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A Harder Task Than Making Bricks Without Straw
Determined to have students construct the school's own buildings, Washington sets up a brickmaking operation from scratch — failing twice, pawning his watch to fund a third attempt — in a deliberate echo of the Israelites' forced labor in Exodus.
Brickmaking as a founding student industryRepeated early failuresPawning his watch to fund a third attemptThe 'making bricks without straw' biblical allusionBricks sold into the local white community, building goodwill