Читать книгу Constructing the Self. Essays on Southern Life-Writing онлайн

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In all this, Washington sounds a good bit like Franklin, who portrayed himself in his Autobiography as endlessly seeking practical projects to which he could devote himself, such as the creation of better streetlamp. Concerning these projects, Franklin might be understood as the Great Improver, with his efforts directed at bettering himself as well as his society, a perspective resting on the idea that moral virtues are reflected in and reinforced by habits of work. Following Franklin, Washington emphasizes the necessity of labor in improving black people as they progress “up from slavery.” Indeed, Washington argues that perhaps the most heinous legacy of slavery was its vilifying of labor, not only for blacks but also for whites; and so, in order to construct a more prosperous South, both races needed to embrace the importance of manual labor. “The whole machinery of slavery,” Washington asserts, “was so constructed as to cause labour, as a rule, to be looked upon as a badge of degradation, of inferiority. Hence labour was something that both races on the slave plantation sought to escape. The slave system on our place, in a large measure, took the spirit of self-reliance and self-help out of the white people” (Up From Slavery 17). To Washington’s eyes, blacks rather than whites were better fitted for the hard work needed to remake the South, since most slave owners “had mastered no special industry,” while many slaves “had mastered some handicraft” (18).