View of kitchen cabin, horse barn and sheep pen

On April 5, 1856, a child who later called himself Booker T. Washington, was born in slavery on this 207-acre tobacco farm. Booker T. Washington. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881 and later became an important and controversial leader of his race at a time when increasing racism in the United States made it necessary for African Americans to adjust themselves to a new era of legalized oppression. The site is restored to its general appearance in the mid-19th century. All buildings standing today (kitchen cabin, smokehouse, blacksmith shed, tobacco barn, corn crib, horse barn, and chicken lot) are reconstructions. The original kitchen cabin site, which Booker T. Washington himself pointed out in 1908 as the location of his birthplace, and the site of the Burroughs house have been outlined with stone.

• Keywords: kitchen cabins; educators; Washington; Booker T.; 1856-1915; African American educators; Log cabins