Conclusion Not Included: Martin Delany’s Blake or The Huts of America

After reading Blake, or The Huts of America, I was unsure what I wanted to write about, so as per usual, I read the secondary sources (closely paying attention to yours, of course, Dr. Doolen), but I found myself still struggling to decide what I wanted to say.  How can I contribute to this conversation?  This question annoyingly kept on popping into my head as I was reading the excellent observations of Rowe and Doolen (Nwankwo’s points I was already familiar with, so they weren’t as new to me though still relevant).  I considered jumping aboard the transnational ship and sailing my way across borders, looking at how Delany both rejects and appropriates the nationalism and empire-building terminology of the U.S. and its references to the Revolutionary War.  I thought of building upon this by referring to Rowe’s point: “Writing back and otherwise resisting such imperial uses of transnationality, many Native American intellectuals and political activists recognized the need to employ the rhetoric of nationalism if they were to gain any sort of voice in United States society” (Rowe 81).  However, I decided against it.  What actually stayed with me and captured my interest was Doolen’s claim that “We will probably never learn what Delany had planned in those missing chapters, but I view the absence as an invitation for readers to collaborate with Delany in imagining a possible conclusion” (Doolen 174).  “Here!” I thought.  “Here is where I as a reader may contribute some small point or observation that may be of interest to my fellow my colleagues!”  So, it is in acceptance of Dr. Doolen’s invitation to collaborate with Delany and envision a conclusion to Blake that I have decided to devote the rest of my blog.

In order to not ignore the theoretical applications and observations to Delany’s elusive ending, I would like to explain my reasons for how I think Delany could have ended his novel before I actually share the ingredients of what, in my opinion, Delany would have cooked up for his conclusion.  The common theoretical theme I saw in Doolen, Rowe, and Nwankwo was their heightened awareness that Delany’s text was transnational (and I use this term realizing the many complexities that go with it) in the sense that it not only crossed borders but also linked together oppressed people no matter where they were located.  I was taken with the fact that Rowe points out how “Too often in nineteenth-century United States culture, Canada figures primarily as an imagined place of ultimate freedom and its border a sort of psychic double for the internal border dividing South from North” (85).  However, Delany seems aware of this trend and points out how Canada is not the ideal place for African Americans to achieve their goals of true equality and freedom.  Instead, as Nwankwo discusses, Delany desired for African Americans to create their own community.  Throughout the text, Delany’s protagonist Blake attempts to bring together an African American community and he begins to accumulate a strong community in Cuba of which he is elected their leader.  With this background in mind, I’d like to share what I think would correspond with the many interesting interpretations of Delany’s incomplete novel.

Since the theme of Delany’s novel is a combination of the desire for both freedom and equality for all, I like to think that Blake (who kind of disappears in this second part of the novel) becomes a prominent figure in the rebellion and that a war does take place.  However, I feel as though Blake would have given the Captain General a chance to have accepted the blacks as equal citizens and would have threatened rebellion if their demands were not fulfilled.  Of course, the General would have rejected this and probably gathered his forces together.  Ironically, I am still unsure who would actually win.  I wonder if Delany might allow Blake to create a separate community that lives in peace and prosperity or if Blake must die a martyr.  I see Placido of course dying poetically (pun semi-intentional).  In fact, I see Blake using Placido’s name (especially since Blake adopts multiple names throughout the text; his fluidity of identity would in itself be an interesting blog) as a way of challenging the Captain General and rallying his troops.  Perhaps, by not having an actual conclusion, Delany’s novel is even stronger.  After all, I’m unsure whether there is a way to write a truly satisfying conclusion.  Perhaps, the ever looming threat of rebellion and the desire for equality are in themselves a powerful way to end the novel.  Thus, I view Delany’s novel as not only a critique of U. S. empire but also as a way of dealing with the complexities of creating an identity for blacks that frees them from the restrictions of an imperialistic mindset whether in Cuba, Canada, or the United States.