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Blake; or, The Huts of America: A Corrected Edition
Martin R. Delany's Blake (1859, 1861-1862) is one of the most important African American--and indeed American--works of fiction of the nineteenth century. It tells the story of Henry Blake's escape from a southern plantation and his subsequent travels across the United States, into Canada, and to Africa and Cuba. His mission is to unite the black populations of the American Atlantic regions, both free and slave, in the struggle for freedom, whether through insurrection or through emigration and the creation of an independent black state. Blake is a rhetorical masterpiece, all the more strange and mysterious for remaining incomplete, breaking off before its final scene.
This edition of Blake, prepared by textual scholar Jerome McGann, offers the first correct printing of the work in book form. It establishes an accurate text, supplies contextual notes and commentaries, and presents an authoritative account of the work's composition and publication history. In a lively introduction, McGann argues that Delany employs the resources of fiction to develop a critical account of the interconnected structure of racist power as it operated throughout the American Atlantic. He likens Blake to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, in its willful determination to transform a living and terrible present.
Blake; or, The Huts of America: A Corrected Edition will be used in undergraduate and graduate classes on the history of African American fiction, on the history of the American novel, and on black cultural studies. General readers will welcome as well the first reliable edition of Delany's fiction.
This edition of Blake, prepared by textual scholar Jerome McGann, offers the first correct printing of the work in book form. It establishes an accurate text, supplies contextual notes and commentaries, and presents an authoritative account of the work's composition and publication history. In a lively introduction, McGann argues that Delany employs the resources of fiction to develop a critical account of the interconnected structure of racist power as it operated throughout the American Atlantic. He likens Blake to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, in its willful determination to transform a living and terrible present.
Blake; or, The Huts of America: A Corrected Edition will be used in undergraduate and graduate classes on the history of African American fiction, on the history of the American novel, and on black cultural studies. General readers will welcome as well the first reliable edition of Delany's fiction.
376 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1969
48 people are currently reading
877 people want to read
About the author
Martin R. Delany
17 books20 followersMartin Robinson Delany was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, soldier, writer and proponent of black nationalism. Delany was born in Charles Town, Virginia and raised and in Chambersburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 1850, Delany was among the first three black students admitted to Harvard Medical School, from which they were dismissed weeks after their admission due to student protests. Delany traveled throughout the South in 1839 to observe slavery there, and in 1847 started working with Frederick Douglass to publish North Star, an anti-slavery newspaper.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Delany returned to the United States after living in Canada and visiting Liberia. By 1863, Delany was recruiting blacks for the United States Colored Troops. In 1865, Delany became the first African-American field grade officer in the United States Army, having been commissioned as a major. After the American Civil War, Delany settled in South Carolina and pursued a political career before his death in 1885 as a member of both the Republican and Democratic parties.
In 1850, Delany was among the first three black students admitted to Harvard Medical School, from which they were dismissed weeks after their admission due to student protests. Delany traveled throughout the South in 1839 to observe slavery there, and in 1847 started working with Frederick Douglass to publish North Star, an anti-slavery newspaper.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Delany returned to the United States after living in Canada and visiting Liberia. By 1863, Delany was recruiting blacks for the United States Colored Troops. In 1865, Delany became the first African-American field grade officer in the United States Army, having been commissioned as a major. After the American Civil War, Delany settled in South Carolina and pursued a political career before his death in 1885 as a member of both the Republican and Democratic parties.
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November 13, 2015What an amazing find! For more you can click here to go my reading journal; if not, continue on.
This is a difficult book to rate, so I'm not going to give it a star number. First, there are a lot of things I don't really care for in the writing, but on the other hand, to me this is an important work that for some reason or another has lapsed into obscurity, despite the fact that the author has been labeled as "the father of American Black nationalism." It has also been stated that
But it's not Delany's work one normally turns to in reading anti-slavery fiction narratives -- instead, the most popular choice in novels is more likely Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Actually, Delany's book is a sort of response to Stowe's Uncle Tom philosophy, and offers a different perspective on slavery. It is well worth the read, even though it is often long-winded and a bit flawed in terms of execution.
Just a wee bit about plot here -- not much, just enough perhaps to whet someone's appetite enough to make them want to explore either Blake or Delany himself. The main character of the novel is Henry Holland, a slave in Louisiana. His real name is Henrico Blacus, and he was "decoyed" into slavery while he was serving on a ship in the West Indies. Henry, who was very well educated before he was sold into slavery and ended up at the plantation of Colonel Franks, is married to Maggie, a slave who was a product of the union of Franks and another slave serving at his home. Franks sells Maggie who, with her new mistress, ends up in Cuba, and Henry vows that he will do what it takes to find her. But before that can happen, Henry decides to escape Franks and sojourn through the American South and hold "seclusions," secret meetings with plantation slaves, to convince them to participate in a "unified rebellion" against their masters. Part Two finds Henry in Cuba, where he continues to stir seeds of rebellion against Americans and Cubans who wanted the US to annex Cuba, among other things.
Floyd J. Miller in the intro (1971) notes that Blake is in part a "socio-historical account of Southern slavery and Cuban society in the 1850s," but even moreso, it
So while the book may not be the best ever written, and while it may be perceived as being didactic in nature, there is so much going on in here that any serious student or reader of African-American history or literature should definitely not miss it. I plan to spend some time in further research of Delany; luckily there are a rare few academic treatments of this man and his work out there to afford a starting place.
This is a difficult book to rate, so I'm not going to give it a star number. First, there are a lot of things I don't really care for in the writing, but on the other hand, to me this is an important work that for some reason or another has lapsed into obscurity, despite the fact that the author has been labeled as "the father of American Black nationalism." It has also been stated that
"Delany’s realization of the intensity and persistence of white racism and his call for racial unity are as relevant today as they were during his own time. This, then, was his legacy to such men as Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X.".
But it's not Delany's work one normally turns to in reading anti-slavery fiction narratives -- instead, the most popular choice in novels is more likely Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Actually, Delany's book is a sort of response to Stowe's Uncle Tom philosophy, and offers a different perspective on slavery. It is well worth the read, even though it is often long-winded and a bit flawed in terms of execution.
Just a wee bit about plot here -- not much, just enough perhaps to whet someone's appetite enough to make them want to explore either Blake or Delany himself. The main character of the novel is Henry Holland, a slave in Louisiana. His real name is Henrico Blacus, and he was "decoyed" into slavery while he was serving on a ship in the West Indies. Henry, who was very well educated before he was sold into slavery and ended up at the plantation of Colonel Franks, is married to Maggie, a slave who was a product of the union of Franks and another slave serving at his home. Franks sells Maggie who, with her new mistress, ends up in Cuba, and Henry vows that he will do what it takes to find her. But before that can happen, Henry decides to escape Franks and sojourn through the American South and hold "seclusions," secret meetings with plantation slaves, to convince them to participate in a "unified rebellion" against their masters. Part Two finds Henry in Cuba, where he continues to stir seeds of rebellion against Americans and Cubans who wanted the US to annex Cuba, among other things.
Floyd J. Miller in the intro (1971) notes that Blake is in part a "socio-historical account of Southern slavery and Cuban society in the 1850s," but even moreso, it
"serves...as the vehicle for the expression of a a racial philosophy as radical today as it was when originally conceived. Central to the novel is a racial consciousness which is expressed in a variety of ways.".
So while the book may not be the best ever written, and while it may be perceived as being didactic in nature, there is so much going on in here that any serious student or reader of African-American history or literature should definitely not miss it. I plan to spend some time in further research of Delany; luckily there are a rare few academic treatments of this man and his work out there to afford a starting place.
March 29, 2017
The book itself is a really incredible piece of the cosmopolitan imagination of 19th century African American intellectualism -- and one that sheds considerable light on actual socio-economic circuits of the period immediately before the Civil War. This edition is a great service: thoroughly footnoted and situated, it makes the text both more accessible and more rich.
June 22, 2016
One of the most aggressive and confrontational nineteenth-century works of African American fiction, this long-forgotten novel celebrates violent slave rebellion. Henry Blake, the son of a black Cuban merchant, is kidnapped into slavery and brought to America. In Part I, when his wife, Maggie, is sold from his Louisiana plantation, he vows to revenge himself and his wife by traveling through the country and stirring insurrection among all slaves. In Part II, he finds his wife and helps her buy her freedom, and reunites with his cousin Placido, a poet and revolutionary. Together, they unite all blacks on the island, slave and free, "pure" African and mixed race, to overthrow the Spanish Cuban government and thwart American plans to annex Cuba to the American South. Unfortunately, just as tensions are ratcheted between the Spanish, Americans, and blacks, the novel ends, or at least what we have of it. Blake was published in periodicals, and we may be missing some issues in which the concluding chapters were printed.
While this all may sound exciting, there is relatively little "action" per se. Like much African American fiction of the nineteenth century, much of the narrative space is taken by dialogue and interactions between characters which spell out certain attitudes about racism and racial uplift. However, what makes Blake different, other than the more aggressive anti-racism and black nationalism, is the panoply of landscapes and characters Blake encounters in his travels, including Choctaw Indians in Texas, Portuguese slave traders in Africa, and the black revolutionaries in Cuba. Another interesting aspect is how it treats all slaves as capable of participating in rising up, even the simplest and most uneducated. Although they speak in dialect and largely look to Blake and his better-educated companions for leadership, they play active roles and show understanding when complicated concepts are explained to them.
Finally, while the dialogue-heavy and didactic approach to such literature can often seem stilted, Delany handles it quite deftly, so that characterization comes through, and there is more of a "conversational" sense to the language, rather than a sense of the dialogue consisting of speeches or lectures copied and pasted into the narrative. There is also an attempt to recognize divisions and differing opinions among blacks--for example, class divisions, questions of religious affiliation (Blake professes a non-denominational biblical Christianity that recognizes all stripes of both Catholics and Protestants, which in itself is unusual among nineteenth-century literature), as well as moral behavior (violence against oppressive whites is justified, but not wanton violence, rash anger, or stealing).
While it may not quite have "canonical" status in nineteenth-century African American literary criticism--often overlooked for the writings of Frederick Douglass, Frances Harper, and Charles Chesnutt--it's definitely worth a read, and perhaps deserves greater attention from those seeking to explore black perspectives on slavery in the nineteenth century. Delany himself was an interesting figure, who dabbled into everything from politics and abolitionism to forming a black nation in Central, South America, or Liberia, practicing medicine during cholera epidemics, and fighting in the Civil War.
While this all may sound exciting, there is relatively little "action" per se. Like much African American fiction of the nineteenth century, much of the narrative space is taken by dialogue and interactions between characters which spell out certain attitudes about racism and racial uplift. However, what makes Blake different, other than the more aggressive anti-racism and black nationalism, is the panoply of landscapes and characters Blake encounters in his travels, including Choctaw Indians in Texas, Portuguese slave traders in Africa, and the black revolutionaries in Cuba. Another interesting aspect is how it treats all slaves as capable of participating in rising up, even the simplest and most uneducated. Although they speak in dialect and largely look to Blake and his better-educated companions for leadership, they play active roles and show understanding when complicated concepts are explained to them.
Finally, while the dialogue-heavy and didactic approach to such literature can often seem stilted, Delany handles it quite deftly, so that characterization comes through, and there is more of a "conversational" sense to the language, rather than a sense of the dialogue consisting of speeches or lectures copied and pasted into the narrative. There is also an attempt to recognize divisions and differing opinions among blacks--for example, class divisions, questions of religious affiliation (Blake professes a non-denominational biblical Christianity that recognizes all stripes of both Catholics and Protestants, which in itself is unusual among nineteenth-century literature), as well as moral behavior (violence against oppressive whites is justified, but not wanton violence, rash anger, or stealing).
While it may not quite have "canonical" status in nineteenth-century African American literary criticism--often overlooked for the writings of Frederick Douglass, Frances Harper, and Charles Chesnutt--it's definitely worth a read, and perhaps deserves greater attention from those seeking to explore black perspectives on slavery in the nineteenth century. Delany himself was an interesting figure, who dabbled into everything from politics and abolitionism to forming a black nation in Central, South America, or Liberia, practicing medicine during cholera epidemics, and fighting in the Civil War.
February 9, 2025
(Side note: I believe the version I have, published by Flame Tree, contains only part I of Delany's book but not part II. After some research I'm now interested in reading the version published by Harvard University Press in 2017 which apparently does contain part II/the Cuban chapters.)
While Blake; or The Huts of America felt a bit tedious (mid-1800s writing + some dialect) at the start, I quickly became fully absorbed & was in its thrall for the remainder of the book. Delany portrays enslaved people from various locations throughout the southern US (as the protagonist travels to foment revolution), as well as the grief & dangers they routinely faced. The casual & awful cruelties by whites is deftly shown. He doesn't linger on scenes though -- there's a lot of travel & movement in this story.
The version I read is part of a series of "Foundations of Black Science Fiction". While I wouldn't necessarily classify this particular book as science fiction, it is an alternative history.
I'm surprised this isn't a better known book of early abolitionist & Black nationalist writing. The description of the book says that Delany wrote it, in part, in response to the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case in 1857 (in which SCOTUS said that the Constitution did not extend citizenship to people of Black African descent, thus denying rights under the Constitution to them). As I've tried to read more widely in the past few years, this feels like an important addition to the books I've been reading. Sadly, seeing the mention of Dred Scott, along with my recent reading about the Scopes trial (2025 is the 100th anniversary of it), just further underline the current conditions in our nation. I guess those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, as the saying goes.
Definitely recommended.
While Blake; or The Huts of America felt a bit tedious (mid-1800s writing + some dialect) at the start, I quickly became fully absorbed & was in its thrall for the remainder of the book. Delany portrays enslaved people from various locations throughout the southern US (as the protagonist travels to foment revolution), as well as the grief & dangers they routinely faced. The casual & awful cruelties by whites is deftly shown. He doesn't linger on scenes though -- there's a lot of travel & movement in this story.
The version I read is part of a series of "Foundations of Black Science Fiction". While I wouldn't necessarily classify this particular book as science fiction, it is an alternative history.
I'm surprised this isn't a better known book of early abolitionist & Black nationalist writing. The description of the book says that Delany wrote it, in part, in response to the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case in 1857 (in which SCOTUS said that the Constitution did not extend citizenship to people of Black African descent, thus denying rights under the Constitution to them). As I've tried to read more widely in the past few years, this feels like an important addition to the books I've been reading. Sadly, seeing the mention of Dred Scott, along with my recent reading about the Scopes trial (2025 is the 100th anniversary of it), just further underline the current conditions in our nation. I guess those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, as the saying goes.
Definitely recommended.
April 17, 2011
This is one of the lost gems of African-American literature. It's a fascinating read, and the main character is really interesting. I especially like the second part, set in Cuba, in which Blake sets up a revolutionary organization and plans a government. The discussions sometimes sound like a nineteenth century version of West Wing. The novel was originally published serially in a newspaper, and the ending (along with the issues it is assumed to have appeared in) has been lost.
December 29, 2018
Far from perfect, but indispensable for anyone interested in 19th century American literature and/or the abolitionist movement and/or the intellectual history of black liberation.
February 21, 2025
The man had a point, but the point could have been 150 pages shorter
March 13, 2021
Awesome concept but not the most compelling execution.
April 15, 2018
Martin Delany, author of Blake, or The Huts of America, was a free black man, associate of Frederick Douglas, an abolitionist, journalist, physician, soldier and writer, and an early advocate of black nationalism. He wrote his two-part novel, the first part of which was serialised in the The Anglo-African Magazine in 1859, in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Where Stowe’s book urged patience and resignation for enslaved black people, and valorised Christian piety among slaves, Delany tells a story of planning for an armed insurrection of black people in North America, and Cuba and labels Christianity as the religion of the oppressor. It should be noted, although, that by this he means a white-led Christian church which preaches patience and acceptance of one’s fate. His main character espouses instead a form of liberation Christianity in which black Christians will interpret scripture directly and in revolutionary terms.
Delany explains his concept of religion most clearly in this speech by his main character, Blake (known throughout the first part of the book as Henry Holland): “No religion but that which brings us liberty will we know; no God but He who owns us as his children will we serve. The whites accept of nothing but that which promotes their interests and happiness, socially, politically and religiously. They would discard a religion, tear down a church, overthrow a government, or desert a country, which did not enhance their freedom. In God’s great and righteous name, are we not willing to do the same?” .... “Our ceremonies, then,” continued Blake, “are borrowed from no denomination, creed, nor church: no existing organization, secret, secular, nor religious; but originated by ourselves, adopted to our own condition, circumstances, and wants, founded upon the eternal word of God our Creator, as impressed upon the tablet of each of our hearts.”
The full text of the novel has been lost, but Part One and a large part of Part Two survive. [1] It is a fascinating read, being of interest both as a work of African-American nationalist literature, and as an early work of black speculative fiction.
The novel begins with the heart-rending account of the break-up of a black family through the sale of a young slave woman. Colonel Franks, a Southern landowner, is persuaded by Arabella Ballard, a relative of his wife’s, and the wife of a business associate, to sell her Maggie, a house servant trained as a lady’s maid, to accompany her on a trip to Cuba. It is strongly suggested that his decision to sell Maggie - his biological daughter - is motivated by her refusal of his sexual advances toward her. By this sale she is separated from her young son Joe, her husband, known as Henry Holland, an educated black man from the West Indies tricked into slavery when young, and from her mother, Mammy Judy, the cook, and Mammy Judy’s husband Daddy Joe, who are also devastated by the loss.
But where Judy and Daddy Joe try to accept the loss of Maggie with Christian platitudes about suffering and being together again in Heaven, Henry is outraged at the callous destruction of his family and rejects the advice of the others to accept the loss and trust in God. He confronts the Colonel over the sale of his wife, and in turn is sold himself. But before his new master can take possession, he runs away. After arranging for his son to be carried to safety in Canada, he contacts two trusted friends, Andy and Charles, and shares with them his plan, not only to never be enslaved again, but to organise a country-wide slave revolution, a goal that they eagerly agree to support him in.
Delany makes the reader look at all aspects of slavery, from the philosophical arguments used to justify the ownership of human beings, to the economics of plantation culture, to the casual everyday cruelty exhibited toward enslaved blacks. He also examines the range of survival strategies used by black people under slavery, showing the ways in which the myths of the slave who is eager to please, happy amusing, slow-witted, childlike, or a comforting ‘mammy’ are all, to some degree or other, masks adopted as means of surviving interactions with whites - with varied results, depending on the skill of the actor and the mood and whim of the target. The real hearts and minds of black people appear only when they speak together, or act out of the sight of whites, in the black-occupied ‘huts of America’ where they can congregate away from the gaze of the master. Even the very real faith of some blacks is exaggerated into a performance of confused and frenzied religiosity - for example, when Mammy Judy uses this strategy as a way of avoiding uncomfortable questions about the whereabouts of Henry and his son Joe. There are no happy plantation stories here.
As Henry travels through the South, spreading the idea of an organised rebellion, his encounters with the workers on different plantations provide a sense of the scope of slavery as a means of cheap labour - the sheer numbers of blacks working to produce the cash crops that drove the economic growth of not only the plantation south but the industrial north - and the ways in which this commodified labour force was treated.
Henry’s travels through the Southern states, rousing the black populace to prepare for a coming insurrection, occupy much of the book; having made this circuit, he returns to the Franks plantation, gathers these closest to him, and leads them to Canada, where he buys land and sets up a community of escaped slaves. Then, his family and friends taken care of, he heads toward Cuba in search of his wife. Thus ends Part One of Blake.
Where Part One was largely an exploration of the life of blacks under slavery, with some detailed advice on the dangers facing escaping slaves due to the Fugitive Slave Act and directions on how to reach Canada - complete with warnings not to expect much beyond freedom on arrival in what was still a very racially stratified society - the early chapters of Part Two examine first the conditions of slavery in Cuba, and then the conditions of the slave trade itself, as Henry’s adventures continue. It is in this section of the novel that Delany’s African nationalism is most strongly elucidated, in passage such as this:
“Heretofore that country [Africa] has been regarded as desolate-unadapted to useful cultivation or domestic animals, and consequently, the inhabitants savage, lazy, idle, and incapable of the higher civilization and only fit for bondmen, contributing nothing to the civilized world but that which is extorted from them as slaves. Instead of this, let us prove, not only that the African race is now the principal producer of the greater part of the luxuries of enlightened countries, as various fruits, rice, sugar, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, spices, and tobacco; but that in Africa their native land, they are among the most industrious people in the world, highly cultivating the lands, and that ere long they and their country must hold the balance of commercial power by supplying as they now do as foreign bondmen in strange lands, the greatest staple commodities in demand, as rice, coffee, sugar, and especially cotton, from their own native shores, the most extensive native territory, climate, soil, and greatest number of (almost the only natural producers) inhabitants in the universe; and that race and country will at once rise to the first magnitude of importance in the estimation of the greatest nations on earth, from their dependence upon them for the great staples from which is derived their national wealth.”
In Part Two, Henry, now using the name Gilbert, travels to Cuba in the service of a party of three young white men - Captain Richard Paul, Lieutenant Augustus Seely, and Midshipman Lawrence Spencer - desirous of entering the slave trade, and Cordelia Woodward, a young woman who later becomes Seely’s wife.
Once in Cuba, Henry leaves the party to search for his wife; finding Maggie at last, he gives her the money to purchase her freedom, and arranges for Joe to be brought to Cuba by some of his friends in Canada. We now learn that Henry, who speaks both Spanish and Creole fluently, is originally from Cuba, and that his name is actually Henrico Blacus - Henry Blake. He visits his cousin, Placido, a revolutionary poet, and they agree on working toward an uprising in Cuba. Henry then takes a position as a sailing master on a slave ship carrying arms - the Vulture, commanded by Captain Paul and his associates.
Blake’s journey to Africa, where the Vulture takes on two thousand kidnapped and branded Africans, gives Delany the opportunity to enumerate the horrors of the Middle Passage, the physical and mental torture endured by the transportees, the callousness toward the health and lives of their human cargo.
On his return, Blake discovers that he has been appointed the General of the Cuban Army of Emancipation; the revolutionaries, comprising many of the free blacks and people of mixed race in Cuba as well as soaves, plan for action. The last preserved chapter offers a picture of heightened political tensions between the Spanish administrators, the American platers who seek to have Cuba annexed by the US, and the black and mixed race general population, free and slave. Conditions are ripe for a revolution; but the conclusion of the book is lost to us.
Those looking for a cohesive personal narrative in Blake will be disappointed. This is not that kind of novel. Henry’s travels and exploits are governed, not by the desire to tell a story, but to impart information and promote a cause. Its shape is also affected by the length of time taken to write the work. Delany began publishing the chapters in 1959, before the outbreak of civil war. By the time he finished writing, it was 1862, and the possibility existed that a Union victory might end the rule of slavery in the South, rendering moot his main character’s arguments for a black insurrection. The value of Blake lies in its articulation of a nationalist vision of diasporic Africans, and its contemporary account of the conditions of black people under slavery.
[1] Part One has been published online (http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/africam/...)
Delany explains his concept of religion most clearly in this speech by his main character, Blake (known throughout the first part of the book as Henry Holland): “No religion but that which brings us liberty will we know; no God but He who owns us as his children will we serve. The whites accept of nothing but that which promotes their interests and happiness, socially, politically and religiously. They would discard a religion, tear down a church, overthrow a government, or desert a country, which did not enhance their freedom. In God’s great and righteous name, are we not willing to do the same?” .... “Our ceremonies, then,” continued Blake, “are borrowed from no denomination, creed, nor church: no existing organization, secret, secular, nor religious; but originated by ourselves, adopted to our own condition, circumstances, and wants, founded upon the eternal word of God our Creator, as impressed upon the tablet of each of our hearts.”
The full text of the novel has been lost, but Part One and a large part of Part Two survive. [1] It is a fascinating read, being of interest both as a work of African-American nationalist literature, and as an early work of black speculative fiction.
The novel begins with the heart-rending account of the break-up of a black family through the sale of a young slave woman. Colonel Franks, a Southern landowner, is persuaded by Arabella Ballard, a relative of his wife’s, and the wife of a business associate, to sell her Maggie, a house servant trained as a lady’s maid, to accompany her on a trip to Cuba. It is strongly suggested that his decision to sell Maggie - his biological daughter - is motivated by her refusal of his sexual advances toward her. By this sale she is separated from her young son Joe, her husband, known as Henry Holland, an educated black man from the West Indies tricked into slavery when young, and from her mother, Mammy Judy, the cook, and Mammy Judy’s husband Daddy Joe, who are also devastated by the loss.
But where Judy and Daddy Joe try to accept the loss of Maggie with Christian platitudes about suffering and being together again in Heaven, Henry is outraged at the callous destruction of his family and rejects the advice of the others to accept the loss and trust in God. He confronts the Colonel over the sale of his wife, and in turn is sold himself. But before his new master can take possession, he runs away. After arranging for his son to be carried to safety in Canada, he contacts two trusted friends, Andy and Charles, and shares with them his plan, not only to never be enslaved again, but to organise a country-wide slave revolution, a goal that they eagerly agree to support him in.
Delany makes the reader look at all aspects of slavery, from the philosophical arguments used to justify the ownership of human beings, to the economics of plantation culture, to the casual everyday cruelty exhibited toward enslaved blacks. He also examines the range of survival strategies used by black people under slavery, showing the ways in which the myths of the slave who is eager to please, happy amusing, slow-witted, childlike, or a comforting ‘mammy’ are all, to some degree or other, masks adopted as means of surviving interactions with whites - with varied results, depending on the skill of the actor and the mood and whim of the target. The real hearts and minds of black people appear only when they speak together, or act out of the sight of whites, in the black-occupied ‘huts of America’ where they can congregate away from the gaze of the master. Even the very real faith of some blacks is exaggerated into a performance of confused and frenzied religiosity - for example, when Mammy Judy uses this strategy as a way of avoiding uncomfortable questions about the whereabouts of Henry and his son Joe. There are no happy plantation stories here.
As Henry travels through the South, spreading the idea of an organised rebellion, his encounters with the workers on different plantations provide a sense of the scope of slavery as a means of cheap labour - the sheer numbers of blacks working to produce the cash crops that drove the economic growth of not only the plantation south but the industrial north - and the ways in which this commodified labour force was treated.
Henry’s travels through the Southern states, rousing the black populace to prepare for a coming insurrection, occupy much of the book; having made this circuit, he returns to the Franks plantation, gathers these closest to him, and leads them to Canada, where he buys land and sets up a community of escaped slaves. Then, his family and friends taken care of, he heads toward Cuba in search of his wife. Thus ends Part One of Blake.
Where Part One was largely an exploration of the life of blacks under slavery, with some detailed advice on the dangers facing escaping slaves due to the Fugitive Slave Act and directions on how to reach Canada - complete with warnings not to expect much beyond freedom on arrival in what was still a very racially stratified society - the early chapters of Part Two examine first the conditions of slavery in Cuba, and then the conditions of the slave trade itself, as Henry’s adventures continue. It is in this section of the novel that Delany’s African nationalism is most strongly elucidated, in passage such as this:
“Heretofore that country [Africa] has been regarded as desolate-unadapted to useful cultivation or domestic animals, and consequently, the inhabitants savage, lazy, idle, and incapable of the higher civilization and only fit for bondmen, contributing nothing to the civilized world but that which is extorted from them as slaves. Instead of this, let us prove, not only that the African race is now the principal producer of the greater part of the luxuries of enlightened countries, as various fruits, rice, sugar, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, spices, and tobacco; but that in Africa their native land, they are among the most industrious people in the world, highly cultivating the lands, and that ere long they and their country must hold the balance of commercial power by supplying as they now do as foreign bondmen in strange lands, the greatest staple commodities in demand, as rice, coffee, sugar, and especially cotton, from their own native shores, the most extensive native territory, climate, soil, and greatest number of (almost the only natural producers) inhabitants in the universe; and that race and country will at once rise to the first magnitude of importance in the estimation of the greatest nations on earth, from their dependence upon them for the great staples from which is derived their national wealth.”
In Part Two, Henry, now using the name Gilbert, travels to Cuba in the service of a party of three young white men - Captain Richard Paul, Lieutenant Augustus Seely, and Midshipman Lawrence Spencer - desirous of entering the slave trade, and Cordelia Woodward, a young woman who later becomes Seely’s wife.
Once in Cuba, Henry leaves the party to search for his wife; finding Maggie at last, he gives her the money to purchase her freedom, and arranges for Joe to be brought to Cuba by some of his friends in Canada. We now learn that Henry, who speaks both Spanish and Creole fluently, is originally from Cuba, and that his name is actually Henrico Blacus - Henry Blake. He visits his cousin, Placido, a revolutionary poet, and they agree on working toward an uprising in Cuba. Henry then takes a position as a sailing master on a slave ship carrying arms - the Vulture, commanded by Captain Paul and his associates.
Blake’s journey to Africa, where the Vulture takes on two thousand kidnapped and branded Africans, gives Delany the opportunity to enumerate the horrors of the Middle Passage, the physical and mental torture endured by the transportees, the callousness toward the health and lives of their human cargo.
On his return, Blake discovers that he has been appointed the General of the Cuban Army of Emancipation; the revolutionaries, comprising many of the free blacks and people of mixed race in Cuba as well as soaves, plan for action. The last preserved chapter offers a picture of heightened political tensions between the Spanish administrators, the American platers who seek to have Cuba annexed by the US, and the black and mixed race general population, free and slave. Conditions are ripe for a revolution; but the conclusion of the book is lost to us.
Those looking for a cohesive personal narrative in Blake will be disappointed. This is not that kind of novel. Henry’s travels and exploits are governed, not by the desire to tell a story, but to impart information and promote a cause. Its shape is also affected by the length of time taken to write the work. Delany began publishing the chapters in 1959, before the outbreak of civil war. By the time he finished writing, it was 1862, and the possibility existed that a Union victory might end the rule of slavery in the South, rendering moot his main character’s arguments for a black insurrection. The value of Blake lies in its articulation of a nationalist vision of diasporic Africans, and its contemporary account of the conditions of black people under slavery.
[1] Part One has been published online (http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/africam/...)
July 26, 2017
It took me 3 weeks hit and miss just to get through the introduction written by Floyd J. Miller. It was written in such a pedantic style, that it was difficult to slough through. Even still, I'm glad I didn't skip it. Because this is considered the third novel written by an African American, the novel has important historical connection, and the introduction explained this as well as giving information about the author and some aspects of the plot that wouldn't easily be known to today's readers. Once I began the actual novel, it read much more quickly.
That first paragraph was written by me when I was only a little bit into the actual book. Blake is one book I probably should have given up on reading. While I am sympathetic to the plight of slaves and am usually very engaged in reading novels and histories written about this time, Blake left me frustrated and dissatisfied. As a reader, I could not connect with the main character. He moved through the story like a machine or a robot, rarely showing his emotions. I suppose some of his speeches given in anger are supposed to convey emotion, but it just didn't work for me.
Let me move on to the broken up plot. It starts with a family, a slave family. The wife/mother is sold away and ends up in Cuba, sold and sold and sold to other owners. We don't see much of her part of the story except that in a paragraph or two, a slave describes her mistreatment.
After she is sold away, her husband (Henry/Gilbert/Blake) returns from work he had been doing for his master. Obviously he is upset. Stuff happens and he is set to be sold as well. He ends up running away before he can be sold. He makes plans to steal away their child as well, and sends him North, probably through the underground railroad. Instead of going to Cuba after his wife, Henry moves stealthily from state to state, meeting with other slaves on the sly, encouraging them to be ready for an insurrection or rebellion. Nothing specific is plotted, no day or time, or know how. They were just to be ready. I understand that it was a rallying call for the slaves, but it didn't seem to flow with the plot points previous. (What about his wife? What about their son?) The sentimental part of the story begged the author follow the plight of the lost wife...
Moving forward, Henry finally returns to the plantation from which he had run away and helps several other slaves to escape, and they go North, all the way to Canada (if I remember correctly), and they are reunited with Henry's son. After this, he finally sets sail for Cuba. He finds favor with the people with whom he is traveling. Amazingly, he is able to locate his wife through some seriously good luck, shortly after his arrival. He is easily able to help her purchase her freedom and they are reunited. (Please, the story should have ended there. But it didn't...)
After only a few days, Henry, now going by Blake, leaves his wife behind to go help command a slave trading ship on an expedition to Africa. (What?!? That's right, after all that, he just ups and leaves his wife to go sailing. Where is the emotional sentimentality that could have so well driven this novel?) The only purpose this trip seems to serve is to show readers (who in the mid-1800s may not have been privy to this information) the depravity of the slave trade, the inhumane treatment of those who were forcibly taken in Africa, and the horrendous treatment of them as they cross the sea. The white men who owned and ran the ship were wary of the black men working the ship and of Blake who oversaw them. There was suspicion of mutiny, and once again the reader is left disappointed with the lack of action. Instead, the focus is on the very awful conditions the slaves endure as they travel, 2000 crammed into the bottom of the ship, with some number like 600 dying within the first day or so. (At about this point I started to question beyond the unjustness of slavery and the brutal treatment to which slaves were subject. These people lost over a quarter of their "cargo" shortly after leaving Africa. They are hoping to sell these slaves and receive high prices for them, and yet they starve them and keep them in poorly circulated air and cram them together in their own excrements. They damage and mutilate their hands and fingers (and with such hands, how are they supposed to be able to pick cotton???). All this caused me to question the slavery from a business standpoint. I could not even fathom a businessman who would not take care of his commodities in order to receive a greater return. All I could make sense of from this was that slavery was more about tearing down a race than about turning a profit. And yet the owners seemed to be the type of men in the slave trade for a profit. Go figure.)
Alright, back to the disjointed plot again. The slave ship lands in Cuba... Most of these slaves end up being sold for a low cost because of rumors over their conduct while in the ship. Because of the low cost, it was affordable for "the entire cargo of captives" to go through fair quadroons "directly into black families or their friends" (chapter 55). So, essentially, the black people bought these new slaves their freedom.
Once in Cuba again, Henry is reunited with his friends from the previous journey to Cuba, who have brought his son and some of the slaves with whom he had made his escape to Canada. Here the reader will find about one paragraph of sentimentality touching on their oh-so-loving reunion. The son is never mentioned in the rest of the novel, the wife, only rarely.
The remainder of the novel is devoted to increased tensions between the slaves and free blacks and mulattos and Creoles, and the white people (American, Spanish, and British; of these three, the Americans are painted as the worst). Henry Blake is named as "General-in-Chief of the army of emancipation of the oppressed men and women of Cuba," much to the consternation of his wife. "'I suppose then I may give up all hope of ever having you with me at all!' she replied with renewed sobs" (chapter 57). (Yes, this is about as emotional as it gets.) The wife is told that her place would be elevated by Blake being a general (now she is Mrs. General Blake, instead of a slave wife), and she must rise to that station. She humbly accepts Blake's cousin's censure. (I'm not going to go on in detail further--it just is too much!)
So, supposedly, the mixed and black population of Cuba are supposed to unite and revolt...only it never happens. There are tense situations, but nothing of consequence happens. The novel builds and builds to a very unsatisfying conclusion. The reader is left hanging and wondering if the black community will rise up, revolt, and triumph. Perhaps the novel is left with the unknown because of the time period in which it was written/published (around 1859, 1861-1862). At this point, the outcome of the war was unknown. The book was written before the war had begun. A lot of the ideas put forth and perpetuated in the book became obsolete or unimportant as the war progressed (according to the introduction).
Another aspect that hurt the book was trying to read through the affected slave speech. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's referred to Black English Vernacular, or BEV. This is going back to my college linguistics days, and I'm not certain.) I simply struggled to know which words were meant when certain slaves were speaking, even when I tried to read them out loud and sound them out. This slowed me down with reading and really made me want to quit the novel entirely. Eventually I just started skimming and skipping ahead when paragraphs and pages went on and on in this speech.
And a final aspect that got to me was the many instances of white people inflicting horrible injustices on the slaves, who suddenly had a conscience and felt sorrow for what they had done. However, it was usually too late to do anything to repair the wrong. We are left with a character's personal conviction that he/she won't do it again (such as a shopkeeper in Cuba, the slave trader in Africa, or the slave ship owners--it's our last voyage, really! We have a conscience now!). Yeah, I have to wonder about how sincere these characters actually were. Since we never see them actually change or do anything beyond express remorse, sincerity is either brief or doubtful.
Blake remains largely an unknown novel. Miller, in his introduction, writes, "Despite its relevance, Blake was generally ignored. There was apparently little, if any, commentary on Delaney's work.... Blake was quickly forgotten." It is difficult for me to judge a novel so harshly, especially taking into account when and why it was written. But this book is no classic. A literary standard it is not. If I were to hold it up to literary criticism, it would not hold up at all. I believe from what I've read, this serially published novel served more as propaganda in the North or maybe as an impetus for slaves in the South (if they even saw it). But propaganda does not make literature, at least not in my opinion. If it were well-written, I could call it literature as well as propaganda, but it is not. "Blake was quickly forgotten," Miller writes. How long will it take me to forget Blake myself?
Stick with other antebellum literature and histories, and skip this one.
That first paragraph was written by me when I was only a little bit into the actual book. Blake is one book I probably should have given up on reading. While I am sympathetic to the plight of slaves and am usually very engaged in reading novels and histories written about this time, Blake left me frustrated and dissatisfied. As a reader, I could not connect with the main character. He moved through the story like a machine or a robot, rarely showing his emotions. I suppose some of his speeches given in anger are supposed to convey emotion, but it just didn't work for me.
Let me move on to the broken up plot. It starts with a family, a slave family. The wife/mother is sold away and ends up in Cuba, sold and sold and sold to other owners. We don't see much of her part of the story except that in a paragraph or two, a slave describes her mistreatment.
After she is sold away, her husband (Henry/Gilbert/Blake) returns from work he had been doing for his master. Obviously he is upset. Stuff happens and he is set to be sold as well. He ends up running away before he can be sold. He makes plans to steal away their child as well, and sends him North, probably through the underground railroad. Instead of going to Cuba after his wife, Henry moves stealthily from state to state, meeting with other slaves on the sly, encouraging them to be ready for an insurrection or rebellion. Nothing specific is plotted, no day or time, or know how. They were just to be ready. I understand that it was a rallying call for the slaves, but it didn't seem to flow with the plot points previous. (What about his wife? What about their son?) The sentimental part of the story begged the author follow the plight of the lost wife...
Moving forward, Henry finally returns to the plantation from which he had run away and helps several other slaves to escape, and they go North, all the way to Canada (if I remember correctly), and they are reunited with Henry's son. After this, he finally sets sail for Cuba. He finds favor with the people with whom he is traveling. Amazingly, he is able to locate his wife through some seriously good luck, shortly after his arrival. He is easily able to help her purchase her freedom and they are reunited. (Please, the story should have ended there. But it didn't...)
After only a few days, Henry, now going by Blake, leaves his wife behind to go help command a slave trading ship on an expedition to Africa. (What?!? That's right, after all that, he just ups and leaves his wife to go sailing. Where is the emotional sentimentality that could have so well driven this novel?) The only purpose this trip seems to serve is to show readers (who in the mid-1800s may not have been privy to this information) the depravity of the slave trade, the inhumane treatment of those who were forcibly taken in Africa, and the horrendous treatment of them as they cross the sea. The white men who owned and ran the ship were wary of the black men working the ship and of Blake who oversaw them. There was suspicion of mutiny, and once again the reader is left disappointed with the lack of action. Instead, the focus is on the very awful conditions the slaves endure as they travel, 2000 crammed into the bottom of the ship, with some number like 600 dying within the first day or so. (At about this point I started to question beyond the unjustness of slavery and the brutal treatment to which slaves were subject. These people lost over a quarter of their "cargo" shortly after leaving Africa. They are hoping to sell these slaves and receive high prices for them, and yet they starve them and keep them in poorly circulated air and cram them together in their own excrements. They damage and mutilate their hands and fingers (and with such hands, how are they supposed to be able to pick cotton???). All this caused me to question the slavery from a business standpoint. I could not even fathom a businessman who would not take care of his commodities in order to receive a greater return. All I could make sense of from this was that slavery was more about tearing down a race than about turning a profit. And yet the owners seemed to be the type of men in the slave trade for a profit. Go figure.)
Alright, back to the disjointed plot again. The slave ship lands in Cuba... Most of these slaves end up being sold for a low cost because of rumors over their conduct while in the ship. Because of the low cost, it was affordable for "the entire cargo of captives" to go through fair quadroons "directly into black families or their friends" (chapter 55). So, essentially, the black people bought these new slaves their freedom.
Once in Cuba again, Henry is reunited with his friends from the previous journey to Cuba, who have brought his son and some of the slaves with whom he had made his escape to Canada. Here the reader will find about one paragraph of sentimentality touching on their oh-so-loving reunion. The son is never mentioned in the rest of the novel, the wife, only rarely.
The remainder of the novel is devoted to increased tensions between the slaves and free blacks and mulattos and Creoles, and the white people (American, Spanish, and British; of these three, the Americans are painted as the worst). Henry Blake is named as "General-in-Chief of the army of emancipation of the oppressed men and women of Cuba," much to the consternation of his wife. "'I suppose then I may give up all hope of ever having you with me at all!' she replied with renewed sobs" (chapter 57). (Yes, this is about as emotional as it gets.) The wife is told that her place would be elevated by Blake being a general (now she is Mrs. General Blake, instead of a slave wife), and she must rise to that station. She humbly accepts Blake's cousin's censure. (I'm not going to go on in detail further--it just is too much!)
So, supposedly, the mixed and black population of Cuba are supposed to unite and revolt...only it never happens. There are tense situations, but nothing of consequence happens. The novel builds and builds to a very unsatisfying conclusion. The reader is left hanging and wondering if the black community will rise up, revolt, and triumph. Perhaps the novel is left with the unknown because of the time period in which it was written/published (around 1859, 1861-1862). At this point, the outcome of the war was unknown. The book was written before the war had begun. A lot of the ideas put forth and perpetuated in the book became obsolete or unimportant as the war progressed (according to the introduction).
Another aspect that hurt the book was trying to read through the affected slave speech. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's referred to Black English Vernacular, or BEV. This is going back to my college linguistics days, and I'm not certain.) I simply struggled to know which words were meant when certain slaves were speaking, even when I tried to read them out loud and sound them out. This slowed me down with reading and really made me want to quit the novel entirely. Eventually I just started skimming and skipping ahead when paragraphs and pages went on and on in this speech.
And a final aspect that got to me was the many instances of white people inflicting horrible injustices on the slaves, who suddenly had a conscience and felt sorrow for what they had done. However, it was usually too late to do anything to repair the wrong. We are left with a character's personal conviction that he/she won't do it again (such as a shopkeeper in Cuba, the slave trader in Africa, or the slave ship owners--it's our last voyage, really! We have a conscience now!). Yeah, I have to wonder about how sincere these characters actually were. Since we never see them actually change or do anything beyond express remorse, sincerity is either brief or doubtful.
Blake remains largely an unknown novel. Miller, in his introduction, writes, "Despite its relevance, Blake was generally ignored. There was apparently little, if any, commentary on Delaney's work.... Blake was quickly forgotten." It is difficult for me to judge a novel so harshly, especially taking into account when and why it was written. But this book is no classic. A literary standard it is not. If I were to hold it up to literary criticism, it would not hold up at all. I believe from what I've read, this serially published novel served more as propaganda in the North or maybe as an impetus for slaves in the South (if they even saw it). But propaganda does not make literature, at least not in my opinion. If it were well-written, I could call it literature as well as propaganda, but it is not. "Blake was quickly forgotten," Miller writes. How long will it take me to forget Blake myself?
Stick with other antebellum literature and histories, and skip this one.
October 4, 2022
This book was recommended during the past Black History Month as an answer to Uncle Tom's Cabin, written at the same time by a Black author. (And since I have never read UTC, I'll be reading it too.) While I've heard the generalization and read a couple examples that slaves weren't passively waiting to be freed, this novel of the late 1850s reinforces that point all the way through. Henry Holland (becomes Henry Blake about 2/3 into the novel) is working on his own freedom and that of others all the way through.
The novel has two narratives, the first being Henry's travels through mostly southern states with a plan (we are never told the plan) and his encouragiing resourcefulness and resistance. The second tells Henry's experiences in Cuba. The first gets tedious, but it is worth continuing. For the second, I was glad to have read Cuba: An American History first, though it isn't essential to understanding what is happening. There are endnotes most of which provide hisorical analogues and identify characters with historical figures; after the history they indicate sources. I found myself checking them more often than I sometimes do, and they were useful. Though the two narratives are connected, they don't seem integrated into a whole. Some scenes seem to be there only to illustrate some aspect of slavery, and some conversations to illustrate ideas. The editor says, "[Delany's] only fictitional effort marks the artistic epitome of a social and political position--that is, the creative offering of an activist rather than the political expressions of an artist" (xiii). Still it is important reading.
The novel has two narratives, the first being Henry's travels through mostly southern states with a plan (we are never told the plan) and his encouragiing resourcefulness and resistance. The second tells Henry's experiences in Cuba. The first gets tedious, but it is worth continuing. For the second, I was glad to have read Cuba: An American History first, though it isn't essential to understanding what is happening. There are endnotes most of which provide hisorical analogues and identify characters with historical figures; after the history they indicate sources. I found myself checking them more often than I sometimes do, and they were useful. Though the two narratives are connected, they don't seem integrated into a whole. Some scenes seem to be there only to illustrate some aspect of slavery, and some conversations to illustrate ideas. The editor says, "[Delany's] only fictitional effort marks the artistic epitome of a social and political position--that is, the creative offering of an activist rather than the political expressions of an artist" (xiii). Still it is important reading.
November 22, 2024
zaboravila rejtat ovo. podsjećalo me na "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", but it was boring af. možda samo nisan bila u moodu. slušan "The origins of American sci-fi" na faksu, al ne kužin iz kojeg bi razloga ovo bila znanstvena fantastika... nisan niti malo oduševljena.
January 11, 2023
A landmark early work of Black Science Fiction!
Really wish it weren't incomplete... Was looking forward to him meeting up with his wife in Cuba and kicking off a revolution. At the least, it's a good text to inspire responses, answers, and other dialogues.
Really wish it weren't incomplete... Was looking forward to him meeting up with his wife in Cuba and kicking off a revolution. At the least, it's a good text to inspire responses, answers, and other dialogues.
January 20, 2024
In this review I will talk about the plot so we will NOT BE SPOILER-FREE. Also, I will identify CONTENT WARNINGS so if you want to avoid them please read no further.
'Blake or The Huts of America' is a really important book. It's a book I am pleased that I learnt of, and also pleased I have had the opportunity to read. It's a challenging book to read in terms of subject matter, but also challenging in that it is quite hard to get though. I'm indebted in my review to the work of Nisi Shawl and their 'A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction' http://www.nisishawl.com/CCHBSF.html and supporting essay https://www.tor.com/2018/11/05/what-g... and further research here https://utc.iath.virginia.edu/africam...
The novel is considered the first science fiction novel written by an African American, and also only the third novel written by an African American. Much of the early book (chapters 1-23 and 29-31) was serialised in 'The Anglo-African Magazine' between January and July, 1859. The rest of Part One and Part Two was published when the novel was serialised again in 'The Weekly Anglo-African' between November 1861 and May 1862. The novel is unfinished and it appears there may be six chapters outstanding (which may or not have been written), and I believe I have seen other reviews suggest that Delany may not have written all of Part 2.
CONTENT WARNINGS IN NOVEL: Very strong and harrowing descriptions of racism, slavery, torture, racist slurs and language, dehumanisation, antisemitism, misogyny and animal cruelty.
The novel is the story of Henry Blake, an freeman, who is enslaved, who following the sale of his wife (for an infraction I was never clear of) to slavers in Cuba decides he has had enough, leaves his slavers and begins a revolutionary mission across America. Following this journey, he then travels to Cuba, joins a slaver ship, sails to Africa to steal more slaves and returns (it isn't clear whether they overthrow their slavers), before stirring revolution in Cuba. The novel ends at the cusp of whether Henry's dreams of black liberation can come to fruition.
Despite the importance of this book, it isn't an easy read. It's poorly structured, overly verbose and drawn out (particularly with long sections of poetry or songs or religious verse which bring the narrative to a halt). It isn't clear what is happening half the time. I could be kind and suggest this is Delany asking us 'what if?' or treating the novel as somewhat of a dream, but I can't state that convincingly. I just think it's badly written. The narrative, for much of the book is inconsistent, or largely absent, but it still gives the reader much to reflect upon.
The early part of the book is Delany travelling around America, visiting different states and plantations and meeting with people he identifies as leaders and telling them his message. We never hear what it is, and when the people he meets are ready for action he tells them to wait. It does give an air of suspense in some respects, but because it is never fulfilled and we never hear what it is, it feels like something really important just left. His travels around America become boring, with the narrative largely the same except for the state name changing. He rarely appears in genuine peril and finds it very easy to evade capture and influence enslaved people. I do wonder if this is a stylistic approach, perhaps treating Blake like a Messiah, and demonstrating the ease of which he can release his chains? Perhaps a message to fellow African Americans that it is possible to overthrow slavery and for them to not recognise their bondage?
There is another interesting stylistic device which is strange to modern readers. Henry's voice is in 'Queen's English'. He doesn't use slang or patois or any dialect. All the slaves he meets have their dialogue written in their dialect (as do Europeans like Dutch and German people). I couldn't help think that Delany was making a distinction between his central character and the rest of the African Americans? That Blake was enlightened and educated 'woke' even, and that the slaves were still trapped in language and culture (underpinned by a faith in a white man's God to make everything okay if they wait) that was less aware of what was happening. It reads quite patronising today. I guess also, with a modern lens, we would appreciate that it is those who use the language of their people and culture who are liberated, and not those trapped using the language of their white oppressors. (I am fully aware of making these observations 150 years later...)
The Cuba and sailing sections feel like a mess from a narrative point of view, but there are some stunning insights in here. Right at the end, there is a suggestion that it is the slaves who have hope because they have nothing to lose, whilst the white man has everything to lose, and they are the ones who live in fear. These narratives STILL persist - white fear about losing privilege is still engrained. Also, there is a call for a black nationalism and an exploration of people of multiple heritage. I'm paraphrasing but there is an argument along the lines of black people are 'better' than 'mulattos' and 'quadroons' because their lineage and heritage remains. The argument is clumsy (and I haven't done it any favours in explanation) but in essence it is saying to the characters, 'don't view your whiteness as better, see your black race as equal to, and as valid as any other'. I was struck by the connection to today and Black Lives Matter. Yes, we can all agree 'all lives matter' but we don't mean it unless we say Black Lives Matter. What Blake says in the novel is to recognise his people as worthy of recognition, equality, respect and dignity BECAUSE they are black, and not to ask for crumbs of concessions from white people, but to take what is theirs by right.
I was reflecting on the ways in which this is speculative fiction. There are no devices or constructs which make this speculative - no future science or paranormal or supernatural or whatever. And yet this is science fiction. A friend of mine many years ago said, 'science fiction asks 'what if'?' and this is Delany's vision. He was writing at a time when slavery was still prevalent in the United States. He presents a vision of the future where a man can transcend the constraints of racism and slavery and can instil in people a sense of pride in black nationalism and also liberation. I would LOVE to have read the full novel, where there is a new future - where the slaves overthrow the plantation owners, where Cuba is liberated as a safe haven for freed slaves.
The time of the writing is important too - he describes horrific torture and abuse (both physical and sexual) of people. There are horrendous racist phrases uttered by whites which dehumanise black people. It is uncomfortable to read and feel like they belong in a horrible hateful past. There is the casual torture of children (throughout Delany alludes to things which he has seen in real life and this is one of them). But is this in the past? In January 2024 the world is watching whilst Israel bombs Gaza. Palestinians are collectivised as savage terrorists and their lives do not matter. They are 'othered' as being less than human. Yes, Delany's depiction of systemic racism is harrowing, but still today humans in power and privilege (and yes, they are still white) can demonise their victims, and claim moral superiority which is based on oppression.
Not an easy book to read, both in terms of subject matter and narrative and structure, but nevertheless an important one. Not just for understanding the past, but also today
'Blake or The Huts of America' is a really important book. It's a book I am pleased that I learnt of, and also pleased I have had the opportunity to read. It's a challenging book to read in terms of subject matter, but also challenging in that it is quite hard to get though. I'm indebted in my review to the work of Nisi Shawl and their 'A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction' http://www.nisishawl.com/CCHBSF.html and supporting essay https://www.tor.com/2018/11/05/what-g... and further research here https://utc.iath.virginia.edu/africam...
The novel is considered the first science fiction novel written by an African American, and also only the third novel written by an African American. Much of the early book (chapters 1-23 and 29-31) was serialised in 'The Anglo-African Magazine' between January and July, 1859. The rest of Part One and Part Two was published when the novel was serialised again in 'The Weekly Anglo-African' between November 1861 and May 1862. The novel is unfinished and it appears there may be six chapters outstanding (which may or not have been written), and I believe I have seen other reviews suggest that Delany may not have written all of Part 2.
CONTENT WARNINGS IN NOVEL: Very strong and harrowing descriptions of racism, slavery, torture, racist slurs and language, dehumanisation, antisemitism, misogyny and animal cruelty.
The novel is the story of Henry Blake, an freeman, who is enslaved, who following the sale of his wife (for an infraction I was never clear of) to slavers in Cuba decides he has had enough, leaves his slavers and begins a revolutionary mission across America. Following this journey, he then travels to Cuba, joins a slaver ship, sails to Africa to steal more slaves and returns (it isn't clear whether they overthrow their slavers), before stirring revolution in Cuba. The novel ends at the cusp of whether Henry's dreams of black liberation can come to fruition.
Despite the importance of this book, it isn't an easy read. It's poorly structured, overly verbose and drawn out (particularly with long sections of poetry or songs or religious verse which bring the narrative to a halt). It isn't clear what is happening half the time. I could be kind and suggest this is Delany asking us 'what if?' or treating the novel as somewhat of a dream, but I can't state that convincingly. I just think it's badly written. The narrative, for much of the book is inconsistent, or largely absent, but it still gives the reader much to reflect upon.
The early part of the book is Delany travelling around America, visiting different states and plantations and meeting with people he identifies as leaders and telling them his message. We never hear what it is, and when the people he meets are ready for action he tells them to wait. It does give an air of suspense in some respects, but because it is never fulfilled and we never hear what it is, it feels like something really important just left. His travels around America become boring, with the narrative largely the same except for the state name changing. He rarely appears in genuine peril and finds it very easy to evade capture and influence enslaved people. I do wonder if this is a stylistic approach, perhaps treating Blake like a Messiah, and demonstrating the ease of which he can release his chains? Perhaps a message to fellow African Americans that it is possible to overthrow slavery and for them to not recognise their bondage?
There is another interesting stylistic device which is strange to modern readers. Henry's voice is in 'Queen's English'. He doesn't use slang or patois or any dialect. All the slaves he meets have their dialogue written in their dialect (as do Europeans like Dutch and German people). I couldn't help think that Delany was making a distinction between his central character and the rest of the African Americans? That Blake was enlightened and educated 'woke' even, and that the slaves were still trapped in language and culture (underpinned by a faith in a white man's God to make everything okay if they wait) that was less aware of what was happening. It reads quite patronising today. I guess also, with a modern lens, we would appreciate that it is those who use the language of their people and culture who are liberated, and not those trapped using the language of their white oppressors. (I am fully aware of making these observations 150 years later...)
The Cuba and sailing sections feel like a mess from a narrative point of view, but there are some stunning insights in here. Right at the end, there is a suggestion that it is the slaves who have hope because they have nothing to lose, whilst the white man has everything to lose, and they are the ones who live in fear. These narratives STILL persist - white fear about losing privilege is still engrained. Also, there is a call for a black nationalism and an exploration of people of multiple heritage. I'm paraphrasing but there is an argument along the lines of black people are 'better' than 'mulattos' and 'quadroons' because their lineage and heritage remains. The argument is clumsy (and I haven't done it any favours in explanation) but in essence it is saying to the characters, 'don't view your whiteness as better, see your black race as equal to, and as valid as any other'. I was struck by the connection to today and Black Lives Matter. Yes, we can all agree 'all lives matter' but we don't mean it unless we say Black Lives Matter. What Blake says in the novel is to recognise his people as worthy of recognition, equality, respect and dignity BECAUSE they are black, and not to ask for crumbs of concessions from white people, but to take what is theirs by right.
I was reflecting on the ways in which this is speculative fiction. There are no devices or constructs which make this speculative - no future science or paranormal or supernatural or whatever. And yet this is science fiction. A friend of mine many years ago said, 'science fiction asks 'what if'?' and this is Delany's vision. He was writing at a time when slavery was still prevalent in the United States. He presents a vision of the future where a man can transcend the constraints of racism and slavery and can instil in people a sense of pride in black nationalism and also liberation. I would LOVE to have read the full novel, where there is a new future - where the slaves overthrow the plantation owners, where Cuba is liberated as a safe haven for freed slaves.
The time of the writing is important too - he describes horrific torture and abuse (both physical and sexual) of people. There are horrendous racist phrases uttered by whites which dehumanise black people. It is uncomfortable to read and feel like they belong in a horrible hateful past. There is the casual torture of children (throughout Delany alludes to things which he has seen in real life and this is one of them). But is this in the past? In January 2024 the world is watching whilst Israel bombs Gaza. Palestinians are collectivised as savage terrorists and their lives do not matter. They are 'othered' as being less than human. Yes, Delany's depiction of systemic racism is harrowing, but still today humans in power and privilege (and yes, they are still white) can demonise their victims, and claim moral superiority which is based on oppression.
Not an easy book to read, both in terms of subject matter and narrative and structure, but nevertheless an important one. Not just for understanding the past, but also today
April 9, 2012
The word I believe best describes Blake: or, the Huts of America is... "uneven." The introduction prepares us for this. It notifies us that Delany, formerly an associate of Frederick Douglass's, published the book in installments in at least two separate newspapers and did so while his own political platform and vision for the future of enslaved black Americans were in flux. And it forewarns us that the novel's last two chapters remain undiscovered. The Beacon Press includes a note pleading for anybody who knows their whereabouts to please share them.
Blake is something of a picaresque in which its titular character, first name Henry, travels North America building a coalition of slave resistance, spreading fears of a slave rebellion whose designs are never revealed even to the (potentially white) reader, and scouting a place where previously enslaved blacks can relocate and establish their own free nation. (Presumably, this is Cuba.) Even knowing the book's limitations beforehand, I couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with Delany's inconsistent narrative voice, which bounces from nationalist to sardonic to didactic, and like other reviewers have noted, with perhaps the exception of Henry Blake, the book's characters are resoundingly flat. That said, the book's place in American literary history makes it a required read, and in a sense the lack of closure invites us to read Blake not as a completed work but as merely the draft of African American nationalism which later books, like Ellison's Invisible Man, would eventually complete. Three stars.
Blake is something of a picaresque in which its titular character, first name Henry, travels North America building a coalition of slave resistance, spreading fears of a slave rebellion whose designs are never revealed even to the (potentially white) reader, and scouting a place where previously enslaved blacks can relocate and establish their own free nation. (Presumably, this is Cuba.) Even knowing the book's limitations beforehand, I couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with Delany's inconsistent narrative voice, which bounces from nationalist to sardonic to didactic, and like other reviewers have noted, with perhaps the exception of Henry Blake, the book's characters are resoundingly flat. That said, the book's place in American literary history makes it a required read, and in a sense the lack of closure invites us to read Blake not as a completed work but as merely the draft of African American nationalism which later books, like Ellison's Invisible Man, would eventually complete. Three stars.
July 26, 2017
It took me 3 weeks hit and miss just to get through the introduction written by Floyd J. Miller. It was written in such a pedantic style, that it was difficult to slough through. Even still, I'm glad I didn't skip it. Because this is considered the third novel written by an African American, the novel has important historical connection, and the introduction explained this as well as giving information about the author and some aspects of the plot that wouldn't easily be known to today's readers. Once I began the actual novel, it read much more quickly.
That first paragraph was written by me when I was only a little bit into the actual book. Blake is one book I probably should have given up on reading. While I am sympathetic to the plight of slaves and am usually very engaged in reading novels and histories written about this time, Blake left me frustrated and dissatisfied. As a reader, I could not connect with the main character. He moved through the story like a machine or a robot, rarely showing his emotions. I suppose some of his speeches given in anger are supposed to convey emotion, but it just didn't work for me.
Let me move on to the broken up plot. It starts with a family, a slave family. The wife/mother is sold away and ends up in Cuba, sold and sold and sold to other owners. We don't see much of her part of the story except that in a paragraph or two, a slave describes her mistreatment.
After she is sold away, her husband (Henry/Gilbert/Blake) returns from work he had been doing for his master. Obviously he is upset. Stuff happens and he is set to be sold as well. He ends up running away before he can be sold. He makes plans to steal away their child as well, and sends him North, probably through the underground railroad. Instead of going to Cuba after his wife, Henry moves stealthily from state to state, meeting with other slaves on the sly, encouraging them to be ready for an insurrection or rebellion. Nothing specific is plotted, no day or time, or know how. They were just to be ready. I understand that it was a rallying call for the slaves, but it didn't seem to flow with the plot points previous. (What about his wife? What about their son?) The sentimental part of the story begged the author follow the plight of the lost wife...
Moving forward, Henry finally returns to the plantation from which he had run away and helps several other slaves to escape, and they go North, all the way to Canada (if I remember correctly), and they are reunited with Henry's son. After this, he finally sets sail for Cuba. He finds favor with the people with whom he is traveling. Amazingly, he is able to locate his wife through some seriously good luck, shortly after his arrival. He is easily able to help her purchase her freedom and they are reunited. (Please, the story should have ended there. But it didn't...)
After only a few days, Henry, now going by Blake, leaves his wife behind to go help command a slave trading ship on an expedition to Africa. (What?!? That's right, after all that, he just ups and leaves his wife to go sailing. Where is the emotional sentimentality that could have so well driven this novel?) The only purpose this trip seems to serve is to show readers (who in the mid-1800s may not have been privy to this information) the depravity of the slave trade, the inhumane treatment of those who were forcibly taken in Africa, and the horrendous treatment of them as they cross the sea. The white men who owned and ran the ship were wary of the black men working the ship and of Blake who oversaw them. There was suspicion of mutiny, and once again the reader is left disappointed with the lack of action. Instead, the focus is on the very awful conditions the slaves endure as they travel, 2000 crammed into the bottom of the ship, with some number like 600 dying within the first day or so. (At about this point I started to question beyond the unjustness of slavery and the brutal treatment to which slaves were subject. These people lost over a quarter of their "cargo" shortly after leaving Africa. They are hoping to sell these slaves and receive high prices for them, and yet they starve them and keep them in poorly circulated air and cram them together in their own excrements. They damage and mutilate their hands and fingers (and with such hands, how are they supposed to be able to pick cotton???). All this caused me to question the slavery from a business standpoint. I could not even fathom a businessman who would not take care of his commodities in order to receive a greater return. All I could make sense of from this was that slavery was more about tearing down a race than about turning a profit. And yet the owners seemed to be the type of men in the slave trade for a profit. Go figure.)
Alright, back to the disjointed plot again. The slave ship lands in Cuba... Most of these slaves end up being sold for a low cost because of rumors over their conduct while in the ship. Because of the low cost, it was affordable for "the entire cargo of captives" to go through fair quadroons "directly into black families or their friends" (chapter 55). So, essentially, the black people bought these new slaves their freedom.
Once in Cuba again, Henry is reunited with his friends from the previous journey to Cuba, who have brought his son and some of the slaves with whom he had made his escape to Canada. Here the reader will find about one paragraph of sentimentality touching on their oh-so-loving reunion. The son is never mentioned in the rest of the novel, the wife, only rarely.
The remainder of the novel is devoted to increased tensions between the slaves and free blacks and mulattos and Creoles, and the white people (American, Spanish, and British; of these three, the Americans are painted as the worst). Henry Blake is named as "General-in-Chief of the army of emancipation of the oppressed men and women of Cuba," much to the consternation of his wife. "'I suppose then I may give up all hope of ever having you with me at all!' she replied with renewed sobs" (chapter 57). (Yes, this is about as emotional as it gets.) The wife is told that her place would be elevated by Blake being a general (now she is Mrs. General Blake, instead of a slave wife), and she must rise to that station. She humbly accepts Blake's cousin's censure. (I'm not going to go on in detail further--it just is too much!)
So, supposedly, the mixed and black population of Cuba are supposed to unite and revolt...only it never happens. There are tense situations, but nothing of consequence happens. The novel builds and builds to a very unsatisfying conclusion. The reader is left hanging and wondering if the black community will rise up, revolt, and triumph. Perhaps the novel is left with the unknown because of the time period in which it was written/published (around 1859, 1861-1862). At this point, the outcome of the war was unknown. The book was written before the war had begun. A lot of the ideas put forth and perpetuated in the book became obsolete or unimportant as the war progressed (according to the introduction).
Another aspect that hurt the book was trying to read through the affected slave speech. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's referred to Black English Vernacular, or BEV. This is going back to my college linguistics days, and I'm not certain.) I simply struggled to know which words were meant when certain slaves were speaking, even when I tried to read them out loud and sound them out. This slowed me down with reading and really made me want to quit the novel entirely. Eventually I just started skimming and skipping ahead when paragraphs and pages went on and on in this speech.
And a final aspect that got to me was the many instances of white people inflicting horrible injustices on the slaves, who suddenly had a conscience and felt sorrow for what they had done. However, it was usually too late to do anything to repair the wrong. We are left with a character's personal conviction that he/she won't do it again (such as a shopkeeper in Cuba, the slave trader in Africa, or the slave ship owners--it's our last voyage, really! We have a conscience now!). Yeah, I have to wonder about how sincere these characters actually were. Since we never see them actually change or do anything beyond express remorse, sincerity is either brief or doubtful.
Blake remains largely an unknown novel. Miller, in his introduction, writes, "Despite its relevance, Blake was generally ignored. There was apparently little, if any, commentary on Delaney's work.... Blake was quickly forgotten." It is difficult for me to judge a novel so harshly, especially taking into account when and why it was written. But this book is no classic. A literary standard it is not. If I were to hold it up to literary criticism, it would not hold up at all. I believe from what I've read, this serially published novel served more as propaganda in the North or maybe as an impetus for slaves in the South (if they even saw it). But propaganda does not make literature, at least not in my opinion. If it were well-written, I could call it literature as well as propaganda, but it is not. "Blake was quickly forgotten," Miller writes. How long will it take me to forget Blake myself?
Stick with other antebellum literature and histories, and skip this one.
That first paragraph was written by me when I was only a little bit into the actual book. Blake is one book I probably should have given up on reading. While I am sympathetic to the plight of slaves and am usually very engaged in reading novels and histories written about this time, Blake left me frustrated and dissatisfied. As a reader, I could not connect with the main character. He moved through the story like a machine or a robot, rarely showing his emotions. I suppose some of his speeches given in anger are supposed to convey emotion, but it just didn't work for me.
Let me move on to the broken up plot. It starts with a family, a slave family. The wife/mother is sold away and ends up in Cuba, sold and sold and sold to other owners. We don't see much of her part of the story except that in a paragraph or two, a slave describes her mistreatment.
After she is sold away, her husband (Henry/Gilbert/Blake) returns from work he had been doing for his master. Obviously he is upset. Stuff happens and he is set to be sold as well. He ends up running away before he can be sold. He makes plans to steal away their child as well, and sends him North, probably through the underground railroad. Instead of going to Cuba after his wife, Henry moves stealthily from state to state, meeting with other slaves on the sly, encouraging them to be ready for an insurrection or rebellion. Nothing specific is plotted, no day or time, or know how. They were just to be ready. I understand that it was a rallying call for the slaves, but it didn't seem to flow with the plot points previous. (What about his wife? What about their son?) The sentimental part of the story begged the author follow the plight of the lost wife...
Moving forward, Henry finally returns to the plantation from which he had run away and helps several other slaves to escape, and they go North, all the way to Canada (if I remember correctly), and they are reunited with Henry's son. After this, he finally sets sail for Cuba. He finds favor with the people with whom he is traveling. Amazingly, he is able to locate his wife through some seriously good luck, shortly after his arrival. He is easily able to help her purchase her freedom and they are reunited. (Please, the story should have ended there. But it didn't...)
After only a few days, Henry, now going by Blake, leaves his wife behind to go help command a slave trading ship on an expedition to Africa. (What?!? That's right, after all that, he just ups and leaves his wife to go sailing. Where is the emotional sentimentality that could have so well driven this novel?) The only purpose this trip seems to serve is to show readers (who in the mid-1800s may not have been privy to this information) the depravity of the slave trade, the inhumane treatment of those who were forcibly taken in Africa, and the horrendous treatment of them as they cross the sea. The white men who owned and ran the ship were wary of the black men working the ship and of Blake who oversaw them. There was suspicion of mutiny, and once again the reader is left disappointed with the lack of action. Instead, the focus is on the very awful conditions the slaves endure as they travel, 2000 crammed into the bottom of the ship, with some number like 600 dying within the first day or so. (At about this point I started to question beyond the unjustness of slavery and the brutal treatment to which slaves were subject. These people lost over a quarter of their "cargo" shortly after leaving Africa. They are hoping to sell these slaves and receive high prices for them, and yet they starve them and keep them in poorly circulated air and cram them together in their own excrements. They damage and mutilate their hands and fingers (and with such hands, how are they supposed to be able to pick cotton???). All this caused me to question the slavery from a business standpoint. I could not even fathom a businessman who would not take care of his commodities in order to receive a greater return. All I could make sense of from this was that slavery was more about tearing down a race than about turning a profit. And yet the owners seemed to be the type of men in the slave trade for a profit. Go figure.)
Alright, back to the disjointed plot again. The slave ship lands in Cuba... Most of these slaves end up being sold for a low cost because of rumors over their conduct while in the ship. Because of the low cost, it was affordable for "the entire cargo of captives" to go through fair quadroons "directly into black families or their friends" (chapter 55). So, essentially, the black people bought these new slaves their freedom.
Once in Cuba again, Henry is reunited with his friends from the previous journey to Cuba, who have brought his son and some of the slaves with whom he had made his escape to Canada. Here the reader will find about one paragraph of sentimentality touching on their oh-so-loving reunion. The son is never mentioned in the rest of the novel, the wife, only rarely.
The remainder of the novel is devoted to increased tensions between the slaves and free blacks and mulattos and Creoles, and the white people (American, Spanish, and British; of these three, the Americans are painted as the worst). Henry Blake is named as "General-in-Chief of the army of emancipation of the oppressed men and women of Cuba," much to the consternation of his wife. "'I suppose then I may give up all hope of ever having you with me at all!' she replied with renewed sobs" (chapter 57). (Yes, this is about as emotional as it gets.) The wife is told that her place would be elevated by Blake being a general (now she is Mrs. General Blake, instead of a slave wife), and she must rise to that station. She humbly accepts Blake's cousin's censure. (I'm not going to go on in detail further--it just is too much!)
So, supposedly, the mixed and black population of Cuba are supposed to unite and revolt...only it never happens. There are tense situations, but nothing of consequence happens. The novel builds and builds to a very unsatisfying conclusion. The reader is left hanging and wondering if the black community will rise up, revolt, and triumph. Perhaps the novel is left with the unknown because of the time period in which it was written/published (around 1859, 1861-1862). At this point, the outcome of the war was unknown. The book was written before the war had begun. A lot of the ideas put forth and perpetuated in the book became obsolete or unimportant as the war progressed (according to the introduction).
Another aspect that hurt the book was trying to read through the affected slave speech. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's referred to Black English Vernacular, or BEV. This is going back to my college linguistics days, and I'm not certain.) I simply struggled to know which words were meant when certain slaves were speaking, even when I tried to read them out loud and sound them out. This slowed me down with reading and really made me want to quit the novel entirely. Eventually I just started skimming and skipping ahead when paragraphs and pages went on and on in this speech.
And a final aspect that got to me was the many instances of white people inflicting horrible injustices on the slaves, who suddenly had a conscience and felt sorrow for what they had done. However, it was usually too late to do anything to repair the wrong. We are left with a character's personal conviction that he/she won't do it again (such as a shopkeeper in Cuba, the slave trader in Africa, or the slave ship owners--it's our last voyage, really! We have a conscience now!). Yeah, I have to wonder about how sincere these characters actually were. Since we never see them actually change or do anything beyond express remorse, sincerity is either brief or doubtful.
Blake remains largely an unknown novel. Miller, in his introduction, writes, "Despite its relevance, Blake was generally ignored. There was apparently little, if any, commentary on Delaney's work.... Blake was quickly forgotten." It is difficult for me to judge a novel so harshly, especially taking into account when and why it was written. But this book is no classic. A literary standard it is not. If I were to hold it up to literary criticism, it would not hold up at all. I believe from what I've read, this serially published novel served more as propaganda in the North or maybe as an impetus for slaves in the South (if they even saw it). But propaganda does not make literature, at least not in my opinion. If it were well-written, I could call it literature as well as propaganda, but it is not. "Blake was quickly forgotten," Miller writes. How long will it take me to forget Blake myself?
Stick with other antebellum literature and histories, and skip this one.
July 30, 2010
I just don't know what to think of Delany's Blake. It's overt subversion of Beecher Stowe is notable and interesting to trace. But his overall sense of prose is rather one-dimensional and bland. And I just cannot reconcile the gradual disintigration of plot, character (Henry/Blake), and overal political purpose in the second half of the book. Maybe I just need to mull over it some more and perhaps survey some other readings of the text, but I was left ultimately frustrated and bored. Maybe, in some fashion or another, that is part of Delany's ultimate agenda? Who knows. I know very little of his other works or the specific context associated with this novel's composition. For anyone interested in nineteenth-century American lit or the African American experience, I do recommend reading Blake. At the very the least, it's fascinating for its resistance of the grand racial narrative of the period, the transatlantic movement of plot, one of the earliest inclusions of the blues in its narrative structure, and its treament of white religious ideology. In addition to students of the nineteenth-century, Delany is also necessary for anyone interested in the Harlem Ren. If one was reading the prose/poetry of Claude McKay and/or Langston Hughes, Delany would be a valuable and logical supplement to tracing and understanding the shift towards a modern Black literary aesthetic.
April 5, 2021
A slave, Henry, attempts to rescue his wife who is sold from the plantation they both work on and in doing so, becomes a leader of a slave uprising across the American South and later in the book, in Cuba. Henry travels to each plantation, putting his life at risk in doing so to hear the conditions each slave is facing and to give instructions on how to rise against the slave owners. It's harrowing to read and footnotes indicate where a story is true. There are some beautifully written lines about being free, and there are heartbreaking lines on what the slaves are enduring.
This was the first book I read for the Crash Course in the history of Black SFF and I get it. It one of the first alternate history Sci-Fi's where it reimagines a world in which the slaves did rise up and free themselves from the shackles of oppression. The world may look a lot different if this indeed did happen.
The edition I read was the 1970s edition, so it didn't contain the addition of the ending a historian added in 2017. I didn't mind not having the ending though, it let me imagine what could be. It is suspected that as this book was written in serialised form, the edition from the May 1862 magazine may have contained the ending but there are no existing copies to ever have proved this.
This was the first book I read for the Crash Course in the history of Black SFF and I get it. It one of the first alternate history Sci-Fi's where it reimagines a world in which the slaves did rise up and free themselves from the shackles of oppression. The world may look a lot different if this indeed did happen.
The edition I read was the 1970s edition, so it didn't contain the addition of the ending a historian added in 2017. I didn't mind not having the ending though, it let me imagine what could be. It is suspected that as this book was written in serialised form, the edition from the May 1862 magazine may have contained the ending but there are no existing copies to ever have proved this.
July 29, 2023
A pioneering Afrofuturist novel, Delany may be hampered due to serialization and an underdeveloped ending, yet Blake remains a powerful story of Black resistance that feels like it came out during the Black Arts movement 100 years later.
December 4, 2015
Least favorite book of all-time.
January 9, 2013
Useful but really, really problematic
September 19, 2018
Highly recommend it to all readers! Critically important!!!!!!!
November 14, 2020
Amazing book. If you are white, please save your ratings. Typical of you all to not appreciate this book and its creativity :-*
June 12, 2022
Black American history
Essential reading to see the pre-freedom American world. Blake embodies the spirit of the African in America both then and now.
Essential reading to see the pre-freedom American world. Blake embodies the spirit of the African in America both then and now.
November 9, 2017
Any potential reader of this book benefits from reading this novel with the consideration that Martin R. Delany mostly presents an expose of America and Cuba in 1869 by way of a fictitious journey and the premise of potential uprising.
The novel does a number of things well, especially, making the moral, political and social case for enslaved people overthrowing their oppressors. This is done in large part through Blake's travels across the United States including into the slave-holding states of the American South. Ostensibly, his goal is to gauge and prime enslaved people to revolt when the time comes.
As he travels between states, cities and plantations Delany illustrates the disposition and conditions of the pre-Civil War South as it pertains to slavery. The horrible conditions portrayed are difficult to read but go beyond oppression-as-an-action-received. Delany does a great job of humanizing both the oppressed and the oppressor and so doing underscores what will be one of the foundational themes in the book: all humans are equal. That may sound glib, but when juxtaposed to the acts and resource and energy and mindset required to enslave other humans, there is no room left for sympathy or empathy for the Southern slavers, nor their supporters.
There are several moments throughout the novel where it seems certain an uprising will occur. Especially on board the American slave ship "Vulture." The mounting tension was truly exciting.
As well, the conspiracy that is laid out in Cuba makes the previous chapters feel worth not having yet enjoyed a payoff as of yet. SPOILER TO COME
But the uprising never happens. It is implied at the very very end. A soft call-to-action, perhaps.
I believe this is deliberate so as not to have his novel classified as propaganda against the State.
But in the end, I think he kindles the idea that it would not only be possible for enslaved people to overthrow the South, but it would be morally, socially and politically justifiable.
The novel does a number of things well, especially, making the moral, political and social case for enslaved people overthrowing their oppressors. This is done in large part through Blake's travels across the United States including into the slave-holding states of the American South. Ostensibly, his goal is to gauge and prime enslaved people to revolt when the time comes.
As he travels between states, cities and plantations Delany illustrates the disposition and conditions of the pre-Civil War South as it pertains to slavery. The horrible conditions portrayed are difficult to read but go beyond oppression-as-an-action-received. Delany does a great job of humanizing both the oppressed and the oppressor and so doing underscores what will be one of the foundational themes in the book: all humans are equal. That may sound glib, but when juxtaposed to the acts and resource and energy and mindset required to enslave other humans, there is no room left for sympathy or empathy for the Southern slavers, nor their supporters.
There are several moments throughout the novel where it seems certain an uprising will occur. Especially on board the American slave ship "Vulture." The mounting tension was truly exciting.
As well, the conspiracy that is laid out in Cuba makes the previous chapters feel worth not having yet enjoyed a payoff as of yet. SPOILER TO COME
But the uprising never happens. It is implied at the very very end. A soft call-to-action, perhaps.
I believe this is deliberate so as not to have his novel classified as propaganda against the State.
But in the end, I think he kindles the idea that it would not only be possible for enslaved people to overthrow the South, but it would be morally, socially and politically justifiable.
October 23, 2022
While this emancipation novel cannot in good conscience be called science fiction, it is essential reading for anyone interested in black SF. Set in the 1840s and 1850s, Delany's book follows the life of Blake, a free-born black man, as he travels through the US; Canada, to Africa and Cuba. On the way he is captured and sold into slavery for trying to incite a slave rebellion. He meets with another well-educated black man, Henry, who becomes a Moses figure who, along with Blake, organises a slave revolt on Cuba. The book dramatically cuts off on the eve of the revolt, making it in essence an unfinished story, passing the torch to the reader. This is not by design: The last six chapters of the story are lost.
The book is narrated as if it was a historical fact, but in reality there never was a slave revolt on Cuba in the 1840s. This makes the "Blake" an example of "alternate history", in a sense willing upon the reader a historical precedent as an example for action. It's an interesting play with timelines and the concept of reality, created in order to provide an image of a future utopia.
Originally published in the Anglo-American Magazine between 1859 and 1861, the story wasn't collected between two covers before 1970. Blake responds specifically to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it illegal for any free person living in a free or slave state to aid an escaped slave,, and to the court decision which stripped all blacks living in the US of any citizenship rights. Like his character Blake, Martin Delany was a free-born, well-educated man who was a prominent voice for black nationalism in the 19th century, among other things working with Frederick Douglass on the North Star.
The book is narrated as if it was a historical fact, but in reality there never was a slave revolt on Cuba in the 1840s. This makes the "Blake" an example of "alternate history", in a sense willing upon the reader a historical precedent as an example for action. It's an interesting play with timelines and the concept of reality, created in order to provide an image of a future utopia.
Originally published in the Anglo-American Magazine between 1859 and 1861, the story wasn't collected between two covers before 1970. Blake responds specifically to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it illegal for any free person living in a free or slave state to aid an escaped slave,, and to the court decision which stripped all blacks living in the US of any citizenship rights. Like his character Blake, Martin Delany was a free-born, well-educated man who was a prominent voice for black nationalism in the 19th century, among other things working with Frederick Douglass on the North Star.
September 9, 2020
Another View of the Struggle for African Liberation in the Americas
This text was a refreshingly different narrative than the US apologists and those seeking to become citizens in the nation that enslaved them. Delaney has been hidden too long in the back room while the victims of Stockholm syndrome have been given the dominant voice in the literature of so-called African American fiction. His was an imagination of freedom and Pan-African sentiments.
This text was a refreshingly different narrative than the US apologists and those seeking to become citizens in the nation that enslaved them. Delaney has been hidden too long in the back room while the victims of Stockholm syndrome have been given the dominant voice in the literature of so-called African American fiction. His was an imagination of freedom and Pan-African sentiments.
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