Booker T. and Slavery

More Than Anything Else

written by Marie Bradby, illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet

Visit the Booker T. Washington National Monument, virtually or in person. Excellent learning materials are available, created for different grade levels and carefully responsive to Virginia learning standards. The unit "Down on the Farm" for preschool through first grade has many useful suggestions for comparing slavery in Booker T. Washington's time to the lives of young children today.

“. . . I had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse . . . would be about the same as getting into paradise."

Booker T. Washington

Young children often do not understand the hardships and obstacles facing persons in pursuit of books and reading (education) in the early days of our country. Focusing discussion of the attitudes and efforts of prominent historical figures such as Booker T. Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others with appropriate graphic organizers can help develop a better picture of these difficulties.