Lucy Delaney - Memoir

Memoir

In 1891, Delaney published her From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom, the only first-person account of a freedom suit. The text is also a slave narrative, most of which were published prior to the Civil War and Emancipation. Delaney devoted most of her account to her mother Polly Berry’s struggles to free her family from slavery. Though the story is Delaney’s, she features her mother as the lead protagonist.

The narrative is steeped in spirituality. It celebrated what Delaney saw as God’s benevolent role in her own life and she attacked the hypocrisy of Christian slave owners. From the Darkness shows the strength of the African Americans who suffered under slavery, rather than recount the horrors of the institution. By continuing her memoir after her gaining freedom at age 14, Delaney showed her fortitude following the death of her first husband, and later the deaths of each of her four children. She portrayed her mother Polly Berry as serving as an adviser and role model. By celebrating her own political and civic activities, Delaney argued for the place of African Americans in US democracy.