Delany, Martin Robison, 1812-1885

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Martin Robinson Delany was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, soldier and writer, and arguably the first proponent of black nationalism. Delany is credited with the Pan-African slogan of "Africa for Africans."

Born as a free person of color in Charles Town, Virginia, now West Virginia (not Charleston, West Virginia) and raised in Chambersburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Delany trained as a physician's assistant. During the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, Delany treated patients, even though many doctors and residents fled the city out of fear of contamination. In this period, people did not know how the disease was transmitted.

In 1850, Delany was one of the first three black men admitted to Harvard Medical School, but all were dismissed after a few weeks because of widespread protests by white students. Delany had traveled in the South in 1839 to observe slavery firsthand. Beginning in 1847, he worked alongside Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York to publish the North Star.

Delany dreamed of establishing a settlement in West Africa. He visited Liberia, a United States colony founded by the American Colonization Society, and lived in Canada for several years, but when the American Civil War began, he returned to the United States. Beginning in 1863, he recruited blacks for the United States Colored Troops. Commissioned as a major in February 1865, Delany became the first African-American field grade officer in the United States Army.

After the Civil War, Delany went to the South, settling in South Carolina. There he worked for the Freedmen's Bureau and became politically active, including in the Colored Conventions Movement. Delany ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor as a Republican. He was appointed as a trial judge, but he was removed following a scandal. Delany later switched his party affiliation. He worked for the campaign of Democrat Wade Hampton III, who won the 1876 election for governor in a season marked by violent suppression of black Republican voters by Red Shirts and fraud in balloting.

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895 person
employeeOf Freedmen's Bureau corporateBody
associatedWith Harvard Medical School. Office of the Dean. corporateBody
associatedWith Sass, George Herbert, 1845-1908. person
memberOf United States. Army corporateBody
memberOf United States. Army. Colored Infantry Regiment, 104th (1865-1866) corporateBody
alumnusOrAlumnaOf Washington and Jefferson College (Washington, Pa.) corporateBody
Place Name Admin Code Country
Charles Town WV US
United States 00 US
Ohio OH US
Republic of Nicaragua 00 NI
Subject
Abolition, emancipation, freedom
Black nationalism
Civil War, 1861-1865
Occupation
Army officers
Authors
Journalists
Judges
Nationalists
Novelists
Physicians
Political activists
Activity

Person

Birth 1812-05-06

Death 1885-01-24

Male

Americans

English

Information

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