Imperium in Imperio is a novel that focuses on the problem of race in America. Sutton Griggs portrays the tale of a radical yet secret movement, told by two contemporaries. This is the first major political novel written by an African-American. The main characters of the novel confront the torment and conflict of their time. Griggs deploys his characters to illustrate the climate of the day. He touches on such issues as miscegenation, Jim Crow, the political exploitation of the Black man, and the lack of protection of freed slaves (Griggs 8).

The novel was published in 1899, during the heat of the Post-Bellum period. At this point in time Blacks had only experienced thirty four years of freedom. The Reconstruction era marked the further deconstruction of the Black man (Armah 176). Associations such as the Freedman's Bureau and other philanthropists assisted free men in integrating into society. On the contrary...