From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or Struggles for Freedom

Lucy Ann Delaney was a slave in the 19th century - her shocking narrative, telling of struggles and eventual triumph over oppression, offer a poignant catalog of the horrors of slavery.


Much of Lucy Delaney's memoir tells of her mother Polly's struggles to regain freedom in tandem with her daughter. The legal difficulties would see their cases drag on for years, despite Polly originally having been kidnapped from her home state of Illinois. Opportunist people smugglers of the era would commonly resort to kidnapping blacks living in the northerly states where slavery had already been made illegal. The kidnap, transport and sale of a person often took mere weeks to achieve, and usually proved highly profitable.


The courts of the 1830s and 1840s were typically more concerned about the slave owner's inconveniences than the human rights of those attempting to gain freedom. The fact that Polly and Lucy Ann were a separated mother and daughter was of less concern to lawyers than the worry of depriving their owners of two slaves considered useful and well-mannered. Such stark explanations, stated simply and truthfully by the author, offer insight into a harsh and inhumane practice.


Lucy Ann Delaney and her mother gained their freedom in 1842, when at last the court ruled in their favor. Thankful to God for the fortune she had escaping the nightmare of enslavement, Lucy took up work with the church and professionally as a seamstress. It was only after the urging of friends that Lucy published this retrospective in 1891, which shocked many unfamiliar with pre-emancipation USA. This edition of Lucy Ann Delaney's memoir is in large print.