At the beginning of Up from Slavery, Washington explains how, as a child, he deeply craved an education, using a metaphor in the process:
I had no schooling whatever while I was a slave, though I remember on several occasions I went as far as the schoolhouse door with one of my young mistresses to carry her books. The picture of several dozen boys and girls in a schoolroom engaged in study made a deep impression upon me, and I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise.
The metaphor here—that “get[ting] into a schoolhouse and study[ing] in this way would be the same as getting into paradise”—captures the intensity of Washington's desire to learn in a formal education setting. The metaphor also communicates Washington’s humility—paradise, to him, isn't about power or prestige, but merely being able to study in a schoolroom like the white children were able to do.
This moment establishes from the start of his autobiography that Washington takes education extremely seriously, and prepares readers for his journey from an uneducated enslaved person to a student at a school (Hampton) to the founder of his own school (Tuskegee).
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.
When Washington's friends offer him and his wife an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe for three months—with the intention of having them rest and enjoy themselves—he is overwhelmed with gratitude and also concern for what will happen to the Tuskegee Institute while he is away. He describes his anxious attempts at resisting this incredible European tour offer, using a metaphor in the process:
I told these Boston friends that, while I thanked them sincerely for their thoughtfulness and generosity, I could not go to Europe, for the reason that the school could not live financially while I was absent. They then informed me that Mr. Henry L. Higginson, and some other good friends who I know do not want their names made public, were then raising a sum of money which would be sufficient to keep the school in operation while I was away. At this point I was compelled to surrender. Every avenue of escape had been closed.
Washington describes his friends metaphorically here, implying that they are like soldiers surrounding him to whom he is “compelled to surrender” since “every avenue of escape had been closed.” This is an example of verbal irony as he does not actually view his friends as forces closing in on him. Quite the opposite—he is aware of the fact that his friends are holding him accountable for taking care of himself. That Washington ultimately accepts their invitation proves that, while he believes hard work is critical to success, rest and vacation are also important.
