Note: Part one (chapters 1-23 and 29-31) of the novel was serialized in The Anglo-African Magazine, January to July, 1859. The rest of part one was first published when Delany reprinted the story in The Weekly Anglo-African, November, 1861, to May, 1862. The whole novel was not published in book form until 1970.

Synopsis: Delany's hero is a West Indian slave who travels throughout the South advocating revolution, and later becomes the general of a black insurrectionary force in Cuba. Blake hopes that, with rebellion in Cuba and the expulsion of all Americans, Cuba's model as a self-governed black state will ultimately precipitate the downfall of slavery in the United States. Focusing on the political and social issues of the 1850s - slavery as an institution, Cuba as the prime interest of Southern expansionists, the practicality of militant slave revolution, and the possibilities of collective action - Blake is one of the most revealing novels of the period.