Delany's novel follows Henry Blake, born free in the West Indies and stolen into slavery on a Mississippi plantation. When his wife Maggie โ the enslaver's own daughter โ is sold away to Cuba, Blake escapes and travels the South plantation by plantation, quietly taking the measure of the enslaved people's readiness and building the network for a general uprising, then carries the plan to Cuba. Written by one of the leading Black nationalist thinkers of the nineteenth century, it is among the earliest novels by an African American author.
Author: Martin R. Delany ยท Original publisher: serialized in The Anglo-African Magazine (1859) and the Weekly Anglo-African (1861โ62); first book edition Beacon Press (Boston), 1970, edited by Floyd J. Miller
