Work in the Mines
Washington turned five the year the American Civil War (1861–65) began. The conflict between the Union states of the North, who were opposed to slavery, and the Confederate states of the South, who were in favor of slavery and had seceded from the Union, lasted for the next four years. In the midst of it U.S. president Abraham Lincoln (1809–65; served 1861–65) issued his historic Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves. Like many other blacks, Washington and his family were suddenly free, but while they had no master now, they also had few resources, no income, and no place to go. Many freedmen stayed on with their former masters, but Washington's stepfather went to work in coal and salt mines in West Virginia. The family soon joined him there, making the ten-day trip with a wagon that carried their few possessions. The children had to walk alongside it for much of the way, and at night they slept outdoors.
In Malden, West Virginia, Washington and his brother went to work in the mines as well. Slaves had been prohibited by law from learning to read and write, and now that all slaves were free and these laws no longer applied to them, Washington was eager for an education.
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