User:Noleander/draft9

Family history
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Alfred Du Bois and Mary Silvina Burghardt Du Bois. He grew up in Great Barrington, a predominately Anglo-American town.

Mary Silvina Burghardt's family was part of the very small free black population of Great Barrington, having long owned land in the state. Their family descended from Dutch and African ancestors. Du Bois's maternal great-grandfather was Tom Burghardt, a slave (born in West Africa around 1730), owned by Dutch-American Conraed Burghardt. Tom earned his freedom by service (1780) during the American Revolution as a private soldier in Captain John Spoor's company. Tom's son Jack Burghardt was the father of Othello Burghardt, who was the father of Mary Silvina Burghardt.

William Du Bois's paternal great-grandfather was a white French-American, James Du Bois of Poughkeepsie, New York, who fathered several children with slave mistresses. One of James' mixed-race sons was Alexander. After James died, Alexander was disowned by his family and forced to give up schooling for work. Alexander became a merchant in New Haven and married Sarah Marsh Lewis. Alexander travelled to Haiti, and fathered a son, Alfred, there around 1833 with a mistress. Alexander then returned to his wife in Connecticut, leaving Alfred in Haiti with his mother. It is not known when Alfred moved from Haiti to the United States, but he appeared in the New York census in 1860. Alfred Du Bois and Mary Silvina Burghardt married on February 5, 1867, in Housatonic, Massachusetts, and William was born the following year. Alfred deserted Mary by the time their son William was two.

When William was young, Mary suffered a stroke which left her unable to work. The two of them moved frequently, surviving on money from family members and Du Bois's after-school jobs. Du Bois believed he could improve their lives through education. Some of the neighborhood whites noticed him, and one rented Du Bois and his mother a house in Great Barrington. During these years, Du Bois attended the First Congregational Church of Great Barrington.

Du Bois performed chores and worked odd jobs. He did not feel separate because of his skin color while he was in school. He has suggested that the only times he felt out of place were when out-of-towners visited Great Barrington. One such incident occurred when a white girl who was new in school refused to take one of his "calling cards" during a game; the girl told him she would not accept it because he was black. Du Bois then realized that there would always be a barrier between some whites and non-whites.

Du Bois faced some challenges as the precocious, intellectual, mixed-race son of an impoverished single mother. His intellectual gifts were recognized by many of his teachers, who encouraged him to further his education with classical courses while in high school. His scholastic success led him to believe that he could use his knowledge to empower African Americans.