801

MARTIN ROBISON DELANY (1812-1885):

PHYSICIAN, BLACK SEPARATIST,
EXPLORER, SOLDIER
Louis ROSENFELD, PH.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Pathology
New York University Medical Center
New York, New York

B EFORE THE Civil War, most black leaders and antislavery whites op-
posed emigration schemes and insisted that blacks were entitled to equal
rights in the land of their birth. Eventually, the continual frustrations of
second-class citizenship, even for free blacks with ability and achievement,
convinced many that they should consider emigration to Africa as an alterna-
tive to continued oppression, degradation, and futile political agitation.
In May 1858 a Wisconsin-based group wrote to the Royal Geographical
Society of London for advice as to an African location to settle freed slaves.
The leader of the group was Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885), a black
activist and lecturer on the abolitionist circuit. He wanted to establish a new
black nation controlled entirely by blacks that would provide economic op-
portunity and political and social freedom for them. He was convinced that
Africa's future must rely on the civilizing influence of America's blacks.
"Until we are determined to change the condition of things, and raise our-
selves above the position in which we are now prostrated, we must hang our
heads in sorrow, and hide our faces in shame. It is enough to know that these
things are so; the causes we care little about.... Our elevation must be the
result of self-efforts, and work of our own hands. " 1
"Africa is our fatherland and we its legitimate descendants,...I have
outgrown, long since, the boundaries of North America, and with them have
also outgrown the boundaries of their claims."... "I have determined to
leave to my children the inheritance of a country, the possession of territorial
domain, the blessings of a national education, and the indisputable right of
self-government; that they may not succeed to the servility and degradation
bequeathed to us by our fathers. If we have not been born to fortunes, we
should impart the seeds which shall germinate and give birth to fortunes
for them."92
Address for reprint requests: Department of Pathology, NYU Medical Center, 530 First Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10016

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802 L. ROSENFELD
ROSENFELD~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.

Delany was one of the most vocal of black abolitionists. Once interested in
overseas settlement, he became an outspoken advocate of black separatism to
the great discomfort of those dedicated to full political equality for black men
in the United States.
EARLY YEARS
Martin Delany was born May 6, 1812, at Charles Town in what is now
West Virginia, of a free mother and a slave father. His father's freedom was
purchased when Martin was 10 years old and the family then moved north to
Chambersburg, PA. His mother had been secretly teaching her children to
read and write from a copy of The New York Primer and spelling books sold
by Yankee peddlers. Education for slaves was against the law, and when the
Delany children were discovered "playing school," the family, under the
guise of going to another Virginia town, departed to escape punishment.3
In 1831 Delany moved to Pittsburgh and became involved in black politics
and the self-improvement social and educational projects of an active black
community. Aspiring to a medical career at a time when this was virtually an
impossible dream for blacks, he became apprenticed to a white physician,
Dr. Andrew N. McDowell. Unable to complete his training for lack of funds,
he opened his own office in 1836 and practiced cupping, bleeding, and
leeching for some of the doctors in the area. He also practiced some dentistry.
The income from this practice enabled him to pursue other interests and
studies, to continue community work, and to lecture on behalf of abolition
and black rights.4
EDITOR
In 1843 Delany founded and edited a Pittsburgh weekly, The Mystery, one
of the earliest Afro-American newspapers. Its criticism of slavery and em-
phasis on black pride and self-help brought him national attention, and in the
fall of 1847 he joined Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) in founding the North
Star (later Frederick Douglass's Paper) in Rochester, New York. This news-
paper soon became one of the foremost abolitionist publications. Although
partners, the two saw little of each other. Douglass remained in Rochester to
handle the editorial work while Delany, with little success, tried to raise
subscriptions by lecturing to antislavery audiences in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Their association ended in 1849 after only 18 months.5
CRrriCISM OF LIBERIA
Delany, like leading abolitionists of the time, was particularly critical of
the American Colonization Society, which since the 1820s had been sending
Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.
 ROBISON DELANY
MARTIN ROBISON
MARTIN DELANY 803

Fig. 1. Martin Robison Delany. Courtesy of Moorland-Spingam Research Center, Howard

University

small groups of blacks to establish the colony of Liberia on land purchased on

the west coast of Africa. Most black Americans condemned the enterprise
and would have nothing to do with it. This society had been founded in the
belief that the problems of slavery and race could be solved if blacks were
sent back to Africa. Delany condemned the Society for sending only un-
productive slaves and free blacks who might encourage antislavery activities
in the United States. "We look upon the American Colonization Society as
one of the most arrant enemies of the colored man, ever seeking to discomfit
him, and envying him of every privilege that he may enjoy. We believe it to
Vol. 65, No. 7, September 1989
804 L.
L. ROSENFELD

be anti-Christian in its character, and misanthropic in its pretended

sympathies. '"6
Delany objected to Liberia because it was near the equator in an unhealthy
district. He denounced the government of Liberia as originating "in a deep
laid scheme of the slaveholders of the country, to exterminate the free colored
of the American continent;" ... "Liberia is not an Independent Republic: in
fact, it is not an independent nation at all; but a poor miserable mockery-a
burlesque on a government -a pitiful dependency on the American Coloniza-
tionists, .. ."7 and he criticized Liberia's President Roberts as an "echo" and
a "parrot" of the white officials of the American Colonization Society even
after independence had been granted in 1847. The charges were valid. Joseph
Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876), a black, had emigrated to Liberia in 1829 and
had been the Society's agent for Liberia. Appointed an aide to the white
governor, he succeeded to the post in 1842 upon the governor's death, becom-
ing the first black to hold that position. In 1847 Roberts called a conference
which set up the new republic of Liberia. Elected its first president, he was
reelected several times. Although recognized by England and France, Liberia
remained an American private dependency, and the United States withheld
official recognition from its own former "colony" until 1862.8
MEDICAL STUDENT
After severing his connections with The North Star, Delany returned to
Pittsburgh. He continued to study medicine in the prevailing system of ap-
prenticeship, this time with two other local physicians who were abolition-
ists. Many doctors trained in this manner now sought to earn an M.D. degree
through formal attendance at a medical school. Encouraged by the admission
of a few blacks to American medical schools (they were supposed to migrate
to Liberia after graduation), Delany applied to medical schools. Initially
rejected by several medical colleges in the northeast, he persisted, and with
recommendations from Pittsburgh physicians and clergymen, at 38 years of
age he was admitted to the winter session of 1850 at Harvard Medical School
by Dean Oliver Wendell Holmes.9
Delany was joined by two other black students, Daniel Laing, Jr., and
Isaac H. Snowden, the first at Harvard. The latter were sponsored by the
Massachusetts Colonization Society with the expectation that they would
migrate to Liberia and practice there. Delany's intention was to practice
medicine among his own people in the United States. Then, in December
1850, after less than two months of attendance, the medical faculty asked the
three black students to leave at the end of the semester because it was deemed
"inexpedient, after the present course, to admit colored students to atten-
Bull. N.Y Acad. Med.
 ~~~~~MRI
-~
MARTIN ROBISON
ROIODELNDELANY 805
0

dance on the medical lectures." The Colonization Society was informed

"that the intermixing of the white and black races in their lecture rooms, is
distasteful to a large portion of the class and injurious to the interests of the
school. " 10
Some students had petitioned against the three blacks and against the
admission of a woman who, it was rumored, was soon to join them. The
woman backed out. Protesting students considered admission of the blacks
"highly detrimental to the interests, and welfare, of the Institution," that
they would "lower its reputation... lessen the value of a diploma from it,
and...diminish the number of its students." Furthermore, they "cannot
consent to be identified as fellow-students with blacks; whose company we
would not keep in the streets, and whose society as associates we would not
tolerate in our houses. "' 1
Voting against the three blacks were Jacob Bigelow (materia medica and
clinical medicine), his son Henry J. Bigelow (clinical surgery), John B.S.
Jackson (pathological anatomy), and Oliver Wendell Holmes (anatomy). In
support were Walter Channing (midwifery and medical jurisprudence) and
John Ware (theory and practice of physic). E.N. Horsford (chemistry) was
excused. The medical faculty had just been through a major scandal and was
in no mood for additional excitement or conflict. John White Webster, pro-
fessor of chemistry, had been hanged on August 30, 1850 for the murder of
Dr. George Parkman, a prominent Bostonian and major benefactor of
Harvard. 12
Delany left Harvard at the end of the winter session in March 1851 and
returned to Pittsburgh where he resumed his medical practice. His work
during the cholera epidemic of 1854 came to the notice of the city officials and
he was cited by the board of health and the city council. In 1856 he moved to
Chatham, Canada West, the fugitive slave capital of Canada, where he prac-
ticed medicine and continued to lecture on black nationalism.
Delany's personal experience of rejection at Harvard no doubt intensified
his alienation from white society. This, together with other unsettling indica-
tors of the times, such as the Fugitive Slave Act, convinced Delany that
blacks in the United States would not be accorded equal status with whites,
and that migration was a way out of permanent inferiority and degradation.
SEPARATIST AND EMIGRATIONIST
During the 1850s Delany attacked the American Colonization Society for
its Africa resettlement program and instead advocated emigration to Central
and South America and to the Caribbean where there was no inequality on
account of race or color.'3 The former Spanish empire had broken into

Vol. 65, No. 7, September 1989

806 L. ROSENFELD
L. ROSENFELD

republics that were drawing the attention of the American and British govern-
ments, both of which recognized the inevitability of a canal between the
oceans. At that time, the most logical route seemed to be across the internal
waterways of Nicaragua. The east coast community of San Juan del Norte
(Greytown) had attracted many dissatisfied blacks from the United States
because of its relative absence of color barriers. The local government was
predominantly black and included fugitives from the United States. Plans
were developed to organize a new government in which the mayor would be
the supreme civil and military authority. A convention was called, nomina-
tions made, and an election held. The outcome was that Dr. Martin R. Delany
was duly chosen for the combined post of mayor, civil governor, and com-
mander-in-chief of the military forces -all "in absentia." He was eventually
notified by special messenger. But this 1852 attempt to establish a black
democracy ran afoul of other interests. These concerned the Accessory Tran-
sit Company, an enterprise controlled by Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping
magnate. This company had exclusive rights to passage up the San Juan River
and across the few remaining miles overland to the Pacific where prospectors
from the East could continue to the gold fields of California. In 1853, on the
pretext of protecting the company's offices, marines landed from an Ameri-
can naval vessel. A year later, an American warship bombarded the city and
burned it to the ground, putting an end to the fledgling government. 14
Africa, identified with the activities of the American Colonization Society,
was avoided by most emigrationists at this time. Toward the end of the 1850s
new accounts from missionaries and others turned Delany's interest to the
west coast of Africa as the most suitable place for American blacks to achieve
political and social freedom.'5 Seeking a place, Delany's Wisconsin group
wrote to the Royal Geographical Society of London. 16
The inquiry was answered by Thomas Hodgkin, M.D., noted pathologist
and Honorary Secretary of the Society. 17 Hodgkin encouraged their initiative
and suggested the Niger area of West Africa. Although climate and naviga-
tion might present problems, Hodgkin was confident that they would have a
better reception and greater chance for success than earlier white-led expedi-
tions which failed to establish farms and factories in the territory. Hodgkin
also suggested a stop-over in Liberia, where they could adjust to the new
environment before reaching a final destination.
On August 30, 1858 the General Board of the Convention of Colored
Persons, meeting in Chatham, Canada West (now Ontario), appointed De-
lany chief commissioner of the "Niger Valley Exploring Party," and em-
powered the expedition to find a site for a new nation whose goals would be to
provide economic opportunity and political freedom for black emigrants from

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.

 MARTIN ROBISON
MARTIN DELANY
ROBISON DELANY 807

the United States and Canada. Delany, forceful and aggressive, demanded
and was given supreme authority and sole responsibility for the entire African
project, which was to have lasted for three years and to have had five mem-
bers. But neither money nor personnel were provided. It was up to Delany to
obtain both.18 His unwillingness to accept money from whites quickly got
him into financial difficulties and the expedition had to be scaled down.
However, Delany managed to secure emergency funding from white
colonizationists.19
In the Spring of 1858 Delany was visited in Chatham by John Brown, the
abolitionist. Brown wanted Delany's help in organizing a constitutional con-
vention as a preliminary to setting up a new government. Plans included
armed camps and guerrilla raids on plantations to induce slaves to join the
movement. Delany helped to arrange meetings but did not get further in-
volved. His own plans at the time concerned the possibilities of Africa as a
haven for freed blacks. Brown's plans eventually turned to Harper's Ferry,
Virginia, in October 1859. Delany's name came up during Senate investiga-
tions of the Harper's Ferry affair but he was not implicated. Apparently, none
of the men involved in the attack knew the target until the order was given to
march. Delany was in Africa at the time of the insurrection, and while there
learned of Brown's execution.20
EXPLORATION AND TREATY
Delany sailed for Africa on May 24, 1859 and arrived in Liberia on July 10,
1859. He had long considered Liberia a captive nation needlessly sub-
ordinating independence and potential vitality to the demands of white colo-
nizationists.21 Despite his critical writings about the country, he was well-
received. Delany was surprised by the enterprise and industry of the people
and by their success in farming, mining, and commerce. The account of his
visit to the region was very positive.
Delany described the people, climate, soil, vegetation, topography, do-
mestic animals, insects, as well as the principal diseases and their causes,
offering suggestions for their treatment. "The native diseases are mainly the
native fever, which is nothing but the intermittentfever of America, known in
different parts as ague, chills andfever, fever and ague, with its varied forms
of bilious, intermittent, remittent, continued, and it is [sic] worst form of
inflammatory, when it most generally assumes the congestive type of the
American Southern States."22 He attributed differences in the same disease
in different locations on the continent to the density and rankness of vegeta-
tion and the continual saturation of the air with fragrance, adding that the
malady is aggravated by "a free indulgence in improper food and drink."

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808 L. ROSENFELD

Persons with "scorbutic, scrofulous, or syphilitic [diseases] ... may become

easy victims to the fever." For his own bout with the acclimating fever in
Liberia, he regularly took "a dessert spoonful of a solution of the sulphate of
quinia three times a day, and the night of my arrival two eight grain doses of
Dover's Powder.'"23
Delany mentions elephantiasis and ulcerated ophthalmia as horrible dis-
eases. "But any chronic affection-especially lung, liver, kidney, and rheu-
matic -when not too deeply seated, may, by favorable acclimation, become
eliminated, and the ailing person entirely recover from the disease." 24 He
details several of his own original pharmaceutical prescriptions for treatment
of diarrhea and dysentery.25 Subscribing to the current miasmatic theory of
disease, he noted that such elevated places as Monrovia and Freetown, hard
hit by disease, are near mangrove swamps and consequently are "much more
unhealthy than those [locations] in low plains, such as Lagos ... above which
the miasma generally rises for the most part passing off harmlessly.' '26
While in Liberia, he met Dr. Daniel Laing, Jr., one of the other two black
students asked to leave Harvard Medical School. Laing had studied medicine
in Paris and later received the M.D. degree from Dartmouth in 1854. He
emigrated to Liberia, but eventually returned to the United States where he
died in 1869.27
After two months touring and lecturing, Delany journeyed along the coast
to Lagos, where he learned that his partner on this expedition, Robert Camp-
bell, a Jamaica-born science teacher from Philadelphia who had preceded
him, had gone inland. Campbell had served as an apprentice printer before
entering teacher-training college. He later taught at the Institute for Colored
Youth in Philadelphia. His appearance sharply contrasted with that of De-
lany. Campbell was born to a mother of African and English parentage and a
Scots father.28 He made a point of explaining that although he was three-
quarters white, he was indeed of African ancestry. Delany did not have that
problem. According to the Xenia Sentinel, Delany was black as the blackest,
large, heavy set, vigorous with a bald sleek head, which shines like a newly
polished boot.29
For Delany, maintaining control over the project was almost as trouble-
some as raising funds. Robert Campbell's free-wheeling independence was
the main source of his difficulties.30 Campbell readily associated with other
emigrationist groups, and, unlike Delany had no qualms about accepting
money from the white-dominated colonization societies for his passage-
which he did without Delany's consent.31 Delany felt betrayed but had to turn
to the same sources for transportation to keep up with Campbell.

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.

 MARTIN ROBISON DELANY
MARTIN ROBISON
DELANY 809
809~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Consequently, Campbell had sailed first-but to England, where he in-

tended to raise money for the two-man expedition. He departed April 23,
arrived in Liverpool on June 24, 1859, and spent two months in Britain
soliciting funds.32 The proposed expedition had already gained the attention
of antislavery supporters and manufacturers interested in new sources of raw
cotton, especially if it could be produced cheaper and in greater supply than
by American slave labor. Campbell also met with British abolitionists and
philanthropists. Thomas Hodgkin, a strong advocate of colonization of freed
American slaves, was one of several who contributed to provide "his outfit
and free passage to the coast of Africa."33
Delany finally caught up with Campbell on November 5, 1859 in Ab-
beokuta where they were well received by the Alake (king) and tribal chiefs
of the Egba people. On December 27, 1859, acting on "behalf of the African
race in America," they signed a treaty with the Alake and chiefs, who
granted them the right to establish a settlement of black Americans on Egba
land. The settlers were to bring their knowledge of the arts and sciences,
agriculture, and other mechanical and industrial occupations.34
The treaty altered the uneasy balance of power among all concerned, which
made conflict over the document inevitable.35 The terms of the treaty were
vague and contradictory, resulting in confusion and conflict over its provi-
sions. Rivalries between missionaries competing for power and influence in
Abbeokuta as well as British imperial politics undermined the treaty and,
before long, led to its repudiation by the Alake. Tribal warfare further con-
fused the situation and discouraged potential settlers.36
It is very likely that the Alake did not fully understand that Delany and
Campbell wanted land for a separate colony outside his jurisdiction. Accord-
ing to local law and tradition, the Alake had no right to give away land to the
Afro-American settlers for an independent colony. It was an alien concept. At
most, he could only let them use it.37 Delany's planned settlement was
probably doomed to failure anyway. He could not have foreseen the growing
interest of Britain and other European powers in the colonization of Africa for
their own imperial and economic needs. Neither he nor his proposed colony
could have remained independent in this new political environment.
Continuing to explore the interior region (Yoruba), Delany recorded his
observations and impressions of the cities, markets, and potential for com-
merce in all kinds of agricultural products. Convinced that Africa was where
black Americans' aspirations for freedom and prosperity would be realized,
he predicted that the superior quality of African cotton and the substitution of
legitimate commerce would put an end to the slave trade.38 Here too, Delany

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81 L.ROENEL
L. ROSENFELD

paid special attention to medical and sanitary measures, and dwelled at some
length on diseases, treatment, and hygiene in this part of Africa. He elabo-
rated on cleanliness of homes, proper ventilation, the need for construction of
cesspools, and offered suggestions to control ants and termites.39
He advised travelers to Africa to observe "the laws of health," to bathe at
least once a day, cautioned strongly against overeating and, except when
required as a medical remedy, condemned alcoholic beverages as deleterious
to the system.40 Delany identified intermittent fever, diarrhea, dysentery,
ophthalmia, and umbilical hernia, and infrequently, inguinal hernia, as the
principal diseases of the interior region. The hernia he attributed to lack of
proper umbilical attention and abdominal support to the child after par-
turition. He noted that umbilical hernia was fearfully common all
through Africa.41
Commenting on protestant missionary activity in Africa, Delany acknowl-
edged their good work, but asked for a halt to linking wisdom, wealth and
power with whites. Africa's future must rely on the civilizing influence of
blacks. He drew a distinction between protestant and Catholic missionaries
and pointed out that all the active slave-trading locations on the coast were
either Catholic trading-ports, or native agencies protected by Catholics, or
places where the Jesuits or other Catholic missionaries were once stationed.
Delany accused Spain of perpetuating slavery in Cuba for the wealth it
brings in.42
RECEPTION IN LONDON
Campbell and Delany returned to London on May 16, 1860, and on the next
day met with "a number of noblemen and gentlemen, interested in the pro-
gress of African Regeneration, in the parlour of Dr. Hodgkin, F.R.G.S."
Delany informed the guests that he and Campbell were "independent of all
other societies and organizations then in existence."43 This did not dispel the
generally held notion among English colonizationists that all American em-
igrationist groups were somehow interrelated.
On June 11 Hodgkin introduced Delany and Campbell to the Royal Geo-
graphical Society as "two...coloured gentlemen of enterprise.' 42 Delany
read their paper, "Geographical Observations on Western Africa." The two
authors were identified in the title as "Gentlemen of Colour." In his closing
remarks, Delany added that the journey was undertaken because of the strong
desire by Americans and Canadians of African descent "by their own efforts
and self-reliance to regenerate their father-land."
The objectives of colonization societies in Britain were to develop the
material resources of Africa and the adjacent islands, and simultaneously to
Bull. N.Y Acad. Med.
 MARTIN ROBISON DELANY
MARTIN ROBISON DELANY 811
811

promote Christian civilization of the African races and English commercial

interests. Trade and religion, they believed, would end the slave trade. Hodg-
kin believed "that the most effectual Christian missionaries for native Afri-
cans are exemplary and zealous Christian negroes. "45 He and many other
Englishmen believed that cotton and other products produced by free labor in
Africa would make slave labor in the United States and elsewhere unprofita-
ble by undermining its economic base and thus end the slave trade. Fear of a
cotton shortage should war break out in the United States, and the potential of
trade for English commercial interests coincided well with plans for an Afro-
American settlement. The booming British textile industry, which employed
over three million people, wanted new sources of cotton. Whereas cotton was
king in America, it was bread in England, and a shortage of American cotton,
for whatever cause, would spell economic disaster for Britain. The cultiva-
tion and export of African cotton was an important part of the overall plan for
colonization.46
COMPETING FOR SUPPORT
While all this was going on, another emigration group, the African Civili-
zation Society, had been formed (September 1858) and actively engaged in
seeking support in England. Its president and only black officer was the Rev.
Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882) of New York City.47 Since the likelihood
of significant financial aid from the black community was remote, Garnet and
other black leaders overcame their feelings of hostility and accepted financial
support from white colonizationists.48
The new organization, a Christian alternative to Delany's basically secular
black nationality, was eager to cooperate with the Niger Valley Expedition,
but Delany was unwilling to give up his independence or to associate with
whites. He wanted to be recognized as the representative of a black constitu-
ency rather than of a white-controlled organization. During his seven months
in England and Scotland he successfully fended off threats to his indepen-
dence from representatives of the African Civilization Society in England.
Although Delany tried to clarify his position of independence from all other
groups, the misconception of a unified emigrationist movement persisted.
Both groups had similar aims, and it was difficult for the British to distinguish
the different movements.49
The society's corresponding secretary and representative in England, the
Rev. Theodore Bourne, a Dutch Reformed clergyman, met his first English
audience of "the friends of Africa" at Hodgkin's home on August 18, 1859,
and made the same fund-raising rounds as Campbell had earlier. He gave the
impression that he represented the same emigrationist group as Delany and

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812 L. ROSENFELD

Campbell, who were then in Africa.50 Hodgkin apparently believed all were
part of the same movement, because when he introduced Bourne as the
representative of the African Civilization Society, he added that "the officers
& others connected with the Niger and other expeditions to Africa are the
most likely to be useful & I take the liberty of addressing him to thee to aid
him. "51
Hodgkin had been helping Bourne for several months before Delany and
Campbell stopped in England on their way home from Africa. Now Bourne
had to compete for attention with the two articulate blacks returned from the
territory that Englishmen were being asked to help to civilize. As Delany
gained in esteem and popularity, the advantages of being a white man seeking
converts to the black cause began to wear out. The English preferred blacks to
white Americans advocating the antislavery cause.52 Delany, noted for his
racial pride and determination that blacks should act independently of whites,
took advantage of this. It did not help that Bourne had a contentious and
egotistical personality and that Delany disliked him intensely.53
In any event, Thomas Hodgkin favored the African Civilization Society as
the more reliable organization to promote emigration and handling of fi-
nances, and considered Bourne more capable than Delany. In a letter to
Garnet, Hodgkin wrote: "No man can rely more than I do on our friend
Bourne's integrity, zeal, knowledge of the subject and perseverance. I think
him greatly beyond Delany and in most respects they will not bear compari-
son, yet Delany is courted for his colour, & I fear that flattered by this [he]
may stay to the injury of the cause."54
ACCLAIM AND FAME
The high point of Delany's busy months in London was July 16, 1860 at the
International Statistical Congress. Not a citizen and black, Delany could not
be a representative of the United States. Since he had not lived in Canada long
enough to become a British subject, influential friends in London secured a
royal invitation to present a paper to the Sanitary Section on his experiences
during the cholera epidemic at Pittsburgh in 1854.55 On opening day, follow-
ing the welcoming address by Prince Albert, Lord Brougham, the Congress's
chairman, an outspoken foe of slavery, made a point of directing the Ameri-
can ambassador's attention to the presence of a black delegate at the Con-
gress. This special recognition and introduction, the applause that greeted the
announcement, and Delany's appreciative response followed by more ap-
plause, was too much for the head of the American representatives, who
withdrew his delegation from the Congress. This had the makings of an
"international affair." It reverberated in the British and American press and
Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.
 DELANY
MARTIN ROBISON DELANY
MARTIN ROBISON 813
813

was discussed at a cabinet meeting in Washington. The furor soon subsided,

however, possibly to avoid offending the Prince of Wales, then on a tour of
the United States.56
As a result of the incident, Delany's lectures on Africa and the African race
were attended by large audiences from London to Glasgow. Delany was the
center of attraction at many social events. In his talks he tried to dispel the
false impression of Africa as a land of savages and deadly diseases. He
attended the Social Science Congress in Glasgow, and at a meeting of the
British Anti-Tobacco Society reviewed the awful consequences of smoking.
The British press covered his appearances and printed favorable accounts of
his attacks on slavery. For his sponsors, the African Aid Society, underwrit-
ing Delany's stay after the Statistical Congress proved a wise investment.
This was a new organization, convened during Delany's visit in London, to
develop English commercial interests in the material resources of Africa
while at the same time promoting Christianity among the Africans. Delany
actually signed agreements with Scottish firms "for an immediate, active and
practical prosecution of our enterprise,"57 to market the products of his
proposed colony. He saw this as a partnership between British capital, Afri-
can labor, and black-American expertise in which profits would be divided
equally.58 His vision was as naive as it was grandiose. The African Aid
Society resulted more from the economic need of manufacturers and inves-
tors brought about by dependence on southern cotton than from noble motives
of philanthropists and abolitionists. They saw the proposed colony as a base
of influence, and although central Africa was still outside British spheres in
the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, its imperial design would soon extend
to that region.59
Delany sailed from Liverpool on December 13, 1860, and arrived home in
Chatham on the 29th. Now he no longer had to seek out audiences for his
message of black pride. He was sought by blacks and whites who wanted to
hear his first-hand report of Africa. He illustrated his lecture tour of American
cities by wearing a dashiki and other ceremonial African dress.60
SOLDIER AND RECONSTRUCTION POLITICIAN
With the start of the American Civil War, factional differences among
various groups came to an end. By the end of 1861 Delany came to terms with
the African Civilization Society after organizational changes placing blacks
in charge, but allowing white friends to participate as assistants. He had
probably realized the disadvantages of remaining on the outside, a man with a
reputation but no followers. Delany emphasized self-reliance and was much
more interested in the development of an African nationality than in the

Vol. 65, No. 7, September 1989

814
814 L.
L. ROSENFELD

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~f

Fig. 2. Major Martin Robison Delany in Uniform. Courtesy of Moorland-Spingarn Research

Center, Howard University

Christian regeneration of Africa. Whatever advantages Delany and the mis-

sionary-nationalists gained from the merger, both sides continued to advocate
African emigration. As the war progressed, emigration became less impor-
tant. Delany devoted his energy increasingly to the plight of southern slaves.
The African Civilization Society followed suit by shifting its main emphasis
from Africa to the American South.6'1

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.

 MARTIN ROBISON
MARTIN DELANY
ROBISON DELANY 815
815

Delany helped to recruit black soldiers for the Union Army and on Febru-
ary 18, 1865 was received at the White House by President Lincoln, to whom
he proposed a plan for a Black Army (Corps d'Afrique), commanded entirely
by black officers. This army would "penetrate through the heart of the South,
and make conquests, with the banner of Emancipation unfurled, proclaiming
freedom as they go,... until every slave is free,..." By arming the emanci-
pated as fresh troops, Delany expected to raise in about three months an army
of 40,000 blacks. Lincoln sent him to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
with a note: "Do not fail to have an interview with this most extraordinary
and intelligent black man." Delany met with Stanton on February 25, 1865,
and the next day was commissioned a major with command of the 104th
Regiment of United States Colored Troops, the first black with that rank in
the Union Army. His assignment was to assist in recruiting and organizing
colored troops, but in less than two months the war was over.62
Delany served with occupation forces in South Carolina as a Sub-Assistant
Commissioner in the Freedmen's Bureau where he worked to administer
relief and other services, to obtain land for liberated blacks, and to prevent
exploitation of black labor by white landowners. 63 He also continued to speak
out for independent black collective action and self-help and did not abandon
his hopes for a return to Africa. In January 1868 he urged blacks to join the
American Colonization Society's Golconda expedition to Liberia.64 Delany
left the Army in August 1868, but remained in South Carolina during Recon-
struction where he was active in political affairs under different political
labels. He ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor as an Independent in
1874, was appointed a Charleston County trial justice in 1875 with Republi-
can help, and reappointed in 1876 after supporting the victorious Democrats.
When the conservative faction of the Democratic party gained power in 1878,
Delany lost the post.65
In 1878 Delany became a member of the Board of Directors, then Trea-
surer, of the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company. This was a
nonprofit stock company selling shares for passage money to carry large
numbers of disillusioned South Carolina and Georgia blacks to Liberia. The
subscriptions were used as a down payment for a 190-foot clipper ship to
make regular runs from Charleston to Monrovia. Only one trip was made.
Like so many "back-to-Africa" enterprises, the venture was doomed to
failure, not for lack of emigrants but because of financial difficulties and loss
of the ship through manipulations by white speculators.66
In 1881 Delany for the second time sought the position of Minister to
Liberia, having failed in his earlier petition to President Grant in 1869.
Despite backing by the American Colonization Society, Henry Highland

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816 L. ROSENFELD

Garnet got the post. Garnet, in February 1865, had been the first black to
preach in the House of Representatives. He died in 1882 soon after taking up
his post and is buried in Liberia. Campbell settled in Lagos in 1862 with his
wife and children, and the following year started a newspaper, The Anglo-
African .67
FAMILY AND FINAL DAYS
Delany married in 1843 Kate A. Richards, the youngest daughter of an
Irish refugee mother from County Cork and a wealthy black Pittsburgh land-
owner and merchant. His wife's family was swindled out of a considerable
inheritance in real estate because white lawyers refused to litigate so large a
claim on behalf of a black against white families. The Delanys had 11 chil-
dren, seven of whom survived to adulthood. The boys and one girl were
named after historic and distinguished blacks.68 After the collapse of Recon-
struction, Delany returned to his family in Wilberforce, Ohio, where he
continued to struggle for black rights and black pride. He died on January 24,
1885. The death certificate gave the cause of death as "lung trouble." Two
weeks earlier, The Xenia (Ohio) Gazette reported him to be "in a very feeble
condition of mind ... a mental and physical wreck."
Delany was the most outspoken advocate of cultural black nationalism
among 19th-century Afro-Americans. After decades of neglect, in recent
times he has emerged as the most prominent historical model for black
consciousness and pride.70
SUMMARY
Martin Robison Delany's great contribution to American life and black
history stems from his defiant blackness. He was America's first "Black
Nationalist" and the intense embodiment of black pride. Ever changing in his
career, he always identified with the black experience and its place in history.
In an active life he was doctor, dentist, orator, editor, publisher, Harvard
medical student, explorer, dabbler in Central American politics, army offi-
cer, and Reconstruction office seeker.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Delany, M.R.: The Condition, Eleva- lany, M.R. and Campbell, R.: Search
tion, Emigration, and Destiny of the for a Place. Black Separatism and Af-
Colored People of the United States. rica, 1860. Ann Arbor, University of
[Politically Considered]. Philadelphia, Michigan Press, 1969, pp. 1 10-1 1.
1852. Reprinted by Arno Press and The 3. Ullman, V.: Martin R. Delanv. The Be-
New York Times, 1968, p. 45. ginnings of Black Nationalism. Boston,
2. Delany, M.R.: Official Report of The Beacon Press, 1971. pp. 3-4. See also
Niger Valley Exploring Party. In: De- Sterling, D.: The Making of an Afro-

Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.

 MARTIN ROBISON DELANY
American: Martin Robison Delany,
1812-1885. Garden City, N.Y., Double-
day, 1971. pp. 14-23; Cobb, W.M.:
Martin Robison Delany.J. Nat. Med.
Assoc. 44:232-38, 1952.
4. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 20-34. See
also Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 48-55.
5. Miller, F.J.: The Search for a Black Na-
tionality. Black Emigration and Coloni-
zation. 1787-1863. Urbana, University
of Illinois Press, 1975, pp. 117-19. See
also Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp.
81-116.
6. Delany, op. cit., ref. 1, pp. 31-32.
7. Ibid., p. 169.
8. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 101-02.
9. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 113-15.
Also in Cash, P.: Pride, prejudice, and
politics. Harvard Med. Alumni Bull.
54:20-25, 1980, pp. 21-22. See also
Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 122-35.
10. Cash, op. cit., ref. 9, p. 24. Harvard
Medical School graduated its first black
physician in 1869.
11. Ibid., p. 22.
12. Ibid., pp. 20-21, 24. See also Trouble
among the medical students of Harvard
University. Boston Med. Surg. J.
43:406, 1850-51.
13. Delany, op. cit., ref. 1, pp. 178-89.
14. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 138-40;
Cobb, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 235-36. See
also Rollin, F.A. [Frances E. Rollin
Whipper].: Life and Public Services of
Martin R. Delany. Boston, Lee and
Shepard, 1868. Reprint by Arno Press
and The New York Times, 1969. pp.
78-80. The New-York Daily Times (The
New York Times), no. 481, April 2,
1853, p. 3, col. 1 (Marines land), and
no. 889, July 25, 1854, p. 1, col. 1
(Bombardment and burning of town).
For some details of the political struggle
between British and American interests,
see Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 144-45,
152, 223.
15. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, p. 36. Also in
Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 169.
16. A series of five questions were addressed
to Professor Joseph Hobbins of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin to be forwarded by
him to the Royal Geographical Society
of London at the request of the Wiscon-
sin group. Colonization Herald, new se-
ries, no. 105, March 1859, p. 416
Vol. 65, No. 7, September 1989
817
(columns 1 and 2). Delany, op. cit. (ref.
2, p. 46), claimed that the letter was
written without his knowledge by the 16-
year-old son of J.J. Myers, one of the
signators on behalf of the group. See
also Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 176.
17. Elected in 1851, Hodgkin was the first to
hold this position continuously, which
he did for 11 years. As Honorary Secre-
tary he dealt with general matters. From
1862-65 he was Foreign Secretary and
dealt with overseas matters. Hodgkin's
answers to the inquiry were included in
the newspaper account of the letter; see
ref. 16.
18. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, pp. 38-40. Also
in Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 216-17.
See also African Repository 35:27,
1859.
19. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, pp. 183, 198.
20. Rollin, op. cit., ref. 14, pp. 85-90,
92-95. Also in Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3,
pp. 195-200. Rollin's biography was
written in close collaboration with De-
lany. Her version of Brown's Conven-
tion in Chatham varies from all other
first-hand accounts. See Sterling, op.
cit., ref. 3, pp. 332-33, 167-175.
21. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, pp. 198.
22. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, p. 65.
23. Ibid., p. 51.
24. Ibid., p. 66.
25. Ibid., p. 91.
26. Ibid., p. 67.
27. Ibid., p. 63. See also Cash, op. cit., ref.
9, p. 24.
28. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 193. See also
Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, p. 37.
29. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, p. 302.
30. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 193.
31. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, pp. 42-45.
32. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 217-18. See
also Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 198.
33. Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. London. 4:186,
1859.
34. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, pp. 77-78.
35. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, pp. 254, 213.
36. Ibid., p. 258. Also in Ullman, op. cit.,
ref. 3, p. 233.
37. Ibid.,pp.211-15.
38. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, pp. 70-74,
80-84, 117-20.
39. Ibid., pp. 87-102.
40. Ibid., pp. 92-94.
41. Ibid., p. 89.
818 L. ROSENFELD
42. Ibid., pp. 102-10.
43. Ibid., pp. 122-23.
44. Delany, M. and Campbell, R.: Geo-
graphical observations on western Af-
rica. Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. London.
4:218-22, 1860.
45. Letter from Thomas Hodgkin to R. Ar-
thington, Jr., June 12, 1860. From the
microfilmed collection of the papers of
Thomas Hodgkin, reel 18, item 291, at
the Countway Library, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, Massachusetts. This
reel corresponds to MS 195 at the
Friends House Library, London,
England.
46. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, pp. 129, 138-40.
See also Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, p. 237.
Also in Blackett, R.: In search of inter-
national support for African coloniza-
tion: Martin R. Delany's visit to
England, 1860. Canad. J. Hist.
10:307-24, 1975, pp. 309-12, 316, 321,
323. See also Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p.
194.
47. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, p. 220. See also
Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 192.
48. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 183.
49. Ibid., pp. 192, 217-18. See also Black-
ett, op. cit., ref. 46, pp. 312, 314.
50. Anti-Slavery Reporter 7:224-25, 262,
1859; 8: 74, 1860. Also in Miller, op.
cit., ref. 5, p. 219.
51. Letter from Thomas Hodgkin to Dr.
Norton Shaw, August 10, 1859. From
the correspondence files of the Royal
Geographical Society of London.
52. Blackett, op. cit., ref. 46, p. 314.
53. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, pp. 184, 225.
54. Letter from Thomas Hodgkin to H.H.
Garnet, August 29, 1860. From the mi-
crofilmed collection, reel 18, item 306
(MS 195).
55. A physician of colour. Lancet 2:92, 94,
1860.
56. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 238-46.
Also in Blackett, op. cit., ref. 46, pp.
316-19. For a detailed account see
Rollin, op. cit., ref. 14. pp. 99-133;
Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 211-17;
57. Delany, op. cit., ref. 2, p. 142.
58. Blackett, op. cit., ref. 46, pp. 312, 321.
59. Ibid., pp. 315-16.
60. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 256-57.
61. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, pp. 260-62.
62. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 292-98. See
also Rollin, op. cit., ref. 14, pp. 166-75
and Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 241-45.
63. Ibid., pp. 324-52.
64. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 500-01; Mil-
ler, op. cit., ref. 5, p. 266.
65. Ellison, C.W. and Metcalf, E.W., Jr.:
William Wells Brown and Martin R. De-
lany: a Reference Guide. Boston, Hall,
1978, p. 157.
66. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 503-06. See
also Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp.
3 18-22.
67. Miller, op. cit., ref. 5, pp. 264-66.
68. Cobb, op. cit., ref. 3, p. 237. Also in
Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, pp. 45, 50-51.
See also Rollin, op. cit., ref. 14, pp.
28-29 and Sterling, op. cit., ref. 3, pp.
79-80.
69. Ullman, op. cit., ref. 3, p. x.
70. Ellison and Metcalf, op. cit., ref. 65, p.
155.
Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med.