Martin R. Delany, Blake: or, The Huts of America

Patrick Chura (University of Akron)

Ed. by Patrick Chura, University of Akron
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1859 - 1862

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Martin R. Delany’s

Blake; or, The Huts of America

(1859-1862) is one of the earliest novels written by an African American and the most radical work in the category of pre-Civil War Black fiction. Though it went largely unnoticed during the period of its initial serial publication and did not appear in book form until 1970, it is now recognized as a uniquely powerful cultural document from a writer often called “the Father of Black nationalism”.

The novel’s protagonist is Henry Blake, a free-born Cuban of African descent who is forced into slavery in the 1840s. Radicalized by the soul-crushing abuses of a white supremacist social order, Blake flees a Mississippi plantation and journeys through the Southern United States, interviewing slaves and agitating for an insurrection. He

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3027 words

Citation: Chura, Patrick. "Blake: or, The Huts of America". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6293, accessed 27 July 2024.]

Save this article