From the Darkness Cometh the Light (1891) is a memoir by Lucy A. Delaney. Published in St. Louis in the last year of Delaney’s life, the work is regarded as an essential slave narrative and the only firsthand account of a freedom suit, by which some enslaved African Americans were able to achieve their freedom prior to emancipation. Twentieth century scholars of feminism and African American literature in particular have upheld her work and continue to celebrate her influence on the historical and cultural development of the nation. “On a dismal night in the month of September, Polly, with four other colored persons, were kidnapped, and, after being securely bound and gagged, were put into a skiff and carried across the Mississippi River to the city of St. Louis. Shortly after, these unfortunate negroes were taken up the Missouri River and sold into slavery.” Tracing her mother’s life back to this tragic event, Lucy A. Delaney tells a story of enslavement, hardship, and perseverance, the story of her family’s struggle for freedom. As a young woman, Polly brought two lawsuits to court in St. Louis in the hopes of freeing herself and her daughter from slavery. Following their historic victory, mother and daughter remained together as Lucy attempted to start a family of her own. Despite losing her first husband and several children from her second marriage, Lucy remained dedicated to serving God and her community as a leader in her church and president of several organizations for the empowerment of African American women. This edition of Lucy Delaney’s From the Darkness Cometh the Light is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Lucy A. Delaney (1830-1891) was an African American author and activist. Born into slavery in St. Louis, Missouri, she was the daughter of Polly Berry, a freeborn woman from Illinois who had been stolen into slavery as a young girl. In 1843, after multiple escape attempts and years of waiting for her cases to be heard, Polly won two separate lawsuits in St. Louis to earn freedom for herself and her daughter. Two years later, Lucy married Frederick Turner and moved to Illinois with him and her mother, but was forced to return to Missouri shortly thereafter following Turner’s death in a steamboat boiler explosion. In 1849, she married Zachariah Delaney, with whom she would have four children. Alongside her husband, Delaney was an active member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a supporter of local health and education initiatives. In addition, she served as president of both the Female Union, an organization for African American women, and the Daughters of Zion, an affiliate group of the Freemasons. At the age of 52, Delaney was reunited with her father 45 years after he was sold down the Mississippi River to a plantation owner in the deep south. In the last year of her life, Delaney published From the Darkness Cometh the Light (1891), a memoir and slave narrative which remains the only known firsthand account of a freedom suit.
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