Imperium in Imperio

Imperium in Imperio is a historical fiction novel by Sutton Griggs, published in 1899. The novel covers the life of Belton Piedmont, an educated and disciplined black man in the Jim Crow south and his role in a shadow government of black men operated out of a college in Waco, Texas.

Imperium in Imperio
AuthorSutton E. Griggs
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical Fiction, Political Fiction, social science fiction
Published1899

Plot

Belton Piedmont is a born to a poor but hardworking family in Virginia and grows up intimately familiar with racism and segregation. He attends school with another black child, Bernard Belgrave, whom he builds a rivalry and friendship with. Belton and Bernard's educations take radically different turns when Bernard goes to Harvard while Belton is too poor to attend a prestigious university.

Belton's graduation speech is published in a Richmond newspaper and it catches the attention of a southern democrat who vehemently opposes lynching, Mr. V.M. King. King takes a liking to Belton and gives him a check that will take him through college, but not before giving Belton some sage advice.

With King's aid, Belton attends a college in Nashville, Tennessee. Belton is perturbed when he discovers that even in the seemingly egalitarian school, there are black professors that are silently ostracized and barred from eating meals with their white counterparts. Belton organizes a movement of civil disobedience and daunts the school's president into changing things.

After Belton graduates, he is harassed by a mob after encouraging black men to vote. The mob goes to lynch him, even shooting him in the head, but the bullet is caught in Belton's skin and only leaves him unconscious. He's claimed by a doctor who wishes to dissect his body, but Belton awakens on the table and kills the doctor in self-defense. Belton flees and is eventually arrested for murder. The trial goes poorly when many of the jurors are from the mob that lynched him. But Belton's case reaches the attention of Bernard who uses his political connections to appeal Belton's verdict.

Belton later contacts Bernard asking him to come to Waco, Texas without any more explanation. Bernard agrees to come to his friend. Belton reveals the existence of the Imperium in Imperio, a shadow state consisting of black men aiming to counteract segregation and to protect blacks in the south from persecution and violence. Belton and others in the Imperium believe that Bernard could be their George Washington.

Bernard is eventually elected president of the Imperium and they concoct a plan to infiltrate the United States Navy and use it to protect a new nation they plan to form in the heart of Texas. Belton opposes this plan, still holding onto his belief in the United States and that it would be wrong to betray the nation. He remains committed to the goal of improving the states rather than seceding and tenders his resignation from the Imperium, knowing full well that he'll be executed by his peers for attempting to leave. The members of the Imperium attempt to allow Belton to escape his sentence, but Belton refuses. Bernard and the Imperium execute Belton for his treason.

The novel opens with a confession from Berl Trout, a member of the Imperium who declares himself a traitor to his race, and an explication of the events surrounding Belton and the Imperium. After Belton's death, Trout writes that he was moved by Belton's convictions and betrays the Imperium, revealing its existence to the world and leaving it to the audience to judge the novel's events.

Characters
  • Belton Piedmont – An educated black man and member of the Imperium. Belton is acutely aware of racial discrimination for the whole of his life, but ultimately chooses to pursue integration and advocates peace. He is modeled on Booker T. Washington.[1]
  • Bernard Belgrave – A schoolmate of Belton's and member of the Imperium. Contrasting with Belton, Bernard is much more militant and strongly advocates a military takeover of Texas.

Publishing

Imperium in Imperio was originally published by the Editor Publishing Company and sold door-to-door,[2][3] and didn't see much popularity in its printing life.[4]

Reception

The book was one of few novels written around 1900 that had all black major characters, and was "virtually unknown to white Americans".[5] William Loren Katz, writing in the Journal of Black Studies, concluded that, although the book had "implausible and transparent characters and plot," and Griggs had "meager talents as a writer and lack of political sophistication and depth," he still "managed to capture a neglected but crucial moment and mood in the history of black America."[6] The book was, according to Jack M. Beckham II "a relatively obscure work that has been almost completely ignored by critics."[7] However, following a republication by the University Of West Virginia Press in 2003,[8] the book has been the subject of numerous studies, for instance on its portrayal of: "oratory, embodiment, and US citizenship",[9] collective efficiency,[10] the middle way in the National Baptist Convention,[11] utopia,[12] and black baptist radicalism.[13] Oxford Reference names the novel as "one of the most important novels of literary black nationalism."[8]

References
  1. Elder, Arlene A. (2002-01-01), "Imperium in Imperio", The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195138832.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-513883-2, retrieved 2020-01-01
  2. Rusert, Britt (2017-04-18). Fugitive Science: Empiricism and Freedom in Early African American Culture. NYU Press. p. 245. ISBN 978-1-4798-8568-8.
  3. Meriwether, Colyer (1899). Imperium in Imperio. Southern History Association. pp. 229–230.
  4. Chakkalakal, Tess; Warren, Kenneth W. (2013). Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs. University of Georgia Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8203-4032-6.
  5. Kramer, David (2013). "Imperium in Imperio: Sutton Griggs's Imagined War of 1898" (PDF). War, Literature & the Arts. 25.
  6. Katz, William Loren (June 1971). "Book Reviews : Imperium in Imperio". Journal of Black Studies. 1 (4): 494–498. doi:10.1177/002193477100100408. ISSN 0021-9347.
  7. Beckham II, Jack M. (2005-01-01). "Griggs's Imperium in Imperio". The Explicator. 63 (2): 85–87. doi:10.1080/00144940509596900. ISSN 0014-4940.
  8. "Sutton Griggs - American Literature". Oxford Bibliographies. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  9. Karafilis, Maria (2006). "Oratory, Embodiment, and US Citizenship in Sutton E. Griggs's "Imperium in Imperio"". African American Review. 40 (1): 125–143. ISSN 1062-4783. JSTOR 40027036.
  10. Curry, Eric (2010). ""The Power of Combinations": Sutton Griggs' Imperium in Imperio and the Science of Collective Efficiency". American Literary Realism. 43 (1): 23–40. doi:10.1353/alr.2010.0004. ISSN 1540-3084. JSTOR 10.5406/amerlitereal.43.1.0023.
  11. Greene, Adrian (2014-03-22). "Church within a Church: Sutton E. Griggs's Imperium in Imperio and the Middle Way within the National Baptist Convention". The Mississippi Quarterly. 67 (2): 233. ISSN 0026-637X.
  12. Veselá, Pavla (2011). "Neither Black Nor White: The Critical Utopias of Sutton E. Griggs and George S. Schuyler". Science Fiction Studies. 38 (2): 270–287. doi:10.5621/sciefictstud.38.2.0270. ISSN 0091-7729. JSTOR 10.5621/sciefictstud.38.2.0270.
  13. Frazier, Larry (2000-03-22). "Sutton E. Griggs's Imperium in Imperio as Evidence of Black Baptist Radicalism". Baptist History and Heritage. 35 (2): 72. ISSN 0005-5719.

Further reading
  • Tess Chakkalakal and Kenneth W. Warren (eds.), Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2013.
  • Finnie D. Coleman, Sutton E. Griggs and the Struggle Against White Supremacy. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2007.
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