Up From Slavery

Mrs. Viola Ruffner is a wealthy Northern woman who lives near Washington’s childhood home in Malden, West Virginia. She has a fearsome reputation in the town, and many people who have worked in her household describe her as a harsh and demanding employer. Washington begins working for her shortly before attending Hampton, and he gets along with her well. He appreciates her high standards and credits her with teaching him how to maintain a functional household and how to keep himself and his surroundings clean. He believes that she was instrumental in helping him attend Hampton, since his “test” to enter the school involved cleaning a room. He passed the test with flying colors, which he would not have been able to do without Mrs. Ruffner’s guidance.

Mrs. Ruffner continues to be a mentor to Washington through much of his life, especially after his mother passes away. By that point, she is not only a reliable employer who will help Washington raise enough money to return to Hampton; she is also a friend and mentor. She allows him to take time out of his work to study and helps familiarize him with the standards of the upper-class society he hopes to emulate. 

General Samuel C. Armstong is a former Union general, and Washington is continuously surprised that he does not seem to hold any ill will toward the white people of the South. He wants to help people in all parts of society and appears to get along with nearly everyone, even if they hold completely different political and ideological views. After the war, Armstrong founded the Hampton Institute, where he worked as principal until his death near the end of the book. Armstrong is one of Washington’s greatest inspirations throughout Up From Slavery. He establishes the system of industrial education that Washington comes to prize and later implements at the Tuskegee school. He also provides unparalleled financial and social support for Washington’s efforts in Alabama.

Washington often calls Armstrong the greatest person he has ever met. The general helps Washington in many ways, from hiring him as a teacher at Hampton to recommending him as director of the new school in Tuskegee. Washington is honored when Armstrong, in his last months of life, requests to visit Tuskegee one more time. Despite his severe illness, Armstrong continues to give Washington wise advice during their final time together. 

Apart from Armstrong, Mary F. Mackie is Washington’s closest lifelong confidante from the Hampton Institute. As head teacher when he first arrives at the school, she is taken aback by his scruffy clothing, the result of his having spent several days living under a boardwalk in Richmond. He worries that she will turn him away, but she allows him to stay when he proves his ability to sweep a room to her exacting specifications. She hires him as a school janitor, a position that pays for his room and allows him time to study when he is not at work.

Washington’s respect for Miss Mackie grows immensely during one summer break, when she asks him to return to school early to help clean buildings. Although she is an upper-class woman with a respectable career, she cleans alongside Washington. She does not see the work as beneath her, in fact she enjoys completing a task that she knows she can do well. This furthers his belief that even the most privileged people should take pleasure in hard work. 

Olivia A. Davidson is a Hampton graduate and the first female teacher at Tuskegee. A brilliant fundraiser, she spends several years touring the North, meeting wealthy prospective donors and winning them over with her intelligence and vision for the school. She also holds events in Tuskegee, where hundreds of less fortunate people give anything they can in the hopes that their neighbors and descendants will benefit from a quality education. She is also proud of being a Black woman, and is offended when, living in Massachusetts, it is suggested that she may be able to pass as white.

Miss Davidson and Washington eventually get married and have two sons, Booker and Ernest. By this time, the school has grown, and Davidson performs all her regular duties in addition to running a household for her family and fellow teachers. She dies very young, and Washington laments that she never got the chance to see how all her hard work would benefit the thriving school. 

Washington meets several presidents during the events of Up From Slavery, but none inspire him as much as William McKinley. Washington wholeheartedly believes that McKinley is dedicated to racial justice for Black people. The writer meets with him several times at the White House and hopes that the leader will one day visit Tuskegee to see his school.

The day finally comes at a very turbulent time in American history. The Spanish American War has recently ended, and violent racial conflict is breaking out in cities across the South. McKinley vows to do something about the issue. While visiting Atlanta for an event to celebrate the end of the war, he visits Tuskegee as a show of support for Black education. This is a major event for the school and the surrounding rural community—one of many instances that helps bring the townspeople and Tuskegee students closer together.