Du Bois’ “The Soul of Black Folk” and T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery” Essay

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The question of the Negro people in the American society has always been a real problem. People, especially black one, have always asked themselves questions about their place in the world and why they are treated differently. The problem of the attitude to black people is solved now, they are considered to be the same members of the society, but the problem still exists. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington tried to examine the question from their points of view and their considerations are going to be discussed in the current paper.

Du Bois in the work “The Soul of Black Folk” asks the question, why black people are considered to be different, why they are treated differently as they are the same members of the society, they are the same people, created by God, but at the same time they are thought to be strangers even in their own houses. “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double-self into a better and truer self” (Du Bois ) says Du Bois and he is right. The life of black people is known as the life of straggle, black people were fighting for their freedom for many centuries and now they have got that freedom, they have reached their aim. Du Bois in his work dwells upon the difficulties in Negro lives, when they were rejected by the society, when they had no one to rely on – the whole world was against them.

Booker T. Washington in his work “Up from slavery” tells his story, his life, when he managed to become the respected person, in spite of the fact that he had come out of slaves. Being black, he managed to cope with lots of difficulties and reach the level, where he was at. The chapter, which is discussed, is “The Atlanta Exposition Address”, where the author tried to show the President and Directors that black people are not the minority in the South. Moreover, telling about black people, Washington says with assurance that South America is inhabited with the Negros on one third, and it is unjust not to pay attention to their problems. The terrible conditions of black people are discussed and Washington just wants to ask, how long will black people be ignored. The hope for better fills in the heart of black people and they hope that some time later, they will be considered similar, black and white (Washington ).

These two works, by Washington and Du Bois raise the similar problems, the place of black people in the society, the attitude to black people and their equality with white people. The works show that black and white people are the same, from the point of view of their vision by God, as they were created in the same way, but it is people who decided to change the priorities and make white race the dominated one. These two works are devoted to the place of black people in the American society and the question is asked, why there is no place for them.

In conclusion, the racial discrimination was one of the main problems in America for centuries, but thanks to work of some people, to black race desire to be the same with white one, the discrimination is reduced to minimum and is even prosecuted by law.

Works Cited

Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Soul of Black Folk.” In Nina Baym (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

Washington, Booker T. “Up from slavery.” In Nina Baym (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Du Bois' “The Soul of Black Folk” and T. Washington's “Up From Slavery”." November 30, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/du-bois-the-soul-of-black-folk-and-t-washingtons-up-from-slavery/.

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