Booker T. Washington was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1856, into the so-called Peculiar Institution of American slavery. At the tender age of 9, Booker and other slaves on the Burroughs family plantation were freed, and Booker began a journey that would make him a well-known and important figure during the Reconstruction Era.
Read MoreBorn Booker Taliaferro in 1856, the infant’s lot in life was pre-determined: Booker was born to an enslaved mother on the farm of James Burroughs in Virginia’s Piedmont region. From an early age, Booker, along with all enslaved children, was put to work on and near the 200-acre farm.
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