Writings
Delany's unfinished novel Blake: or, the Huts of America advocated black activism and rebellion. In it Delany reworked several of Stephen Foster's sentimental "plantation songs". Thus he reappropriated material for his own purposes, to express black resistance and independence. Songs had been used in minstrel shows, in part to show slave contentment or lack of resistance to slavery. For example, Foster's "Old Uncle Ned" mourned the passing of a slave:
- Den lay down de shubble and de hoe
- Hang up de fiddle and de bow:
- No more hard work for poor old Ned
- He's gone whar de good darkeys go.
Delany turned this into a song of rebellion about the death of a master:
- Hang up the shovel and thee hoe-o-o-o!
- I don't care whether I work or no!
- Old master's gone to the slaveholders' rest —
- He's gone where they all ought to go!
While Part One was publlished in serial form, scholars do not know if he ever completed the novel or published the entire thing. Sections found were edited and published in the 20th century.
Read more about this topic: Martin Delany
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“Even in my own writings I cannot always recover the meaning of my former ideas; I know not what I meant to say, and often get into a regular heat, correcting and putting a new sense into it, having lost the first and better one. I do nothing but come and go. My judgement does not always forge straight ahead; it strays and wanders.”
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“An able reader often discovers in other people’s writings perfections beyond those that the author put in or perceived, and lends them richer meanings and aspects.”
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“Accursed who brings to light of day
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