Martin Robison Delany was born on May 6, 1812, in Charles Town, Virginia, which is now part of West Virginia. He was born free because his mother, Pati Peace Delany, was a free woman of color. His father, Samuel Delany, was enslaved at the time of Martin’s birth. Delany’s grandparents were brought from Africa and his mother’s father may have been of noble West African lineage.
Delany’s mother believed strongly in education. When authorities threatened her for teaching her children to read, she moved the family in 1822 to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, so Martin and his siblings could learn without fear. His father gained freedom and joined the family a year later.
Delany pursued formal education with determination. At age 19, he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked during the day and studied at night. He learned Latin, Greek, and the classics. He also apprenticed under abolitionist physicians and learned medical techniques such as cupping and leeching.
Delany was a determined and accomplished applicant, personally visited Harvard Medical School after being rejected by several other medical programs. To support his bid, he presented seventeen letters of recommendation from physicians in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, along with endorsements from three clergymen that vouched for his character and intelligence. After meeting with Dean Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harvard accepted Delany as a student for the winter term, a rare breakthrough for a Black medical student at the time. Despite this progress, Delany and his peers were only permitted to complete that single term before leaving HMS, but he went on to become a prominent physician, activist, author, and leader in abolition and Reconstruction efforts.
Although Delany did not complete a formal medical degree due to racial exclusion at Harvard Medical School, he practiced medicine during a period when apprenticeship based training was common, particularly for Black physicians excluded from white run hospitals and medical institutions.
In 1850, Delany became one of the first African Americans admitted to Harvard Medical School. White students petitioned for his removal, and Harvard expelled him after three weeks. He returned to Pittsburgh and established a private medical practice, which, like that of many Black physicians in the nineteenth century, operated largely outside white-run hospitals and medical institutions due to racial exclusion.
Delany became a leading abolitionist. In 1843, he founded and published The Mystery, an abolitionist newspaper in Pittsburgh that addressed racial justice and civil rights. He later collaborated with Frederick Douglass to co-edit The North Star in Rochester, New York, which expanded the reach of anti-slavery messaging.
In 1852, Delany published The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered. He argued that African Americans could not achieve full equality in the United States and that emigration to Africa offered a path to self-determination.
Delany acted on his ideas about a Black nation. In 1859, he led an emigration expedition to West Africa to explore settlement opportunities along the Niger River. He met with local leaders and sought land where African Americans could establish a free nation. The Civil War interrupted these efforts, but Delany remained a prominent advocate for Pan-African ideas.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Delany returned to the United States to support the Union. He recruited African American soldiers and helped enlist thousands into the United States Colored Troops.
In February 1865, Delany met with President Abraham Lincoln and successfully persuaded the administration to allow Black officers to lead Black troops. He received a commission as a major in the 52nd United States Colored Troops, becoming the first African American field officer in the U.S. Army.
After the war, Delany worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau in South Carolina, advocating for civil rights, land ownership for freed people, and racial pride. He became active in Republican politics and ran for Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina in 1874, though he did not win. He also served briefly as a trial judge in Charleston.
In 1878, Delany became an official of the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company, promoting African American emigration to Liberia. In 1879, he published The Principia of Ethnology, emphasizing racial pride and cultural identity.
Delany’s legacy continues as a pioneering advocate for Black empowerment. His work in abolitionism, Black self-determination, and military leadership paved the way for civil rights movements. Educators and historians study his writings, his leadership in the Civil War, and his visionary ideas about race, identity, and nationhood. His emphasis on political autonomy, racial pride, and global Black solidarity later informed strands of Black nationalist and Pan-African thought in the twentieth century.
References:
“Martin R. Delany,” Britannica Kids – Students, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., accessed December 17, 2025, https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Martin-R-Delany/310976.
“1850-1871.” Perspectives of Change. Harvard Medical School. Accessed December 17, 2025. https://perspectivesofchange.hms.harvard.edu/node/15.
James Morgan III, “Martin Delany, Unapologetic African,” Picturing Black History (Getty Images & Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective), accessed December 17, 2025, https://picturingblackhistory.org/martin-delany-unapologetic-african/.