My plan was
not to teach them to work in the old way, but to show them how to
make the forces of nature--air, water, steam, electricity,
horse-power--assist them in their labour.
At first many advised against the experiment of having the
buildings erected by the labour of the students, but I was
determined to stick to it. I told those who doubted the wisdom of
the plan that I knew that our first buildings would not be so
comfortable or so complete in their finish as buildings erected
by the experienced hands of outside workmen, but that in the
teaching of civilization, self-help, and self-reliance, the
erection of buildings by the students themselves would more than
compensate for any lack of comfort or fine finish.
I further told those who doubted the wisdom of this plan, that
the majority of our students came to us in poverty, from the
cabins of the cotton, sugar, and rice plantations of the South,
and that while I knew it would please the students very much to
place them at once in finely constructed buildings, I felt that
it would be following out a more natural process of development
to teach them how to construct their own buildings. Mistakes I
knew would be made, but these mistakes would teach us valuable
lessons for the future.
During the now nineteen years' existence of the Tuskegee school,
the plan of having the buildings erected by student labour has
been adhered to.
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