Martin Delany
(1812-1885)
Martin Delany’s seminal work “The Condition, Elevation, and Destiny of Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered”, was the most significant theoretical work on race written before the Civil war. The grandson of an African Chieftain, Delany was born free in Charles Town, West Virginia (then Virginia), and was educated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in New York at the African Free School and the Oneida Institute. In Pittsburgh he first encountered the Abolition movement and the Underground Railroad after publishing his own journal, “The Mystery,” in 1847 he became coeditor of Frederick Douglass’s North Star. In 1850 he attended the Harvard Medical School, where he encountered extreme prejudice in the protests of his fellow students to his very presence. In 1843 Delany married a woman from a prominent Black Pittsburgh family, they eventually had seven children, each of whom was named for a famous Black figure. He practiced medicine in Chicago, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. He lectured against slavery and became active in emigration movement.
His major work on the prospects of African-Americans in the United States was published in 1852, and in 1854 he attended the National Emigration Convention of Colored Men, which issued the resolutions included here, one of the strongest expressions of Black pride in the nineteenth century. Delany’s views were sometimes in opposition to those of Frederick Douglass and others who vehemently opposed emigration, arguing that it motivated slaveholders who simply wished to get rid of free Blacks who might agitate for abolition and allowed this nation to avoid grappling with the issue of the role of African-Americans in a country they had built with their own lives. In 1859 “Delany’s Blake”, or “The Huts of America”, originally serialized in the Anglo-African, became only the second novel, after Harriet Wilson’s “Our Nig” published by an African-American.
That same year Delany visited Liberia and secured a land agreement for American emigrants in Yorubaland (Nigeria). His emigration efforts were interrupted, however, by the Civil War. He actively recruited troops in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, including the famed Massachusetts 54th. In December, 1865 he wrote to War Secretary Edwin M. Stanton, arguing that given “the authority to recruit colored troops in any southern or seceded states we will be ready and able to raise a regiment, or brigade, if required with the belief sir, that this one of the measures in which seemingly infringing upon those of other citizens.” He was commissioned by President Lincoln as a major in the Union Army and also acted as a surgeon.
After the war Delany remained in South Carolina, where he worked for the Freedman’s Bureau and entered local politics. As Reconstruction progressed, however, he became cynical about Northern politicians and eventually supported reactive Southern Democratic candidates. In the late 1870’s he began to reconsider emigration, before his death in Xenia, Ohio on January 24, 1885
Below is an excerpt from “The Condition, Elevation, and Destiny of Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered” Martin Delany’s self-published book;
The United States, untrue to her trust and unfaithful to her professed principles of republican equality, has also pursued a policy of political degradation to a large portion of her native born countrymen, and that class is the Colored People. Denied equality not only of political, but of natural rights, in common with the rest of our fellow citizens, there is no species of degradation to which we are not subject.
Reduced to abject slavery is not enough, the very thought of which should awaken every sensibility of our common nature; but those of their descendants who are freemen even in slaveholding states, occupy the very same position politically, religiously, civilly, and socially,(with but few exceptions) as the bondsman occupies in the slave states.
In those states, the bondman is disfranchised, and for the most part so are we. He is denied all civil, religious, and social privileges, except such as he gets by mere sufferance, and so are we. They have neither part nor lot in the government of the country, neither have we. They are ruled and governed without representation, existing as mere dreg in community, and so are we. Where then is our political superiority to the enslaved? none, neither are we superior in any other relation to society, except that we are defacto masters of ourselves and joint rulers of our own domestic household, while the bondman’s self is claimed by another, and his relation to his family denied him. What the unfortunate classes are in Europe, such are we in the united states, which is folly to deny, insanity not to understand, blindness not to see, and surely now full time that our eyes were opened to these startling truths, which for ages have stared us full in the face.
It is time that we had become politicians, we mean, to understand the political economy and domestic policy of nations; that we had become as well as moral theorists, also the practical, demonstrators, of equal rights and self government. Except we do, it is idle to talk about rights, it is mere chattering for the sake of being seen and heard- like the slave, saying something because his so called “master” said it, and saying just what he told him to say. Have we not now sufficient intelligence among us to understand our true position, to realize our actual condition, and determine for ourselves what is best to be done? If we have not now, we never shall have, and should at once cease prating about our equality, capacity and all that….
I chose profile Martin Delaney because there are many points that are parallel in our society today even though his book was written 150+years ago. This was a time of great concern about the future of the African-American race. The general populous were illiterate and unable to understand the political and societal concepts that governed their lives. While they were concerned enough they were denied the necessary means with which to learn. Today we have all the necessary means and disinterest abounds.
It is amazing to me that the more industrialized we become the more complacent are the masses.
I sometimes wonder if our ancestors had been as nonchalant about being freemen as we are about being free just where we would be today. This attitude of ungratefulness and entitlement is offensive. My mother never missed a day telling us how important education was to the Black family. She often looked wantonly at me as I worked at my academics, now I know what she was thinking, if I could just go back and do differently. My mother loved her children but life had taught her a lesson. Children need more than just love and the opportunities she desired for us was not always available to us and that hurt her.
We have moved away from the values that made us strong and resilient. We must get back to basics. Take time to find out not only what’s going on with your children but your neighbor’s kids too. You’ll be glad you did. The life you save maybe your own.
When I heard of the mass murder that happened in Ensley, Alabama recently I couldn’t help but think where did we go wrong? What would make a person so greedy to murder five people?
Growing up not ten minutes from where this murder took place was shocking. When I was a child I had a community that was allowed to keep me in check. If you saw a Coleman child doing some activity that our mother would not agree with you could whip me or take me home where the punishment was sure and swift. I personally have problems using physical violence to treat aberrant behavior but it didn’t kill me and certainly I am no worse off for it. Parents tend to use the methods of punishment that was used by their parents, right or wrong.
All children like us are different and what works for one may not work for another. It is crucial that we stop and take the time to engage our kids. The act of learning to use very simple household objects to stir the imagination of a child is so rewarding and offers numerous opportunities for fun.
Do not wait until it is too late to build the kind of relationship with your children that will honor you and give you pride.
While my only child and I have a decent relationship I lament daily over the missed chances to increase her self-esteem and bolster her self-worth. I do try every chance I get to let her know how beautiful, kind, loving and intelligent she is because it never too late to let her know how vital she is to me.
Peace
