Booker T. Washington, born in 1865 in Virginia to an enslaved mother and a white father, tells the story of his experiences after the abolition of slavery and his struggle to succeed in life with a newly-found freedom. This autobiographical work by Booker T. Washington is an historical archive of paramount importance, as it sheds light on the issues of slavery, race, the Reconstruction period after the Civil War of 1861 and the impact of all these on a man's life.