Martin R. Delany; Blake; The Huts of America; black nationalism; nineteenth-century fiction; spy fiction; superspy

Martin R. Delany’s only novel, Blake; Or, the Huts of America, has been studied for its black-nationalist ideas but criticized as poorly crafted. There is widespread confusion even as to its genre. This essay argues that both its artistic and ideological aims are clarified if we view its hero, Henry Blake, as a forerunner of later “superspies” like Richard Hannay and James Bond. Blake serves no existing state but the black “nation within a nation,” as Delany had earlier called it. His secret mission: to lend that nation agency, bringing it into existence through his international, omni-capable exploits.

Martin R. Delany’s only novel, Blake; Or, the Huts of America, has been studied for its black-nationalist ideas but criticized as poorly crafted. There is widespread confusion even as to its genre. This essay argues that both its artistic and ideological aims are clarified if we view its hero, Henry Blake, as a forerunner of later “superspies” like Richard Hannay and James Bond. Blake serves no existing state but the black “nation within a nation,” as Delany had earlier called it. His secret mission: to lend that nation agency, bringing it into existence through his international, omni-capable exploits.