No. 4.] THE COLORED RACE. 255 



THE COLORED RACE AND ITS RELATION TO TIIE 

 PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRIES OE THIS COUNTRY. 



BY 1>K. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, PRINCIPAL TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND 

 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, TUSKEGEE, ALA. 



I very much fear that I shall do what we sometimes term 

 in the south " Following the old white cow/' Gentlemen 

 engaged in agriculture will understand, I think, what that 

 means. During the days of slavery a master rode out into 

 his tield early one morning to show his servant John what 

 to do during the day, and he pointed across the field to an 

 old white cow, and said to him, "John, plow straight to 

 that old white cow, and you will have a good basis or start- 

 ing point for your plow during the day," and with that com- 

 ment the master rode off out of the field about his other 

 affairs, and did not return to the field until about four 

 o'clock in the afternoon. When he returned he found that 

 John had been following that old white cow through the 

 field all day. Well now, in the south, where a cow gets a 

 nibble of grass about once in every two or three yards, you 

 can imagine something the condition of that field when the 

 master returned. This morning I very much fear you will 

 find me following the old white cow a good deal. 



I am not fitted by experience or by education to be your 

 instructor this morning along any line. I was born a slave 

 on a plantation in the State of Virginia, about the year 

 1858 or 1859. I have never been able to learn the exact 

 date or even the place of my birth, but I am pretty sure I 

 was born somewhere at some time. 



After I had gotten to be a free boy, and had gone into 

 the State of West Virginia and spent some time working in 

 the coal mines, in some way, I hardly recall now, I found 

 my way to Hampton Institute in Virginia, an agricultural 



