More than one noted historian has said Martin Delany lived several lifetimes rolled into one. His fertile mind and the principled conscience to which he felt absolutely beholden led him across three continents and countless experiences and challenges. This timeline captures the scope of his vast and important odyssey. (NOTE: Capitalized words denote names of major new residences of MRD. Entries within parentheses are "indirect influences" on MRD's life path.)
MRD enrolled as a student of Rev. Lewis Woodson in the cellar of Pittsburgh's Bethel African Methodist Church on Wylie Street.
MRD studies classics, Latin and Greek at Jefferson College with Molliston M. Clark, his roommate with whom he debated whether to live in America or Africa.
(9/1833 British Parliament vote to buy the freedom of 800,000 enslaved West Indians, effective by 1840, for 20 million pounds).
During cholera epidemic, MRD begins apprenticing with Dr. Andrew N. McDowell, as a cupper and leecher.
MRD goes to his first Negro Convention with Rev. Woodson.
MRD sets up own practice as cupper and leecher in Pittsburgh.
MRD conceives of "A Project for an Expedition of Adventure to the Eastern Coast of Africa" in search of a "Black Israel."
MRD forms the Young Men's Literary and Moral Reform Society of Pittsburgh, as the Temperance Movement was taking hold particularly against widespread whiskey consumption.
MRD is secretary to the exec. committee of the Philanthropic Society, a "cover" organization rescuing, protecting and transporting fugitive slaves through Pittsburgh.
(1838: State Supreme Court Chief Justice C. J. Gibson rules blacks can't vote in Pennsylvania, in a suit brought by William Fogg, the beginning of MRD's disillusionment with white dominated American culture and law).
MRD travels with "free papers" down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, parts Louisiana and to see still independent Texas, a possible haven for freed blacks. Visits Choctaw Indian Nation near Fort Towson in Arkansas, also visits Mississippi. Becomes the basis for his semi fictional novel about an itinerant insurrectionist, "Blake: The Huts of America."
C.L. Remond
(1840 Charles Lenox Remond strong and eloquent words before the World Anti Slavery Conference in London, England electrify Europe and America.)
MRD marries Catherine A. Richards, part Irish/black daughter of Charles Richards an affluent meat provisioner, and Felicia Fitzgerald. They begin their large family of eleven births, from which seven children survive to adulthood.
Voteless, MRD begins "The Mystery," a black controlled newspaper in Pittsburgh.
Wm L. Garrison
Two pieces by MRD are reprinted by admirer, William Lloyd Garrison, in Garrison's "The Liberator."
MRD studies medicine with abolitionist doctors Dr. F. Julius LeMoyne of Washington County, Pa., Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam of Pittsburgh, and especially Dr. Andrew N. McDowell of Pittsburgh.
MRD sued by "Fiddler" Johnson, a black man MRD accused in "The Mystery" as a "slave catcher." He is convicted and fined an astronomical fine of $150 (1846 dlrs.) defrayed by many white supporters in the newspaper community.
MRD delivers a eulogy to Rev. Fayette Davis. Eulogy is reprinted by Richard Gleaves, George B. Vashon, and James L. Williams who, like Davis and Delany, were Freemasons.
Frederick Douglass
MRD meets Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison as they visit Pittsburgh while on a regional antislavery tour. "The North Star," coedited by Douglass and MRD is conceived during that trip.