Why was the Booker unable to reach school on time
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At 9-years-old, Booker T. Washington’s stepfather put him to work in the Malden, West Virginia salt mines, where brine was boiled down to make salt. Earlier that year, in the spring of 1865, his family had been freed from slavery with the arrival of Union troops at the end of the Civil War.
Shortly after settling in West Virginia, Booker’s mother got him a Webster’s spelling book, which he used to learn the alphabet. When a school opened in Malden, he would walk to the mines with his stepfather, watching kids his age walking to school. Booker would later say he, “Had the feeling that to get into a schoolhouse and study in this way would be about the same as getting into paradise.”
He pled his case until his parents finally relented, making arrangements so that Booker could leave the mine at 9 a.m., go to school, and then return to work for few more hours after school was out. This meant waking up before dawn for work and missing the start of school, which started at 9 a.m. sharp. Booker hated showing up to school a half hour late every day, so he began pushing the work clock forward 30 minutes morning after morning, allowing him to leave work early and arrive at school right on time. Eventually, the boss found out and put the clock in a glass case, ending Booker’s gambit.
At 16, Booker was working in the local coal mine when he overheard two miners talking about a school for black students in Virginia. From that moment on, Booker’s every thought was consumed with finding a way to enroll at his new paradise, the Hampton Institute. When he had saved enough for the 500-mile trek, he set off for Hampton. He quickly learned he hadn’t saved nearly enough to make it, and after stops to work for train fare and sleeping on the sidewalk at night, Booker finally reached Hampton with 50 cents to his name....