From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or Struggles for Freedom: Lucy Delaney's 1892 Slave Narrative, Manifest Destiny, and Democracy features two essays which explore the background and contexts of the narrative through discussion of Missouri's statehood and the place of Africans and their descendants and Native Americans in American history and life.

In St. Louis, Missouri after suing for her freedom in 1841, Polly Crockett Berry Wash sued for her daughter, Lucy's freedom in 1842.  Lucy's narrative tells the story of the traumatic circumstances in which her freedom and future hang in the balance based on the interpretation of comity between Missouri and Illinois.  The narrative stands as a precursor to the increasingly tense conflict between abolition and pro-slavery interests, which culminates in the controversial Supreme Court decision that declared Dred and Harriet Scott slaves for life after they sued in the St. Louis court to gain their freedom and set the precedent for the ongoing struggle for Africans and their descendants to gain citizenship.

In addition to the lawsuit discussed in Delaney's narrative, other cases make up the collection of St. Louis Freedom Suits providing an archive of information that reveals the complexity of enslaved peoples' struggle to negotiate the politics of race and the law.  Delaney's narrative intersects the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the removal and marginalization of Native Americans, adding historical depth to the context in which she challenges the law while the nation markets a democratic ideal that contradicts its laws, policies, and practices.