Soldier, army officer, Freedmen’s Bureau official Martin Robison Delany was born May 6th, 1912 in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia) to a slave father and a free mother. His parents were directly from Africa and brought to America to be enslaved. Virginia’s slave laws stated that the status of children were that of their mother; accordingly, the Delany children were not slaves, as Pati, his mother, was free. As he grew up, Martin's mother bean teaching her children to read and write using "The New York Primer and Spelling Book", given to them by a peddler. Virginia prohibited education of African American people. When the book was discovered there were threats of punishment. Martin’s mother took him and her other four children to live in Chambersburg in the free state of Pennsylvania in 1822, to ensure their continued freedom. Martin’s father followed them in 1823 after purchasing his freedom.
In Chambersburg, young Martin continued learning. Occasionally he left school to work when his family could not afford for him to study. In Pennsylvania, Black children were only educated through the elementary grades, so Delany educated himself by reading. In 1831 at the age of 19, Martin moved to Pittsburgh. While living in Pittsburgh, Delany became involved with Trinity A.M.E. Church, the oldest Black congregation in the city, which had classes for adults. The church was part of the first independent Black denomination in the United States. Because so many Blacks had to work to support themselves and loved ones, classes were held in the evening. Delany studied courses in Latin, Greek, English, Math and also medicine, which he practiced intermittently thereafter.
During his time in Pittsburgh, he worked during the day as a laborer and a barber. However, his life changed in 1833, when Delany began an apprenticeship with a Pittsburgh physician, Dr. Andrew N. McDowell, who was also an abolitionist. During the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, Delany treated patients. He learned the techniques of fire cupping and leeching, which were the modern practices used to treat many illnesses of that era. Some doctors and many residents fled the city out of fear of contamination. He continued to study medicine under the guidance of abolitionist physicians, including Dr. F. Julius LeMoyne and Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam, and later opened his own successful medical practice, as well as in dental care, in Pittsburgh.
In 1843, two events further influenced his life. Martin married Catherine Richards, the daughter of Charles Richards, an affluent merchant and landowner. That same year, he began publishing a newspaper in Pittsburgh called "The Mystery", the first African-American newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains. In his weekly newspaper, topics, notably abolition, civil rights, community engagement and political involvement, integral to African American advancement, were discussed. The Mystery was widely respected for its excellent content, and it was even common for its articles to be carried in White newspapers. His articles and other writings were often reprinted in other venues, such as in abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison's "The Liberator".
While Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison were in Pittsburgh in 1847 on an anti-slavery tour, they met with Delany. Douglass and Garrison would part ways later that year due to different views regarding the use of violence in abolition. Later Delany joined Frederick Douglass to produce and promote "The North Star" in Rochester, NY, the most influential anti-slavery newspaper of the 19th century. They used its pages to give voice to the stories of African Americans from their own accounts. For the next year and a half, Delany lectured, wrote, and traveled on behalf of the paper and in pursuit of civil rights for his people. Douglass dealt with editing, printing and publishing while Delany reported, lectured, edited and secured subscriptions. As the years passed, it was already clear that Delany and Douglass were parting ways on The North Star. Disagreeing about the actions required to support abolition, Delany left the North Star five years later. By this time Delany was accustomed to being a leader, but “as co-editor of The North Star, he was suddenly cast in Douglass’ shadow.”
Delany had never abandoned his pursuit of medicine, and in 1849, he began to study more seriously to prepare to apply to medical school. Douglass used his influence to convince Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., dean, to admit his friend and two other African Americans to Harvard Medical School. Delany entered Harvard Medical School in 1850 to finish his formal medical education, he was one of the first three Black men to be admitted there. But he was dismissed from the institution after only three weeks as a result of petitions to the school from White students, despite being respected and liked by many staff and teachers. One particular group protested the Black men’s enrollment, citing that though it was fine that Blacks wanted to advance, the group did not want them at Harvard.
Undeterred, Delany continued to practice medicine all his life. Furious, Delany returned to Pittsburgh. Enraged at the blatant racism and overt discrimination shown them, Delany returned to Pittsburgh, convinced that despite the initiative, industry and talents of Blacks, they will never be treated equally. In the 1850s, Delany espoused Black Nationalism upon the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, that allowed for the capture, or recapture, of slaves living in Northern states. Douglass would remain Delany’s friend, but Martin’s radical approach to Black rights and unilateral equality outstripped even the renowned writer and activist, ultimately driving a wedge between the two. Martin Delany continued to advocate for Black advancement and speak against racial segregation.
Delany became convinced that the White ruling class would not allow Black people to become leaders in society, and his opinions became more extreme. He argued that Blacks had no future in the United States and suggested they should leave and found a new nation elsewhere, perhaps in the West Indies, the Caribbean and/or South America. More moderate abolitionists were alienated by his position. His call of Black repatriation placed him at odds with his contemporary and colleague Douglass’ “stay and fight” philosophy. Now distrustful of White liberals and abolitionists, Delany denounced America as irredeemably racist. He saw only one viable path for Blacks: emigration and the creation of an independent nationality. Over the next fifteen years, Delany argued relentlessly for emigration. “We are a nation within a nation,” he wrote, “we must go from our oppressors.”
In 1852, he wrote and published "The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States Politically Considered". This work was followed up the next year with "The Origin and Objects of Ancient Freemasonry; Its Introduction into the United States and Legitimacy Among Colored Men". In 1852 James Monroe Whitfield, a Black poet and activist, led the National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. There, Delany continued his passionate promotion of emigration, delivering his fiery manifesto, “Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent”. Attended and voted on by African American activists, including numerous women, this convention is considered to be the foundation of Black nationalism.
At the conference, Delany read his paper, “Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent,” espousing a position that went beyond that of other Black leaders. Among its points, the convention resolved “that, as men and equals, we demand every political right, privilege and position to which the whites are eligible in the United States, and we will either attain to these, or accept nothing.” These incendiary comments challenged the thinking of even the most progressive African Americans. A significant number of women attendees also voted for the resolution, considered the foundation of Black nationalism. At this point, Douglass distanced himself even further from his former partner, writing, “I thank God for making me a man, but Delany always thanks Him for making him a Black man". The distinction was not trivial. Delany attempted to use his unmixed African heritage to position himself as a more authentic leader.
Most African Americans rejected the notion of leaving America under the banner of the American Colonization Society to relocate free black people outside of the United States. Wrote Douglass: “[W]e claim no affinity with Africa. This is our home…the land of our forefathers….The best blood of Virginia courses through our veins.” Delany disagreed. He strongly opposed to any attempt to create a Black homeland sponsored by America’s ruling Whites, who believed free Blacks would incite slave uprisings, Delany supported the idea of establishing a Black nation elsewhere, just as Paul Cuffe did, who led the first African American initiative to resettle freed Blacks. Martin Delany felt strongly that the African American people were not going to be recognized as full citizens in America, and the best thing for the Black person in America to establish a self-governing body outside of the United States, such as Sierra Leone or Liberia.
In 1856, Delany moved his family to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, in hopes to escape the oppressive conditions they suffered in the United States, where they remained for nearly three years. He assisted in the Underground Railroad activities there, helping resettle American refugee slaves who had reached freedom in Canada. But Delany was no armchair theorist, during May 1859, acting upon his beliefs, he sailed from New York for Liberia, to investigate the possibility of a new Black nation in the region. He traveled for nine months to present-day southwest Nigeria, and coordinated an arrangement through which repatriates could live on settlements formed by chieftains along the Niger River. His 1861 publication, "Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party", provided detailed geographical, agricultural, and social data to support potential emigration, combining ethnographic observation with political vision. It is a question whether Delany and the chiefs shared the same concepts of land use. The treaty was later dissolved due to warfare in the region, and opposition by White missionaries.
Delany coined the phrase “Africa for Africans” as early as 1861 — a slogan that would later become central to Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association. When the Civil War began in 1861 Delany returned to the United States. In 1863, after President Abraham Lincoln had called for a military draft, the 51-year-old Delany abandoned his dream of starting a new settlement on Africa's West Coast. He moved to Wilberforce, Ohio and began recruiting Black men for the Union Army. In February 1865, meeting with the President Delany persuaded the administration to create an all-Black Corps. It was to be led by Black officers. Delaney was then commissioned to be a major in the 52nd U.S. Colored Troops Regiment. With that appointment, he became the FIRST Black field grade officer in U.S. Army history. He was assigned to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Delany especially wanted to lead the troops into Charleston, S.C, the former secessionist hotbed. When Union forces captured the city, Major Delany was invited to the War Department ceremony.
Though the war ended before his full plan could be implemented, Delany’s commission was a powerful symbol of Black martial citizenship. Major General Robert Anderson would unfurl the very flag over Fort Sumter that he had been forced to lower four years earlier. Major Delany had recruited Black Charlestonians to restore the capacity of the 103rd and 104th regiments and start the 105th regiment of U.S. Colored Troops. His son Toussaint Louverture Delany (named after Toussaint Louverture leader of the Haitian Revolution) served with the 54th Regiment. When Reconstruction began in 1865, Delany was mustered out of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1868 and shortly afterward resigned from the Army. Following the war, Delany continued to be politically active. He established a land and brokerage business in 1871 and worked to help Black cotton farmers improve their business and negotiating skills to get a better price for their product. Delany became active in local Republican politics, losing a close election for Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, running as an Independent Republican.
In 1873, he worked as U.S. Customs inspector in Charleston. Delany ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of South Carolina in 1874. Delany was appointed as a trial justice (judge) in that city in 1875. He continued promotion for involvement in the National Colored Conventions engagement. In 1876 he angered many Black South Carolinians by supporting Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wade Hampton a racist former officer in the confederate army and ex-slaveowner. As the Republicans lost power in the state Delany renewed his calls for emigration, becoming an official in the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company in 1878. In 1879, Delany published The Principia of Ethnology, a book that argued for race pride and purity — a text reflective of both the racial science of the era and Delany’s lifelong commitment to the dignity and sovereignty of African people. In 1880 Delany withdrew from the Liberian Exodus Company and moved first to Boston, Massachusetts and then to Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, where he settled for the remaining of his life.
The aging activist resumed his medical practice, while lobbying unsuccessfully for political appointment. Delany died on January 24, 1885, at the age of 72. Ever changing in his career, he always identified with the Black experience, the intense embodiment of Black pride and its place in history. He, along with David Walker are considered the first "Black Nationalists". He stands at the head of a succession of nationalist leaders including Henry McNeal Turner, Garvey, Alexander Crummell, William Monroe Trotter, and Malcolm X. Delany’s legacy flows through the entire tradition of Black radical thought. W.E.B. Du Bois drew from him. Marcus Garvey built his mass movement on Delany’s ideological foundations. Malcolm X channeled his insistence on self-determination and Black pride. Delany was a man who, long before others dared say it plainly, declared that Black people’s liberation required not just freedom from bondage, but the full recovery of identity, sovereignty, and pride. In a world that sought to strip African people of their past, Delany insisted on royal lineage. In a nation that demanded gratitude and patience, he demanded land and sovereignty. In an era of accommodation, he chose defiance.