of Up from Slavery is titled “A Harder Task than Making Bricks without Straw,” an allusion to Exodus 5:7 from the Bible. Washington makes the allusion more explicit in the chapter itself when describing how he was faced with making the bricks for the Tuskegee Institute:
In the early days of the school I think my most trying experience was in the matter of brickmaking […] I had always sympathized with the “Children of Israel,” in their task of “making bricks without straw,” but ours was the task of making bricks with no money and no experience. In the first place, the work was hard and dirty, and it was difficult to get the students to help. When it came to brickmaking, their distaste for manual labour in connection with book education became especially manifest.
As Washington states, this particular biblical passage describes how the Egyptian pharaohs forced the enslaved Israelites (or "Children of Israel") to make brick without straw, an extremely challenging task. While this story is normally invoked as a metaphor for some sort of hardship (in fact, Washington uses it this way earlier in the book when describing the challenge of budget allocation at the Tuskegee Institute), here it becomes almost literal, as Washington faces the same challenge of making bricks with limited resources.
As the latter half of the passage communicates, it is not merely a lack of resources that creates a challenge for Washington, but also the fact that his students are not interested in manual labor being part of their education. He eventually convinces his students to put time into brick-making, though, as the key components of his educational philosophy included the importance of vocational education and the dignity of labor.
When sharing his belief that Black Americans should prepare for slow and gradual political progress, Washington uses a metaphor about a gourd-vine, as seen in the following passage:
I believe it is the duty of the Negro—as the greater part of the race is already doing—to deport himself modestly in regard to political claims, depending upon the slow but sure influences that proceed from the possession of property, intelligence, and high character for the full recognition of his political rights. I think that the according of the full exercise of political rights is going to be a matter of natural, slow growth, not an over-night, gourd-vine affair.
In stating that political progress is “going to be a matter of natural, slow growth, not an over-night, gourd-vine affair,” Washington is using both a metaphor and also an allusion. The allusion here is to a Bible story in which God grants the overheated prophet Jonah shade in a shade-less city by having a large gourd-vine grow overnight. Washington’s metaphor builds off of the allusion to assert that Black political progress will not happen overnight and miraculously, the way that the gourd-vine grew overnight. It will be slow and steady, requiring patience, like the growth of normal plants.
Throughout Up from Slavery, Washington includes documents penned by other people, such as letters sent to him from President Grover Cleveland and presidents of prestigious universities, as well as a full news article written by the journalist James Creelman about Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address. It is worth looking at some of the literary devices Creelman uses in his article, as they reveal important information about the reception of Washington’s famous speech (which is the reason Washington says he includes the article).
In just the opening sentence of the article, Creelman uses both metaphors and an allusion:
While President Cleveland was waiting at Gray Gables to-day, to send the electric spark that started the machinery of the Atlanta Exposition, a Negro Moses stood before a great audience of white people and delivered an oration that marks a new epoch in the history of the South.
The first metaphor that Creelman uses here—comparing the Atlanta Exposition Address to a piece of machinery—establishes that this speech was a hugely important event. It is not just a speech, but a machine, communicating the power that Washington wielded over the crowd.
Creelman’s second metaphor—calling Washington “a Negro Moses”—similarly captures Washington’s immense influence over his audience. Creelman’s biblical allusion to Moses is meant to encourage readers to visualize Washington leading his followers to freedom the way that Moses did for the Israelites.
Washington’s decision to include these descriptions of his influence in his autobiography was likely an attempt at showing how much support he had from his listeners—white and Black people alike believed in his philosophy of gradual racial progress.
Near the end of Up from Slavery, Washington receives an invitation to speak at the Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston and alludes to Shaw’s impressive legacy:
Early in the year 1897 I received a letter inviting me to deliver an address at the dedication of the Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston. I accepted the invitation. It is not necessary for me, I am sure, to explain who Robert Gould Shaw was, and what he did.
While Washington believes he does not need to explain to readers of his time “who Robert Gould Shaw was, and what he did,” contemporary readers may not be as aware of the fact that Shaw was the white commander of the first all-Black regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War.
Not only did Shaw head this all-Black battalion, but, in the Battle at Fort Wagner, he died valiantly while leading his troops. Because of all this, Shaw came to represent white racial solidarity with the Black community and monuments like the one in Boston were created to acknowledge his sacrifice and legacy. Washington was honored to speak at an event at Shaw’s monument as he saw his own work as furthering a legacy of racial progress and unity between Black and white Americans.
