The papers which are herewith submitted to you for your perusal and consideration, were delivered into my hands by Mr. Berl Trout.
The papers will speak for themselves, but Mr. Trout now being dead I feel called upon to say a word concerning him.
Mr. Berl Trout was Secretary of State in the Imperium In Imperio, from the day of its organization until the hour of his sad death. He was, therefore, thoroughly conversant with all of the details of that great organization.
The novel opens with two sections before officially commencing with Chapter 1. The first pre-narrative section is in the form of a letter by the author under his actual name indicating both the time and location of the writing: March 1, 1899 in Berkley, Virginia. Although such prefatory material might seem unusual, this example actually harkens back to the earliest days of the novel’s formulation in which writers who were seeking to gain approval for their decision to write within this new and untrusted medium would induce a higher respect by asserting that there was within its pages some semblance of actual historical fact.
For decades, as an example, many readers were convinced that the titular character in Aphra Behn’s Oronooko was a historical figure and even to this day there remains some debate over whether Behn actually visited the exotic setting of the book or not. Long before the widespread acceptance of “fake news” as real news regardless of the insanity of certain conspiracy theories, it has been an effective strategy to induce readers to believe absolute fictions by making some sort of claim to their being based on a truth stories. For the record: although the two main characters in the novel may be based upon well-known historical figures, the story in which they appear is not true.
I am a traitor. I have violated an oath that was as solemn and binding as any ever taken by man on earth…While I acknowledge that I am a traitor, I also pronounce myself a patriot.
The second piece of prefatory material before the narrative officially begins takes the form of dying declaration penned by Berl Trout, the subject of the quote above. What the author is setting up here with these introductory pieces is situating the reality of the story to come. What is to come if often included for commentary in discussions of utopian or dystopian novels. What is significant about this dying declaration is that Trout’s confession to being a traitor is directed not toward his country—he is not confessing to betraying America—but to his race. Likewise his claim to patriotism is not toward country, but it is also not toward his race. It in this claim which things get fuzzy and murkiness is ultimately the whole point of the novel: he claims to be a patriot in the name of humanity, both black and white.
The cringing, fawning, sniffling, cowardly Negro which slavery left, had disappeared, and a new Negro, self-respecting, fearless, and determined in the assertion of his rights was at hand.
This is almost certainly beyond argument the most famous quote from this admittedly little-known novel. The quote’s assertion of a change in the temperament of black Americans in the aftermath of slavery, emancipation and Reconstruction is part of the novel’s adoption of a concept to which the term “race travel” has been ascribed. Although Griggs’ letter to the public affirmatively affixes a general dating of the event to its setting, the incidents indicate a setting much later in time. Thus, the novel becomes prescient in foreseeing that this transformation of the situation and circumstances of blacks in America would eventually come to pass. In this light, the story becomes one not so much about what actually was happening in the country at the time, but a futuristic portrait of things to come. This is why it is often categorized as belonging to the genre of speculative science fiction.
