00:01 - My name is Martin Robison --

00:02 - Major Martin Robison Delany.

00:04 - I'm with the 104th United States

00:06 - Colored Troops.

00:07 - I'm here at the National Civil

00:08 - War Museum today, telling my

00:11 - story, and how I became the

00:13 - highest ranking Civil -- colored

00:14 - Civil War officer in the Union

00:17 - Army.

00:19 - The war was about slavery and

00:23 - basically that's how I became a

00:26 - major.

00:28 - My grandfather was murdered by

00:30 - slavers, because he wouldn't

00:32 - submit to them.

00:34 - My father I seen was hit with a

00:37 - rock just before he was about to

00:39 - be shot.

00:42 - And I seen that at an early age.

00:45 - And just the plight of my people

00:48 - through the 1800s and through

00:52 - the years the Civil War.

00:55 - I came up with a plan for the

01:00 - end of the Civil War to bring it

01:02 - to a close.

01:04 - And I took that plan to

01:05 - President Lincoln and that plan

01:07 - was to go into the interior of

01:10 - the south with black officers,

01:13 - and black enlisted men, or freed

01:17 - slaves taken off of plantations,

01:21 - and bring the southern war

01:23 - machine, cripple it, and bring

01:25 - it to an end.

01:27 - President Lincoln thought that

01:28 - was a great idea and he

01:31 - commissioned me right on the

01:32 - spot when I met him in the

01:34 - chambers at the White House.

01:36 - He had known of me prior with my

01:40 - experience as a newspaperman and

01:43 - being one of the first three

01:44 - blacks to go to Harvard Medical

01:46 - School.

01:47 - President Lincoln kept his ear

01:48 - to the ground.

01:50 - He knew what was going on pretty

01:51 - much in antebellum.

01:55 - So when I was -- when I

01:56 - introduced myself he said I know

01:59 - who you are, Mr. Delaney.

02:01 - But anyway, Frederick Douglass

02:06 - and I had a newspaper called The

02:10 - Northern Star and I had one

02:12 - previous to that called The

02:13 - Mystery and I was out promoting

02:19 - anti-slavery forms and holding

02:22 - conferences through the

02:23 - northeast and I was pretty well

02:27 - known just for that fact.

02:32 - Me and Frederick Douglass - I

02:33 - call him Fred - me and Fred also

02:38 - had a circuit.

02:39 - We were a matter of fact, we

02:40 - were right here in Harrisburg on

02:42 - a few occasions promoting

02:45 - freedom for our people.

02:48 - Later on in life I moved on.

02:53 - At the end of the war I started

02:57 - the Freedmen's Bureau -- matter

02:58 - of fact it was at the very end

03:00 - of the war started, the

03:01 - Freedmen's Bureau.

03:03 - And what that was it was a go

03:07 - between the planters - which

03:10 - were the old plantation owners -

03:12 - and the newly freed slaves.

03:14 - You see the freed slaves had to

03:16 - have work and they also had

03:19 - property at that time after the

03:21 - war since they were emancipated

03:22 - and the war was over.

03:24 - They needed somebody to sell

03:26 - their crop too.

03:27 - The planters needed somebody to

03:28 - do the work.

03:31 - Since they were no longer

03:32 - slaves.

03:33 - So I was the freed -- I was the

03:34 - go between the slaves and the

03:37 - planters.

03:38 - It was called the Freedmen's

03:39 - Bureau that went on successful

03:42 - for about four or five years,

03:44 - until President Johnson got in

03:46 - the office and he disbanded it.

03:50 - From there I went on into

03:51 - political service.

03:53 - I was a -- I became a judge and

03:58 - I just missed lieutenant

04:00 - governor.

04:00 - I just missed being lieutenant

04:02 - governor of South Carolina just

04:03 - by a few votes.

04:06 - Overall my career as was pretty

04:17 - highlighted I would say.

04:19 - From the time that I was born

04:20 - till the time that I died in

04:22 - 1884.

04:26 - That's my story.