Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) from Charles Town, WV – who Lincoln called “extraordinary”

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) from Charles Town, WV – who Lincoln called “extraordinary” Born to a freed African-American mother, Martin Delany lived his life motto to the letter:

“Act, act in the Living present, but ACT.

Face thine accusers, scorn the rack and rod,

and if thou hast truth to utter

SPEAK the truth . . and leave the rest to God.”

Jim Surkamp, who developed an 800-page website on Delany for the WVU library and an hour-long video about him, tells the dramatic, bigger-than-life, ultimately tragic story of a man who was a novelist, co-editor of “The North Star,” doctor educated at Harvard Medical School, and leader of his own scientific expedition to the Niger River Valley, culminating with a lecture before Prince Albert’s International Statistical Society. Above all, Lincoln – so impressed after an interview with Delany – had him made possibly the first African American field officer in the U.S. Army in February, 1865. W.E.B. DuBois told a news reporter in the 1930s of Delany: ”His was a magnificent life, yet why is it we know so little about him?”

We answer that question.

Martin Delany 1812-1885 “To Be More Than Equal”

Words: 682 By Jim Surkamp

You had to see far into the future to see his true reflection. That future – today – is really when we see and can appreciate Martin Delany’s prescience. He rose before the world’s most prestigious scientific body in 1860 in London, faced the United States’ ambassador and said cooly and pointedly after pleasantries to the chair that “I am a Man,” fighting words that cleared the room and filled newspapers worldwide with big headlines.

So here is this Virginia native son, Harvard-educated doctor; author of four weighty tomes; leader of a self-organized, year-long expedition to the Niger River Valley; arguably the first black field officer in the U.S. Army; co- editor of “The North Star;” inventor, father, husband – this moral engine of a man driven by the single motto: “Act in the Living present – But Act.”

It goes on: “Face Thine Accusers, Scorn the Rack and Rod, and if thou Hath Truth to utter, Speak the Truth and Leave the Rest To God.”

“Do not fail to have an interview with this most extraordinary and intelligent black man,” memo’d Abraham Lincoln to Edwin Stanton after meeting Delany one morning in February, 1865.

Martin Delany was born May 6, 1812 in Charles Town, now West Virginia, one of five “freed” children to Patty Delany, a freed black, and Samuel, who would buy his own freedom. Her children taught each other to read under the arbor in their back yard. Soon, crudely written travel passes began turning up in the hands of enslaved Africans. Calling it a trip to see kin, the Delanys, one day in 1823, slipped away to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and freedom.

He later wrote “Blake: The Huts of America” – about a traveling insurrectionist, Delany’s response to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Delany co-edited “The North Star” newspaper with Frederick Douglas beginning in 1847.

Building on his years of apprenticing doctors in Pittsburgh as a cupper and leecher, Delany was accepted at Harvard Medical School. Protests from undergraduates forced three matriculated persons of color – one being Martin Delany – out, even though the faculty favored retention. Disillusioned, Delany wrote in 1852: “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States,” chronicling many successful African-Americans and advocating an effort by his people to organize their own resettlement in the homeland of Africa.

John Brown sought out Delany in 1858, who was then a doctor in Chatham, Ontario and Delany organized for Brown a secret convention to hear of Brown’s plan to create an independent state for former, enslaved persons.

Delany recruited African men in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Illinois to fight as soldiers for the Civil War.

His fateful meeting with President Lincoln was a free exchange of ideas centering on Delany’s proposal to form a “Corps d’Afrique,” followed by Lincoln having him appointed as one of the very first African-American field officers, if not the first. His first assignment while being promoted to the rank of major was with the freedman’s bureau for the coastal plantations in South Carolina.

Delany was shaken by the scope of graft in the state’s Republican Administration. Delany then caused a firestorm in 1876 for strongly backing for governor the person of Wade Hampton, a Confederate Major General, owner of plantations in several states, who demonstrated fairness. Hampton won by a slim margin. Then the tragedy that capped Delany’s long life: the new Governor-elect Hampton soon sat around a table of power brokers at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. to decide which of the two dead-heat Presidential candidates would be president – Rutherford B. Hayes or Samuel Tilden. They chose Hayes with Hampton providing a deciding vote and handful of electoral votes to Hayes. In exchange Hayes, promised in writing to withdraw the occupation U.S. Army from all of the South.

So Martin Delany waved in 1880 as another ship set sail from South Carolina’s Charleston harbor to Africa, until the ship of hope shrunk on the horizon. His heart when with them.

“True Patriotism” – Martin Delany’s “Masterpiece”

Martin Delany died after a long, brave and diverse life January 24, 1885 in Wilberforce, Ohio. He wrote this in 1848 when he co-edited “The North Star” newspaper with Frederick Douglass. Scholar Prof. Robert S. Levine, who has edited “Martin R. Delany: A Documentary Reader,” has called this Delany’s “masterpiece:”

Patriotism consists not in a mere professed love of country, the place of one’s birth – an endearment to the scenery, however delightful and interesting, of such country; nor simply the laws and political policy by which such country is governed; but a pure and unsophisticated interest felt and manifested for man – an impartial love and desire for the promotion and elevation of every member of the body politic, their eligibility to all the rights and privileges of society. This, and other than this, fails to establish the claims of true patriotism.

From periods the most remote, the most improper application has been made of the endearing term Patriot. Whether the most absolute monarch, crowned with the hereditary diadem, armed with an unlimited sceptre, the most intolerable despot bearing the title of sovereign – the most cruel and heartless oppressor and slaveholder under the boasted title of President -the most relentless butcher and murderer called Commander-in-Chief – the most haughty and scornful aristocrat who tramples upon the people’s rights in the halls of legislation – the most reckless and unprincipled statesman “rioting upon the spoils of a plundered revenue” – whether Phillips, Curran or Gratan in defence of Irish constitutional liberty – Emmet upon the scaffold, refusing to let his epitaph be written until Ireland was free -William Tell, under sentence of death, baffling the schemes of the German tyrant, Gesler – the French baron, Lafayette, leaving his native country and princely fortune, to share in common the fate of the struggling American Washington, as the leader of his country’s destiny – O’Connell, as the Liberator – Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, or John Quincy Adams, standing in the frontal ranks as defenders of American rights, or Mitchell and O’Brien, who sacrificed their all, being forever divorced and exiled from the most tender ties of domestic affections, by the severity of the laws of their country, for daring to discard provisions deemed pernicious to the welfare of their countrymen; all have laid equal claim to a share of the popular gratitude, and been endowed with the loved title of patriot.

A patriot may exist, whether blessed with the privileges of a country, favored with a free constituency, or flying before his pursuers, [and] roam an exile, the declared outlaw of the power that besets him. Love to man, and uncompromising hostility to that which interferes with his divine God-given rights, are the only traits which distinguish the true patriot. To be patriotic, is to be philanthropic; to be which, is necessary to love all men, regarding their humanity with equal importance.

Much has been the interest felt and manifested in this country in every movement, with exceptions to be named, whether home or abroad, in favor of human liberty, and those who were foremost in the struggle, bequeathed their names to present and future time, to become the subject of the poet and the theme of the historian. Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland, Germany, France, England, Scotland and Ireland, of modern date, all, have had their patriots, each of whom in succession, has shared largely of America’s eulogium.

And of all who have scanned the ordeal before them, there were none perhaps for whom there has been expressed more sympathy, than the late victims of British displeasure, the Irish patriots and convicts, Mitchell and O’Brien, especially the latter, the severity of whose sentence aroused every feeling and expression of opposition to the execution of the sentence.

To witness the public demonstrations, as manifested in favor of the Irish struggle, in which Mayors of cities, Judges of Courts, sons of Ex-Presidents and Ex-Governors participated, and the universal interest felt in the result, is well tended to deceive, and betray into the idea those not otherwise advised, that this nation is a nation of justice.

But how will America stand, when compared with other countries, dark as may be the gloom of their semi-barbarous laws? Condemned must she be in the moral vision of the whole enlightened world. Loud, long, and damning, must be the anathema uttered against her by those whom she treats and so regards in all her legal acknowledgments as aliens and enemies, ere their eyes be opened to a sense of their condition, and she still refuses to succor them.

But how many patriots have lived, toiled, suffered and died, having worn out a life of usefulness, unobtrusively laboring in the cause of suffering humanity, living to the community and the world a life of seclusion, passing to and fro unobserved, amidst the stir and busy scenes of a metropolis, and the throng and bustle of assembled thousands. This class of patriots may be found in every country, but to none are they more common than America, and in no country would they meet with less acceptance than in this Republic.

Ever professing the most liberal principles, proclaiming liberty and equality to all mankind, their course of policy gives a glaring contradiction to their pretensions, and the lie to their professions. Prone as they are to tyrannize and despotize over the liberties of the few, the philanthropist who espouses the cause of the oppressed, is destined to a life of obscurity; instead of commendation and renown, contempt and neglect are the certain and most bitter fruits of his reward. Marked and pointed out by the finger of scorn, he at once becomes the mock of the scoffer, and hiss of the reviler; and affliction heaped upon affliction presses upon him like a mountain weight, until at last he sinks under the mighty pressure, unable longer to bear it up.

Yet, galling as this may be, it is a boon for which the downtrodden, oppressed American might anxiously long, compared with his own present miserable, unhappy condition. Among them have existed, and there do exist, those who are justly entitled to all the claims of true patriotism; but proscription, as infamous as it is wicked, has stamped the seal of degradation upon their brow; and instead of patriots, they become the felon and outlaw.

Anticipated and preconcerted by an inquisition of prejudice and slaveholding influence, the colored man of this confederacy, especially the bondman, is doomed to ignominy, whatever may be his merits. Though he has complied with the first demand of a freeman – borne arms in defence of his country – no sooner is victory won, than he is unarmed, not only of his implements, but also of his equality with those among whom he bravely fought side by side for liberty and equality. Mathematician and philosopher he may be, not only furnishing to the country the only correct calendar of time and chronological cycles, but further contribute to its interest, by assisting in the plot and survey of the District of Columbia, without the aid of whose talents it could not at that time have been accomplished with mathematical accuracy; yet no sooner is this effected, than he is forgotten to the nation.

Though in a professedly Republican and free Christian country, the yoke is upon his neck, and fetters upon his limbs, and dare he make the attempt to release himself and brethren from a condition little less than death itself, the whole country is solemnly bound, in one confederated band, to riddle his breast with ten thousand balls. Is he a slave the most abject of South America or Cuba, who, rising in the majesty of his nature, with a bold and manly bearing, heads his enslaved brethren, leading them on to a holy contest for the liberty of their wives, mothers, sisters and children, he is, with one universal voice, denounced in this country, as a rebel, insurrectionist, cut-throat; and all the powers of despotism, America in the foremost rank, sallies forth in one united crusade against him.

Many are the untiring, uncompromising, stern and indefatigable enemies of oppression, and friends of God and humanity, now to be found among the nominally free colored people of this slavery-cursed land, at work laboring for the good of all men, though some have recently escaped from the American prison-house of bondage, bearing still fresh upon their quivering flesh the sting of the whip and marks of the lash, many of whom for talents and the qualified ability to write and speak, will favorably compare with the proudest despots and oppressors in the country.

Though they speak, act, petition, remonstrate, pray, and appeal, yet to all this the wickedness of the American people turns a deaf ear, and closed eye. Hence, the American colored patriot lives but to be despised, feared and hated, accordingly as his talents may place him in the community – moving amidst the masses, he passes unobserved, and at last goes down to the grave in obscurity, without a tear to condole his loss, or a breast to heave in sympathy.

But the time shall yet come, when the name of the despised, neglected American patriot, in spite of American prejudice, shall rise superior to the spirit that would degrade it, and take its place on the records of merit and fame. M. R. D. (The North Star, 8 December 1848, P. 2).

“Blake: Huts of America” By Martin Robison Delany Excerpted from the chapter: “Fathers and Sons” in “Blake or The Huts of America: A Tale of the Mississippi Valley, the Southern United States;” (serialized in 1859 in “The Anglo-African Magazine;” 1861 and 1862 in the “Weekly Anglo African Magazine”). Delany wrote “Blake: Huts of America” in the early 1850s and it was serialized in a newspaper as the Civil War began. It was his forceful reply to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s spectacularly influential book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which Delany correctly saw as the imaginings of a woman who had barely been below the Mason-Dixon Line. Ms. Stowe’s later writings about slavery would move more and more closely to Delany’s worldview as rendered in “Blake.” “Blake” is about the factually-based, yet fictional wanderings of Henry, who sought to sow insurrection across the South. Delany drew from his experiences traveling at one time through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. But this chapter from “Blake,” clearly is about a visit to Bolivar and Charles Town in a fictional guise.

“Blake” mentions “Mud Fort,” the first name of Bolivar. The book’s numerous family surnames are Charles Town families and Worthington’s Mill was a real place. Delany appears to have Henry come over from Virginia, perhaps the road from Hillsborough, VA (Route 671), and then take a ferry across the Shenandoah River to Harper’s Ferry. From 1830 through the 1850s, there was one there. Henry’s movements suggest him walking to Charles Town to perhaps the old Winchester-Potomac RR Train Station, a line from Harper’s Ferry that was built in the 1830s. “Davenport’s,” “Washington’s” and “Briscoe’s” plantations would have placed him first at the train station near Route 51, then moving west along Route 51, then southwest towards Middleway and Winchester along the Old Summit Road. – ED

In Blake, Chapter “Fathers and Sons:”

“From Washington taking a retrograde course purposely to avoid Maryland, where he learned they were already well advised and holding gatherings, the margin of Virginia was cut in this hasty passage, so as to reach more important points for communication. Stealing through the neighborhood and swimming the river, a place was reached called Mud Fort, some four miles distant from Harper’s Ferry, situated on the Potomac . . .” “Having lurked till evening in a thicket near by, Charleston (Charles Town – ED) was entered near the depot, just at the time when the last train was leaving for Washington (Winchester-Potomac going north to Harper’s Ferry, changing to the B&O railroad – ED). Though small, this place was one of the most difficult in which to promote his object, as the slaves were but comparatively few, difficult to be seen, and those about the depot were house servants, trained to be suspicious and mistrustful of strange blacks, and true and faithful to their masters. Still, he was not remiss in finding a friend and a place for the seclusion. “This place was most admirably adapted for the gathering, being held up a run or little stream, in a bramble thicket on a marshy meadow of the old Brackenridge estate, but a few minutes walk from the town (On land of the development today called Breckenridge off Flowing Springs Road and adjacent to Security Hills – ED). This evening was that of a strict patrol watch, their headquarters for the night being in Worthington’s old mills, from which ran the race, passing near which was the most convenient way to reach the place of gathering for the evening. “While stealthily moving along in the dark, hearing a cracking in the weeds and a soft tramping of feet, Henry secreted himself in a thick, high growth of Jamestown weeds along the fence, when he slightly discerned a small body of men as if reconnoitering the neighborhood. Sensible of the precariousness of his condition, the fugitive lay as still as death, lest by dint he might be discovered, as much fear and apprehension then pervaded the community. “Charleston (Charles Town), at best, was a hard place for a Negro, and under the circumstances, had he been discovered, no plea would have saved him. Breathlessly crouched beneath the foliage and thorns of the fetid weed, he was startled by a voice suddenly exclaiming: ‘Hallo there! who’s that?’ which proved to be that of one of the patrol, the posse having just come down the bank of the race from the mill. ‘Sahvant, mausta!’ was the humble reply. ‘Who are you?’ further enquired the voice. ‘Zack Parker, sir.’ ‘Is that you, old Zack?’ ‘Yes, mausta – honner bright.’ ‘Come, Zack, you must go with us! Don’t you know that Negroes are not allowed to be out at night alone, these times? Come along!’ said Davy Hunter. ‘Honner bright, maus Davy – honner bright!’ continued the old black slave of Colonel Davenport, quietly walking beside them along the millrace, the water of which being both swift and deep. ‘Maus Davy, I got some mighty good rum here in dis flas’ – you gentmen hab some? Mighty good! Mine I tells you, maus Davy – mighty good!’ ‘Well, Zack, we don’t care to take a little,’ replied Bob Flagg. ‘Honner bright, maus Bobby – honner bright!’ replied the old man. Hunter raised the flask to his mouth, the others gathering around, each to take a draught in turn, when instantly a plunge in the water was heard, and the next moment old Zack Parker was swinging his hat in triumph on the opposite bank of the channel, exclaiming, ‘Honner bright, gentmen! Honner bright! Happy Jack an’ no trouble!’ – the last part of the sentence being a cant phrase commonly in use in that part of the country, to indicate a feeling free from all cares.

In a rage the flask was thrown in the dark, and alighted near his feet upright in the tufts of grass, when the old man in turn seizing the vessel, exclaiming aloud, ‘Yo’ heath, gentmen! Yo’ good heath!’ Then turning it up to his mouth, the sound heard across the stream gave evidence of his enjoyment of the remainder of the contents. ‘Thank’e, gentmen – good night!’ when away went Zack to the disappointment and even amusement of the party.

Taking advantage of this incident, Henry, under a guide, found a place of seclusion, and a small number of good willing spirits ready for the counsel. ‘Mine, my chile!’ admonished old Aunt Lucy. ‘Mine hunny, how yeh go long case da all’as lookin’ arter black folks.’ Taking the nearest course through Worthington’s woods, he reached in good time that night the slave quarters of Captain Jack Briscoe and Major Brack Rutherford.

The blacks here were united by the confidential leaders of Moore’s people, and altogether they were rather a superior gathering of slaves to any yet met with in Virginia. His mission here soon being accomplished, he moved rapidly on to Slaughter’s, Crane’s and Washington’s old plantations, where he caused a glimmer of light, which until then had never been thought of, much less seen, by them.

The night rounds of the patrol of the immediate neighborhood, caused a hurried retreat from Washington’s — the last place at which he stopped – and daybreak the next morning found him in near proximity to Winchester, when he sought and obtained a hiding place in the woods of General Bell. The people here he found ripe and ready for anything that favored their redemption. Taylor’s, Logan’s, Whiting’s and Tidball’s plantations all had crops ready for the harvest.

‘An’ is dis de young man,’ asked Uncle Talton, stooped with the age of eighty-nine years, ‘dat we hearn so much ob, dat’s gwine all tru de country ‘mong de black folks? Tang God a’mighty for wat I lib to see!’ and the old man straightened himself up to his greatest height, resting on his staff, and swinging himself around as if whirling on the heel as children sometimes do, exclaimed in the gladness of his heart and the buoyancy of his spirits at the prospect of freedom before him: ‘I don’t disagard none on ’em,’ referring to the whites. ‘We have only ‘regarded’ them too long, father,’ replied Henry with a sigh of sorrow, when he looked upon the poor old time- and care-worn slave, whose only hope for freedom rested in his efforts. ‘I neber ‘spected to see dis! God bless yeh, my son! May God long yeh life!’ continued the old man, the tears streaming down his cheeks. ‘Amen!’ sanctioned Uncle Ek. ‘God grant it!’ replied Uncle Duk . . . .” •

VIDEO: MARTIN DELANY (1812-1885): THE FORGOTTEN GIANT OF SELFHOOD (2012 is the 200th anniversary of his birth) Doctor, explorer, novelist, agitator, thrice a newspaper editor, one of the first black field officers in the U.S. Army, trial justice – all in one man – who was also black in a mostly white world that enslaved those black. “His was a magnificent life, yet why is it we know so little of him?” wrote W.E.B. DuBois.”. . . This most extraordinary and intelligent black man,” wrote no less than Abraham Lincoln after they met. But his long life ended as a Greek tragedy because one decision of his backfired and swept away much of everything he worked and stood for – a man who accomplished so much but few had followed or, and since then remembered. NOTE: (William N. Reed of the 35th U.S.C.T. preceded Delany as such a field officer – Service Records and “ U.S.C.T. and Commissioned Officers of African-American Descent.” 13 November 2011 Web 28 December 2011.) THE STORY Forty-seven year old Delany is on his way over Atlantic waves to see for the first time his psychic and spiritual home – Africa. “Act in the Living Present – The Life of Martin Robison Delany” – by Jim Surkamp:

BEGINS:

“And if I never more return – OK – I leave you here and journey on and if I never more return, farewell.”

NARRATOR: Martin Delany finally gave up on America. His expulsion with two others from Harvard Medical School just because of skin color convinced him that the power of reason and merit alone did not in fact determine the country’s esteemed leaders. So, scraping together just a few hundred dollars, he rented a crew and ship to go back to Africa, where his grandfather Shango had returned several generations before. His critics, including Frederick Douglass, were legion. “You must stay here and fight for freedom,” they told him. Delany certainly reflected on his already long life: the long road as one of five children in a freed family in Charles Town Virginia; and after that fleeing because they illegally learned how to read, followed by the many years as a physician’s assistant in Pittsburgh, and then editing two influential newspapers. Most of all he remembered perhaps as he gazed at the sperm whales that wandered into those southern latitudes . . . Of the day he was walking the road to Pittsburgh in 1829 deciding – with his head filled with books and images of pharaohs and Africa – of making this pilgrimage in reverse back to Africa. “Land Ho!”

NARRATOR: “The arrival of Martin Robison Delany in Liberia is an era in the history of African emigration, an event doubtless that will long be remembered by hundreds of thousands of Africa’s exiled children. Persons from all parts of the country came to Monrovia to see this great man.” Ridiculed and ignored in America for speaking – embraced by the thousands here for speaking – how strange.

MD: “The regeneration of the African race can only be effected by its own efforts, the efforts of its own self and whatever aid may come from other sources; and it must, in this venture succeed, as God leads the movement and His hand guides the way.” “Face thine accusers, scorn the rack and rod and, and if thou hast truth to utter, speak and leave the rest to God.” But we pushed on to Abeokuta. . . . Africa taught Martin Delany its mysteries.

MD: “The principle markets to see all the wonders is in the evening. As the shades of evening deepen, every woman lights her little lamp and, to the distant observer, presents the beautiful appearance of innumerable stars.” “But in the entire Aku country one is struck by the beautiful, clear country which continually spreads out in every direction.” Africa also taught him its nightmares. . . “I read August 13th in the ‘West African Herald’: “. . . King Dahomey is about to make the Great Custom in honor of the late – King Gezo. Determined to surpass all former monarchs, a great pit has been dug which is to contain human blood enough to float a canoe. Two thousand persons will be sacrificed on this occasion. The – King has sent his army to make some excursions at the expense of some weaker tribes. The younger people will be sold into slavery. The older persons will be killed at the Grand Custom.”

MD: “Whole villages are taken.” “Farewell, farewell my loving friends, farewell. . .” The jasmine smells of Africa are tonight less fragrant than my scented memory of soft, honey-suckled summer’s night breezes in Virginia long ago, and awaking to the mockingbird.

NARRATOR: On April 10th, 1860 at Lagos, Martin Delany and Robert Campbell boarded ship for London and Birmingham to seek backers for a plan to build freedman’s cotton farms in the Niger Valley. They would undersell, at the gold price of fourteen cents a pound, all the slave-wrought cotton from the plantations back home, to make bales of cotton rot on the docks of Charleston and New Orleans as it were.

MD: When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, my children’s age – I worked hours and hours inscribing with a fine needle the Lord Prayer – all of it – on the face of an English six pence like this one.

NARRATOR: Delany was not wanted in in the United States because of his radical political views. So he set sail for London and began preparing his report to his backers on the promise of Africa. MD: I’ve noticed that . . . when I read, my eyes scan the page . . . back and forth. . . and up and down, like a loom. I was so crazy about words, I was like Cervantes. I’d pick up every grimy scrap in the gutters of Charles Town to see if it had magic code to worlds beyond. I read and broke bread with the ideas and dreams of Thomas Jefferson and Socrates and ancient pharaohs. Then Grandma Graci at night would tell me about my grandfather, Shango.

GRANDMA GRACI: “No more stories Martin.”

MD: And off to sleep and dreams about the greatest people who ever lived. I wanted my children to accumulate great hopes. If I ever set shoe leather on New York’s dock, President Buchanan himself would drop the noose around my despised neck, since John Brown, who I knew, did rebel and killed, and was hanged, I didn’t reckon there would be much of a welcoming party for me.

NARRATOR: Dr. Delany’s most prestigious speaking invitation was before the International Statistical Society, chaired by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, and the most esteemed scientific body in the world on July 16, 1860, at London’s Somerset House. As the meeting was beginning at four, Lord Brougham, who hated American slavery, addressed the body which included the delegation from the United States, headed by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet. United States Ambassador George Mifflin Dallas was also seated on the dais. Both fervently believed as did their President that those persons called slaves were technically, legally, and truly three-fifths human – just a notch above a good horse.

BROUGHAM: “I call to the attention of Mr. Dallas to the fact there is a Negro present, and I hope he will feel no scruples on that account.”

MD: I was eye-to-eye with men who wished me dead. So many memories engulfed me. “I rise, your Royal Highness, to thank his Lordship, the unflinching friend of the Negro, for the remarks he has made to myself and to assure your Royal Highness and his Lordship that I AM a man.”

NARRATOR: Withering amid what the London Times later called the wildest shouts ever from so grave an assemblage, Longstreet jumped up and led the United States delegation out of the hall. Ambassador Dallas stayed seated on the dais, silent. The proceedings ended. And Dr. Delany became an international sensation. Delany read the reactions to his actions from America. Even Frederick Douglass spoke well of him. A new President had been elected. His plans for Africa delayed by war there, and too many days of watching birthdays of his children go by from his cramped little room in London, cold rain drizzling outside and streaking his window pane. He wrote that memories leapt to life and pierced his heart with a golden spear and riddled his breast with precious stones. Memories, such as that of Lucinda Snow, the blind girl in the Ohio Asylum – who played for him Rose Bud on a piano for him shortly after his own dearest daughter had just died. Nothing, Delany decided, could keep him from being home in Chatham, Ontario by Christmas. There was hope there. It was 1860. Doctor Delany joined his family in Chatham, Dec. 29th, 1860 to help a flood of escaped ex-slaves. South Carolina voted to secede nine days before. Slavery was being challenged in earnest. On January 9th, 1861, Confederate shore batteries fire upon Federal supply ships approaching Fort Sumter. President Lincoln at his March 4th Inauguration said: “Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.” Peacetime ends. Bull Run, July 21st, 1861 Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign, May-June, 1862 Antietam, the bloodiest day in American military history, September 17, 1862 Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862 Vicksburg, Dec. 1862 through May, 1863 “All persons held as slaves shall thenceforward be forever free and such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed services.” President Lincoln, January 1st, 1863 179,000 men of color enlist. Three million remain enslaved. Confederate General Lee loses Gen. Jackson, his best, at Chancellorsville, May, 1863. Lee Gambles Over 50,000 casualties at Gettysburg foresees the ultimate defeat of the Southern Cause, July, 1863. Days later, angry anti-draft mobs in soldier-less New York City burn a Negro orphan asylum. And lynch twelve innocent freed blacks. The 7th New York militia helps restore order. On July 18th, public opinion is reversed by extreme bravery of men in the 54th Massachusetts’ Colored Regiment at Fort Wagner, South Carolina. “With silent tongue, clenched teeth, and steady eye, they have helped us on to this great consummation, while others have strove to hinder it.” A. Lincoln, April 26, 1864 A ninety-two per cent Republican vote by furloughed soldiers delivers big unexpected off-year wins in Ohio and Pennsylvania for Lincoln and his party. Abolitionist Lew Tappan writes: “We are coming out of the slanderous valley for we have lived to have old opponents say to us: “We were wrong.” “The year has brought many changes I thought impossible, May God bless this Cause.” Black recruit in Baltimore, MD. The U.S. Senate passes an amendment abolishing all slavery. The house still opposes. – April 9, 1864 Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest orders the murder of mostly black prisoners at Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864. “(it is hoped) these facts will demonstrate that Negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners.” “Whatever happens there will be no turning back” – a letter to President Lincoln from his new commander, Gen. Grant, April, 1864. The Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, May 5th through 12th, 1864. “These men are incomprehensible standing from daylight to dark killing and wounding each other, then making jokes and exchanging newspapers.” Col.Theodore Lyman. Gen. Grant of his Cold Harbor, Va. attack, June, 1864: “I regret this assault more than any other.” Equal pay for black troops is finally enacted, June, 1864. A teacher in the occupied South writes: “Their cry is for ‘books’ and ‘When will school begin?’” Civilians become targets. Union Gen. Hunter torches “Leeland” and “Fountain Rock” in Shepherdstown, WV and VMI in July, 1864. General Jubal Early strikes back, levels Chambersburg, ransoms Hagerstown and Frederick, MD. “The valley is not fit for man or beast. I have destroyed 2,000 barns.” – “Gen. Philip Sheridan Gen. William Sherman writes: “We cannot change the hearts of these people. But we can make it so terrible and make them so sick of war, they will not appeal to it again.” “I can make my men march and make Georgia howl.” Gen. Sherman while cutting a swath of destruction fifty miles wide to Savannah to the sea. Martin Delany sought roles and work for Gen. Sherman’s thousands of “camp followers” Delany went to President Lincoln himself with an idea to make the South Carolina coastline a new Israel for freedmen and women who had been joining Sherman’s army marching across Georgia in the tens of thousands. First, Delany thought, they would be an army of Africa of able black men, recruited, trained, and then themselves becoming liberating soldiers and, after the war, these same men would become able keepers of the land, the same land Sherman had promised in South Carolina in January of that same year. Gen. Sherman tentatively gave, subject to the approval of the President of course, tens of thousands of acres of land, once owned by the plantation owners, to the freedman. Each family, Sherman ordered, would get forty acres – a place in the sun – and one army mule on loan. If Abeokuta failed to be Martin Delany’s promised land, the Carolina coastline would be his Israel. On a cold, clammy damp morning at 8 AM on Feb. 8th, Delany was welcomed by President Lincoln into his study at the White House. Lincoln had followed Delany’s doings for years. He knew him. On entering the executive chamber and being introduced to his excellency, a generous grasp of the hand brought me to a seat in front of him.

AL: “What can I do for you, sir?”

MD: “Nothing, Mr. President, but I’ve come to propose something to you, which I think will be beneficial to this nation in this critical hour of her peril.”

AL: “Go on sir.” Delany and Lincoln discussed the value of black leaders for freed black Americans, and how so many feared black leadership.

AL: “This is the very thing I’ve been looking for and hoping for; but nobody offered it. I have talked about it; I hoped and prayed for it. But up until now, it has never been proposed. “When I issued the Emancipation Proclamation, I had this thing in contemplation. I then gave them a chance by prohibiting any interference on the part of the army; but they did not embrace it.”

MD: “But Mr. President, these poor people could not READ your proclamation.” While he spoke Lincoln was writing on a piece of paper. “Hon. E. M. Stanton: “Don’t not fail to have a meeting with this most extraordinary and intelligent black man – A. Lincoln.”

AL: “Stanton is firing! Listen. He is in his glory. Noble man!”

MD: “What is it? Mr. President”

AL: “Why don’t you know? Haven’t you heard the news? Charleston’s ours.”

NARRATOR: Martin Delany later in April, caught a stage for the cradle of Southern animosities, Charleston, South Carolina, a state which which turned by the magic stroke of a pen and the raising of a sword into a new land of opportunity. And reported to Gen. Rufus Saxton, a strong protector of freedman and who commanded the occupation forces in South Carolina.

MD: “I entered the city which from earliest childhood and through life I had learned to contemplate with feelings of utmost abhorrence, where the sound of the lash at the whipping post, and the hammer of the auctioneer were coordinate sounds in thrilling harmony, such as might well have vied for the infamous – King of Dahomey.” “For a moment, I found myself dashing in unmeasured strides through the city. Again I halted to look upon the shattered walls of the once stately, but now deserted edifices. And but for the vigilance and fidelity of the colored firemen, there would have been nothing left but a smoldering plain of runs in the place where Charleston once stood.”

NARRATOR: Chief Justice Salmon Chase in Charleston said: “A great race numbering four million is suddenly brought into freedom. All the world is looking to see whether the prophecies of the enemies of that race will be fulfilled or falsified. It rests upon the men of that race to tell.” Delany made it in time to see the flags changed at Fort Sumter, with his son, a young private, also there. And his old friend and comrade-in-arms, William Lloyd Garrison, who as he bade goodbye to a large adoring audience in Charleston said:

GARRISON: “I have always advocated non-resistance; but this much I say to you: “Come what may, never will you submit again to slavery. Do anything. Die first! But don’t submit again to them, never again be slaves. Farewell.”

NARRATOR: Major Delany, the first black field officer in the U.S. Army, quickly organized schools, farms, farmers, freedmen and tried to reason with the disenfranchised plantation owners, who were always trying to tie new freedman into enslaving contracts, exploiting their illiteracy. But Delany they loved. He was one of them and he told it to them straight.

MD: “I came to talk to you in plain words so as you can understand how to open the gates of oppression and let the captive free. In this state there are 200 thousand able, intelligent honorable Negroes, not an inferior race, mind you.” “. . . I want to tell you one thing, do you know that if it was not for the black man, this war never would have been brought to a close with success. “Do you know that? . . . Do you know that?”

NARRATOR: But they would be asked to submit again – and soon. From the moment a bullet penetrated the Great Liberator’s brain at Ford’s Theater, no such a grand promise of land and freedom would ever hold. In May, just a month later, the newly appointed President Johnson ordered all these lands – those not properly surveyed – returned to some 300 plantation owners – even if someone else’s crop was already growing in the field. One freedman wrote to Andrew Johnson himself: “We have been ready to strike for liberty and humanity, yea to fight if need be, to preserve the glorious union. And now, we are ready to pay for this land. ‘Sign contracts with your old master and work their land as partners’ This was the plea to most freed blacks. Throughout that long summer, Delany’s superiors Generals Howard and Saxton avoided Johnson’s order and eventually defied them outright until September when they broke the news to the freedmen they loved so much. An Edisto Island freedman wrote his friend, Gen. Howard: “You ask us to forgive the landowners of our island. You only lost your right to arm in war and might forgive them. The man who tied me to a tree and gave me thirty nine lashes, who stripped and flogged my mother and sister and who will not let me stay in his empty hut unless I do his planting – that man I cannot forgive. . . General we cannot remain here.”

NARRATOR: Many left South Carolina. Some stayed and fought and were beaten. Delany fought: “Every species of infamy, however atrocious, private and public, bare-faced and in open daylight is defiantly perpetrated under the direction and guidance of the despicable political leaders in the sacred name of ‘Republicanism’ and ’Radicalism.’ “But these Yankees talk smooth to you. Oh yeh. Their tongues roll just like the drum. They don’t pay you enough.” I was told to stay out of politics.

NARRATOR: The forty acres and a mule promised to freedmen were already secretly being returned to the planters courtesy of the tireless machinations of Trescott and Williams in Washington. They even got Gen. Sherman to write President Johnson. On the brink of being court-martialed himself for his opposition, Gen. Howard wrote his superiors: “The lands which have been taken possession by this bureau have been solemnly pledged to the freedman. Thousands of them are already located on tracts of forty acres each. The love of the soil and desire to own farms amounts to a passion. It appears to be the dearest hope of their lives.”

NARRATOR: Within two years, the Freedman Bureau had its main function of redistributing the lands to previous owners and apologizing for it . . . Gen. Saxton had been reassigned, Howard court-martialed, but Lt. Col. Delany – a survivor – pressed on. He had made himself too valuable to too many people in a very short time. Republican politicians, like Christopher Columbus Bowen, who controlled the patronage at the Customs House, hated his dangerously incorruptible independence and integrity, but like everyone, bowed to his almost messianic hold on the freedmen – this the long-awaited black leader. And on the other side, the old Southern aristocracy saw Delany’s magic too. And planned to use him someday for their own ends. As one old Southern editor put, in grudging admiration: “Martin Delany is a genuine Negro.”

MD: “No one who knows me will doubt my African proclivities. I have possessions in Africa which I hope to enjoy.”

NARRATOR: The old Southern guard watched and waited. They noticed Delany’s perceptibly growing disgust with corruption, greased palms and greed that fueled his own Republican Party’s machine.

MD: The Freedman’s Bureau was allowed to continue to return those 63,000 acres to the planters. I told freedman to get educated to see what was going on. Through two crop failures in 66 and 67, I told freedmen to rely on their muscles, their faith, and the righteousness of their cause. 1870 saw almost all of those 63,000 promised acres were back in planters hands and some 90,000 of South Carolina’s freedmen had left in disgust and desperation. 2,000 brothers and sisters set sail for my beloved Africa. The best of our people. Their hopes were gone before mine. Delany’s disgust with the politics of the Republican Party deepened on a trip to New York City when he represented the state on Wall Street in a bond issue. And he found out that Governor Chamberlain had given his old college chum and roommate $750,000 in commissions. The Old Southern guard watched and waited knowing that Martin Delany might be the key to regaining power.

WADE HAMPTON: “We can control and direct the Negroes if we act discreetly.”

MD: I would come to know people like General Wade Hampton an embodiment of the old South who invited me to speak at barbecue gatherings.

HAMPTON: “If it means we can protect our state from destruction, I am willing to send Negroes to Congress. They will be better than anyone who can take the oath of loyalty and I should rather trust them than renegades or Yankees. . . . My experience has been that when a Yankee can do a bit of rascality, the temptation to do it is almost irresistible.”

NARRATOR: No one, though, would be a more fateful associate in all of Martin Delany’s long and broad lifetime as General Wade Hampton, the old cavalryman, aristocrat and front man for the Old South. Who, yes, truly speaking personally for himself – wished for a better life for the freedman because he and Delany both fervently lived and advocated personal honor and a regimen of book learning and practical skills as every freedman’s road to true permanent economic redemption. It was only a matter of time that these two stars would head on a one-on- one collision course and one of those two stars would orbit around the other. If only there had been more than just one Wade Hampton and one Martin Delany. America’s working, educated electorate would have emerged sooner. But the personal prestige, humanitarian and pragmatic ways of each man could only briefly capture the public imagination, while, at all other times, whites, blacks, Democrats and Republicans slid disgracefully into the abyss where guns and bribes were constantly used as the preferred path to personal power and glory. Pressured out of the Freedman’s Bureau in 1869, Delany was retired from public life, selling real estate and editing his own newspaper, when Rev. Richard Cain came to him one day in 1872 and urged him to help elect Franklin Moses Governor. He might even get – for his efforts – a decent job later to support his seamstress wife, Catherine, and their large family. Delany could deliver freedmen’s votes. Hoping to enhance his own political fortunes in this state with a majority of black voters, and hoping to get more homesteads for freedmen, Delany stumped vigorously for Moses. Moses had always given lip service to Delany’s plan to attract Northern money to be long-term, low-interest loans to help the freedmen to buy and develop their own homesteads. Delany’s unvarnished truth-telling inspired the common people and irked those grubbing after filthy lucre. Wrote onetime governor B. F. Perry: “After mature reflection, I believe Col. Delany has exhibited in his speeches more wisdom and prudence, more honor and patriotism than any other Republican, white or black, in South Carolina.” Delany wrote that, should the homeless become landowners, they would at once become proportionately interested in the affairs of state. Before either school house or church can be erected, he said, the people themselves must be settled in homes of their own. Freedmen were leaving the state, denied the once promised forty acres virtually all back in original hands, and their life savings deposited faithfully in the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, now gone from mismanagement.Delany knew his plan could work. In three years he organized white cotton wholesalers and freedmen farmers on Hilton Head Island into a peaceable alliance that grew and harvested the crop profitably. Moses was elected. So was “Honest John” who boasted he bought his seat in the U.S. Senate for $40,000. But Governor Moses continued to drive even higher the state debt. It had already soared from one to over seventeen million dollars in the previous five years. Moses then raised taxes on freed holders to pay for all this. And he lined his pockets with priced pardons sold to 503 imprisoned felons. And they were all released into this heavily armed, hate-filled powder keg land. And Governor Moses gave Delany no job. Rev. Cain wrote Moses: “I had assured Mr. Delany that you would not break faith. He has staked all on your word. For Heaven’s sake, do not cast him away.” Seeing Beaufort’s old St. Helena Church summed up a visitors’ feeling in 1873 about every South Carolina town he saw. It was one of complete prostration, dejection, stagnation.

VISITOR: “Utter stagnation marks its streets and everything is flavored with decay. The mockingbird sings as if winter has no meaning for them. The old mansions are permeated with the air of desertion. The merry tinkling that proceeds from the closed shutters of one of them seems altogether dissonant with the surroundings.” Bad crops, bad weather, a lost position in world cotton markets, a national depression – this all contributed. So by 1874, all of South Carolina, including Delany’s beloved St. Helena Island, looked like an armed camp. The Ku Klux Klan was forming almost three hundred rifle clubs that once beat two hundred freedmen and killed four more in just nine months, in just one county. Freedmen either armed themselves, or prayed the Federal troops would never leave. Some freedmen and their families slept in the swamps in the mild winter where the men in hoods and facemasks could not find them. Wrote the editor of the Edgefield Advertiser in one of the states’ most strife-torn counties: “Good people now look upon the entire electoral contest as a struggle between thieves and plunderers.” And they worried: “Among the whites is a class of men who hold human life at little value, and among the colored people there is a class who do not wish to labor and are known as habitual thieves or disturbers of the peace. Gen. Rufus Saxton wrote back his old friend Robert Smalls about these darkest of times in South Carolina: “I rejoiced when the right of suffrage came and I sorrowed when it was told that some had sold this precious birthright for a miserable mess of potage.” A few years earlier, Delany heard the church bells ring when the Fourteenth Amendment had been passed; but it was a hollow sound. He saw freedmen unable to read show up at the Freedmen’s Bureau with great baskets. The word, “Registration” sounded not much different from that other word: “provisions.” The Republicans’ vampire-like bite into the state’s ebbing lifeblood blinded them to that emerging menace and giant, the old Southern Democrats and their gun-toting right wing rabble. Delany saw this disaster collision coming.

MD: Again and again I warned the majority Republicans to go easy on the white planters because one day the shoe would go over to their foot. And sure enough it did.

NARRATOR: Delany ran for lieutenant governor in 1874 on an independent reformed Republican ticket, getting 64,000 votes as the corrupt Chamberlain won.

MD: I lost my race but the planters got the shoe on their foot capturing the majority of seats in the statehouse.

NARRATOR: Delany was made justice of the peace in Charleston when, as the gubernatorial election drew near in 1876, was indicted, courtesy of Governor Chamberlain, for misusing the funds of a dirt poor black church. Hardly. The implicit threat was: do not support Wade Hampton who was now the official candidate against Chamberlain with all the wealth and smart men the Old South could muster squarely behind him.Hampton and Delany always appealed to people’s desire for peaceful solutions based on reason and fair play.

HAMPTON: “I pledge myself solemnly in the presence of the people of South Carolina and in the presence of my God that, if the Democratic ticket is elected – not one single right enjoyed by the colored people today shall be taken from them.”

NARRATOR: As violence increased the extreme Democratic clubs secretly assigning one man to personally bribe or scare one freedman from voting, as Chamberlain’s campaign promises became more grotesque and desperate, Delany announced for Wade Hampton in September, 1876 – immediately putting his life at risk. MD: Freedmen, I told one and all, were serving a new master now: the radical Republican Carpetbaggers. I said the blackest truth out loud – a black man would not be allowed to lead, not just to live, but to lead. I myself always dared to do what the white men ever dared and done – to pull on every lion’s tail a white man has pulled.

NARRATOR: On October 16th, C.C. Bowen promised Delany that his party of white and black Democrats could speak to freedmen on Edisto Island. Before his steamer left the Charleston wharf a number of Republican negroes gathered and they noisily demanded that they be permitted to take passage and threateningly declared that they wanted a chance to clean out those Democrats.

MD: The audience at the meeting of some 500 or 600 “African citizens” was by far the most uncouth, savage and uncivilized that I have ever seen. As soon as I mounted the wagon, the Republican Negroes started to beat their drums and left in a body. They would not listen to “De Damn Democrats. They marched off and the women crowded around the wagon with their bludgeons, threats, and curses. I rose to speak on the wagon. They interrupted me as I said: “I had come to South Carolina with my sword drawn to fight for the freedom of the black man. . . . I had warned you against trusting your money to the Freedman’s Bank; and that you had, to your sorrow, paid no heed to my warnings.” In violation of the agreement that neither party should carry guns or rifles to the place of meeting, the Negroes had brought their muskets and secreted them in a nearby swamp and in an old house near a church not far from the speaking ground. They marched out of the swamp with their arms and opened fire upon the whites who were unarmed. In the meantime I, Mr. William E. Simmons, and several aides to white men had taken refuge in a brick house adjoining the church. The Negro militia charged out of the swamp surrounded the brick house and tried to batter down the door. Failing in this, they broke open the windows and pointed their muskets at us. We all escaped except for Mr. Simmons, who upon emerging from the door was knocked down and beaten to death. Six white men were killed and sixteen whites wounded that day. One black man was killed. The siege of Cainhoy continued for several days afterwards. NARRATOR: Hampton did win by a fiercely contested 1100 vote margin, the difference coming from some 3,000 Republican, black voters who followed Delany’s example. All of America’s fate, in one sense, pivoted on this handful of votes.

MD: I had hurt the cause of my people beyond all imaginings.

NARRATOR: Then Wade Hampton made history. With his election for governor still in dispute and the state in anarchy he met at the Willard Hotel with president-elect Rutherford B. Hayes, who held onto his election by one electoral vote. To keep his single electoral vote lead, Hayes and Hampton agreed that Hayes would support and confirm Hampton’s election as Governor and as Hampton wrote Hayes:

HAMPTON: “If the Federal troops are withdrawn from the State House, there shall be on my part or that of my friends no resort to violence but we shall look for their maintenance solely to such peaceful remedies as the Constitution and laws of the State provide.”

MD: U.S. soldiers were removed from the South on Hampton’s pact with Hayes – and I helped that. One person called it the abandonment of the colored race. Wade Hampton appointed me judge and I remained until he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1879. But the secret, all-white Charleston County Democratic committee methodically organized the state, county-by-county and parish-by-parish to crush the Republican party and all spokesmen for Reconstruction. My son drowned in the Savannah River. His body was found in December, late 1879. My wife Catherine, who had carried our family during my long absence, needed me. I was old. My children needed their college educations at Wilberforce. The books that set my dreams afire long ago belonged to them now. So I was there on the dock when a ship – the Azor – set sail for Liberia from Charleston harbor full of hopeful friends, with my fondest dreams on that distant shore. My torch had passed from me. His loving admirers gave him the Liberian flag on that dock for his many, many years of inspiration to act on their dreams. “Almost all his many children became teachers. His name is misspelled on his tombstone. His life’s work was lost when a library burned. And the ancestors of those who left for Africa in his lifetime and with his blessing still turn the native soil. MD: ”Act, act in the living present – but act. Speak the truth and leave the rest to God.”

GRANDMA GRACI: No more stories, Martin. No more stories, Martin. End

Martin Delany – African Dream – 1 – TRT: 5:38 Forty-seven year old Delany is on his way over Atlantic waves to see for the first time his psychic and spiritual home – Africa. What he sees enchants, enlightens – and shocks.

Martin Delany – England – 2 – TRT: 4:55 Successful speaking tour in England causes international sensation at an important scientific congress, declaring before the American Ambassador and all present: “I am a MAN.”

Martin Delany – War Comes – 3 – TRT: 4:32 Not on youtube. Returns home to the United States in time for the outbreak of the Civil War. This video covers the high points of the Civil War in a series of statements before a war-related image with sound and music up to early 1863.

Martin Delany – Wartime – 4 – TRT: 7:22 This video covers the high points of the Civil War in a series of statements before a war-related image with sound and image for the period after the death of Stonewall Jackson in 1863. (Not available)

Martin Delany – Meets Lincoln – 5 – TRT: 6:34 Delany has a fateful interview with President Lincoln in February, 1865 setting the stage for Delany’s key role in the reconstruction effort in South Carolina.

Martin Delany – Major Delany – 6 – TRT: 5:32  After Lincoln’s death, Delany and others struggle to ensure reforms to protect the freedman from losing their promised lands and from abuses of former large landholders.

Martin Delany – South Carolina Struggle – 7 – TRT: 2:20 Everyone sees Delany’s leaderly powers.

Martin Delany – Disillusioned – 8 – TRT: 4:17  The vast corruption of Radical Republicans disillusions Delany.

Martin Delany – Charleston – 9 – TRT: 5:37  Advances in South Carolina crumble; Delany pushes on, seeking alliances with the politically-moderate planter, Gen. Wade Hampton.

Martin Delany – Betrayed – 10 – TRT: 6:01 Delany throws his support controversially for Wade Hampton for Governor against the Radical Republicans and it has a far-reaching unwanted, unforeseeable result.

Martin Delany – Going Home – 11 – TRT: 4:29 Having tried everything and turning to nurture the lives ahead of his children, Delany settles for the final quiet days of his life.

The following is the same script as above but matched to 285 images in the script on Flickr (Very popular on flicr in terms of views):

285. "no more stories, Martin"

  1. Links to all the images in the above video viewable at once
  2. Link to first image and first words in the script

https://civilwarscholars.com/2011/06/jefferson-county-va-1850s-3-views-differ/

<strong>Main references:</strong>

Delany, Martin R. (1859). “Blake or The Huts of America: A Tale of the Mississippi Valley, the Southern United States.” (serialized beginning in 1859 in “The Weekly Anglo African Magazine.”) Print.

Delany, Martin, R. (1859). <a href=”http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DelBlak.html”>”Blake: The Huts of America.”</a> Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. 14 July 2007. Web. 26 Dec. 2010.

Delany, Martin R. (1852). “The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States Politically Considered,” (Philadelphia, PA): published by the author. Print.

Delany, Martin R. (1852). <a href=”http://www.archive.org/stream/theconditionelev17154gut/17154.txt”>”The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States Politically Considered.”</a> Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Dec. 2010.

Delany, Martin R. (1861). “Official Report of the Niger River Valley Exploring Party.” by M.R. Delany, Chief Commissioner to Africa. New York, NY and London, Eng.: Self-published. Print.

Delany, Martin R. (1861).<a href=”http://archive.org/stream/officialreportof22118gut/22118.txt”> “Official Report of the Niger River Valley Exploring Party.”</a> MyBeBooks. 27 July 2008. Web. 30 Dec. 2010.

Delany, Martin R. (1879). “Principia of Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color with an Archaeological Compendium and Egyptian Civilization from Years of Careful Examination and Enquiry.” Philadelphia, PA: Self-published. Print.

Delany, M. R. (1853). “The origin and objects of ancient Freemasonry, its introduction into the United States, and legitimacy among colored men : a treatise delivered before St. Cyprian Lodge, no. 13, June 24th, A.D. 1853, A.L. 5853.“ Pittsburgh, PA: W. S. Haven. Print.

Delany, M. R. (1853). “<a href=”http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009687171″>The origin and objects of ancient Freemasonry, its introduction into the United States, and legitimacy among colored men : a treatise delivered before St. Cyprian Lodge, no. 13, June 24th, A.D. 1853, A.L. 5853</a>.“ Pittsburgh, PA: W. S. Haven. Print. hathitrust.org. 19 September 2008 Web. 20 March 2012.

Levine, Robert S. (1997). “Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Representative Identity.” Chapel Hill, NC and London, UK: University of North Carolina Press. Print.

Levine, Robert S. (1997). <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Frederick-Douglass-Politics-Representative-Identity/dp/0807846333/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306971936&sr=1-1#reader_0807846333″>”Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Representative Identity.” </a>Amazon.com 12 Dec. 1998 Web. 1 June 2011.

Rollin, Frank (Frances) A. (1868, 1883). “The Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany.” Boston, MA: Lee & Shepard. Print

Rollin, Frank (Frances) A. (1868, 1883). <a href=”http://www.archive.org/details/lifepublicservic00inroll”>“The Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany.”</a> Internet Archives: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music, and Wayback Machine. 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 June 2011.

Surkamp, James. (1999). “To Be More Than Equal: Martin Delany, 1812-1884.” Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society Vol. LXV. PP. 43-46. Print.

Ullman, Victor. (1971). “Martin R. Delany: The Beginnings of Black Nationalism.” Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Print.

Ullman, Victor. (1971). <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Martin-R-Delany-Beginnings-Nationalism/dp/0807054402″>”Martin R. Delany: The Beginnings of Black Nationalism.”</a> Amazon.com 12 Dec. 1998 Web. 1 June 2011.

Resources – Other Than Delany:

Griffith Cyril E. (1973). “Martin R. Delany and the African Dream, 1812-1885.” Ann Arbor, MI.: Michigan State University.

Griffith Cyril E. “Martin R. Delany and the African Dream, 1812-1885.” books.google.com 24 November 2005 Web. 28 December 2011.

Griffith Cyril E. “The African dream: Martin R. Delany and the emergence of pan-African thought.” books.google.com 24 November 2005 Web. 28 December 2011.

Levine, Robert S. “Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Representative Identity,” University of North Carolina Press, 1997. Print.

Rollin, Frank A. (1883). “Life and Public Service of Martin R. Delany: Sub assistant commissioner Bureau relief of refugees, freedman, and of abandoned lands, and late, Major 104th U.S. colored troops,” Boston, MA: Lee and Shepard. Print.

Simkins, Francis B.; Woody, Robert. (1966). “South Carolina During Reconstruction.” Gloucester, MA.: Peter Smith.

Sterling, Dorothy (1971). “The Making Of An Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany, 1812-1885.” Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Inc.

Sterling, Dorothy (1971). “The Making Of An Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany, 1812-1885.” Amazon.com 27 April 2007 Web. 28 December, 2011.

Surkamp, James T. (1853). “To Be More Than Equal: The Many Lives of Martin R. Delany 1812-1885. West Virginia University Libraries. 9 Nov. 1999. Web. 26 Dec. 2010.

Ullman, Victor.(1971). “Martin R. Delany: The Beginnings of Black Nationalism.” Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Print.