to where most of them are.  My case will illustrate that of hundreds of thousands of black people in every part of our country.  The very fact that the white boy is conscious that, if he fails in life, he will disgrace the whole family record, extending back through many generations, is of tremendous value in helping him to resist temptations.  The fact that the individual has behind and surrounding him proud family history and connection serves as a stimulus to help him to overcome obstacles when striving for success.

The time that I was permitted to attend school during the day was short, and my attendance was irregular.  It was not long before I had to stop attending day-school altogether, and devote all of my time again to work.  I resorted to the night-school again.  In fact, the greater part of the education I secured in my boyhood was gathered through the night-school after my day’s work was done.  I had difficulty often in securing a satisfactory teacher.  Sometimes, after I had secured some one to teach me at night, I would find, much to my disappointment, that the teacher knew but little more than I did.  Often I would have to walk several miles at night in order to recite my night-school lessons.  There was never a time in my youth, no matter how dark and discouraging the days might be, when one resolve did not continually remain with me, and that was a determination to secure an education at any cost.

Soon after we moved to West Virginia, my mother adopted into our family, notwithstanding our poverty, an orphan boy, to whom afterward we gave the name of James B. Washington.  He has ever since remained a member of the family.

After I had worked in the salt-furnace for some time, work was secured for me in a coal-mine which was operated mainly for the purpose of securing fuel for the salt-furnace.  Work in the coal-mine I always dreaded.  One reason for this was that any one who worked in a coal-mine was always unclean, at least while at work, and it was a very hard job to get one’s skin clean after the day’s work was over.  Then it was fully a mile from the opening of the coal-mine to the face of the coal, and all, of course, was in the blackest darkness.  I do not believe that one ever experiences anywhere else such darkness as he does in a coal-mine.  The mine was divided into a large number of different “rooms” or departments, and, as I never was able to learn the location of all these “rooms,” I many times found myself lost in the mine.  To add to the horror of being lost, sometimes my light would go out, and then, if I did not happen to have a match, I would wander about in the darkness until by chance I found some one to give me a light.  The work was not only hard, but it was dangerous.  There was always the danger of being blown to pieces by a premature explosion of powder, or of being crushed by falling slate.  Accidents from one or the other of these causes were frequently occurring, and this