Why read Blake; Or, The Huts of America?

Book cover of Blake; Or, The Huts of America

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Blake; Or, The Huts of America (1859-1862) is a novel by Martin Delany. Serialized in The Anglo-African Magazine, the novel has had a complicated publishing history due to the loss of the physical issues in which the final chapters appeared in May 1862. Despite this, Blake; Or, The Huts of…

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Historical fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked Blake; Or, The Huts of America as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

F. S. Naiden

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Alexander the Great’s project of uniting and reconciling religions and nations points to a theme in American history—the reconciliation of races and fellow Christians during the American Civil War. In a Black bookstore in Philadelphia, I found a book about this theme, Blake or the Huts of America, by Martin R. Delaney, the first Black to be made an Army officer.

It appeared in 1858, three years before the war. Delaney realized there would soon be a Civil War and explained how we could survive it. His strange recommendation: let a Black army put an end to slavery. That would…

From F.'s list on The best books about generals who were visionaries—and visionaries who wanted to be generals.