David Walker (abolitionist)
David Walker (September 28, 1785 – June 28, 1830) was an American black abolitionist, most famous for his pamphlet Walker's Appeal, which called for black pride, demanded the immediate and universal emancipation of the slaves, and defended violent rebellion as a means for the slaves to gain their freedom.
The son of a slave father and a free black mother, Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, perhaps in 1796 or 1797. In accordance with existing laws, since his mother was a free black, he was also free. This freedom, however, did not shield him from witnessing firsthand the degradations and injustices of slavery. He witnessed much misery in his youth, including one disturbing episode of a son who was forced to whip his mother until she died. Walker travelled throughout the country, eventually settling in Boston. But even in that free northern city, with its prevalent discrimination, life was less than ideal for its black residents. Still, Walker apparently fared well, setting up a used-clothing store during the 1820s.
In Boston, Walker began to associate with prominent black activists. He joined institutions that denounced slavery in the South and discrimination in the North. He became involved with the nation's first African-American newspaper, the Freedom's Journal out of New York City, to which he frequently contributed. By the end of 1828, he had become Boston's leading spokesman against slavery.
In September of 1829 he published his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World. To reach his primary audience—the enslaved men and women of the South—Walker relied on sailors and ship's officers sympathetic to the cause who could transfer the pamphlet to southern ports. Walker even employed his clothing business which, being located close to the waterfront, served sailors who bought clothing for upcoming voyages. He sewed copies of his pamphlet into the lining of sailors' clothing. Once the pamphlets reached the South, they could be distributed throughout the region. Walker also sought the aid of of various contacts in the South who were also sympathetic to the cause.
David Walker published a third edition of his Appeal in June of 1830. Two months later he was found dead in his home.
Biography
Walker's father was a slave and his mother was free. According to North Carolina law, children born to free mothers were also free. Although Walker was not a slave, he was familiar with the cruelty of slavery. He had traveled throughout the South where he witnessed many inhumane accounts, including one where a son was forced to whip his mother to death. It was experiences like this, which most likely influenced his passion for the abolition of slavery. Walker moved to Boston in 1826. Like other blacks, he faced discrimination, but was able to open a used clothing store along the waterfront in 1827.
While in Boston, he met prominent black activists and became involved in the anti-slavery movement. He was active in the Underground Railroad, helped fugitive slaves with clothing, and wrote numerous articles for the New York City-based, African-American newspaper, the Freedom's Journal. In Boston, Walker made acquaintances with black rights activists and began to write and speak against slavery and racism, and, in 1828, he joined the Massachusetts General Colored Association [1], which had been organized in 1826.
Walker’s most notable contribution to abolitionism was his 76-page pamphlet of the Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World on September 28, 1829. The publication was a result of years of research of such topics as history, sociology, philosophy, and theology. Its message was directed to slaves and to all Africans throughout the world who were in bondage.
In the Appeal, Walker called for the immediate abolition of slavery, which at the time was an unusual argument. Instead, those against slavery usually called for the gradual abolition of slavery or colonization. Neither option was acceptable to him. According to Walker, as long as slavery existed, even free blacks were not free since their freedom was minimal.
Walker also attacked Thomas Jefferson's argument that blacks were inferior to whites. In response to Jefferson, Walker wrote:
- Has Mr. Jefferson declared to the world, that we are inferior to the whites, both in the endowments of our bodies and our minds? It is indeed surprising, that a man of such great learning, combined with such excellent natural parts, should speak so of a set of men in chains. I do not know what to compare it to, unless, like putting one wild deer in an iron cage, where it will be secured, and hold another by the side of the same, then let it go, and expect the one in the cage to run as fast as the one at liberty. So far, my brethren, were the Egyptians from heaping these insults upon their slaves, that Pharaoh's daughter took Moses, a son of Israel for her own, as will appear by the following.
Walker also used Christian language to assert that slavery was a sin. He concluded that because of this sin, God would punish the nation. Furthermore, he used the Declaration of Independence to provide support for the right of a revolution and natural rights.
He argued:
- See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language? Hear your languages, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776 — "We hold these truths to be self evident — that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!" Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us—men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!!
The Appeal caused a stir among slaveholders and slaves. In it, Walker argued that armed resistance was justified and should be used if necessary. As could be expected, slaveholders feared that it would cause slave uprisings. Slaves on the other hand, were encouraged by its message. It was common for groups of slaves to gather and listen to the reading of the text. Depending upon whether one was a slave or a slaveholder, the Appeal had become both dangerous and inspiring.
Southern states were quick to respond to the Appeal’s publication. Georgia and Louisiana passed legislation that made distribution of it illegal. North Carolina passed a law prohibiting slaves from being taught to read. In addition to the enactment of laws, a $10,000 reward was offered for Walker, either dead or alive.
On June 18, 1830, Walker died just months after completing the third edition of the Appeal. Walker’s sudden and mysterious death caused speculation that he was poisoned. However, proof of this has never been forthcoming. Although there was no evidence supporting the allegation, many believed that he had been poisoned. Later scholarship suggests he died of tuberculosis, the same disease that killed his daughter.
Social impact of the Appeal
In the Appeal, Walker argued that African Americans suffered more than any other people in the history of the world, and identified four causes for their "wretchedness:" slavery, a submissive and cringing attitude towards whites (even amongst free blacks), indifference by Christian ministers, and false help by groups such as the American Colonization Society, which promised freedom from slavery only on the condition that freed blacks would be forced to leave America for colonies in West Africa (Mayer, 83). The pamphlet called for immediate, universal, and unconditional emancipation — an uncommon position, even amongst antislavery activists, in the 1820s — and in particular condemned colonization plans, arguing:
Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites — we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears: — and will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood?
David Walker, Walker's Appeal, p. 71
Walker went even further, openly praising slaves who used violence in self-defense against their masters and overseers, and suggested that slaves kill their masters in order to gain freedom:
The whites have had us under them for more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes; and, as Mr. Jefferson wisely said, they have never found us out — they do not know, indeed, that there is an unconquerable disposition in the breasts of the blacks, which, when it is fully awakened and put in motion, will be subdued, only with the destruction of the animal existence. Get the blacks started, and if you do not have a gang of tigers and lions to deal with, I am a deceiver of the blacks and of the whites. ... [I]f you commence, make sure work — do not trifle, for they will not trifle with you — they want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us in order to subject us to that wretched condition — therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed. Now, I ask you, had you not rather be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant, who takes the life of your mother, wife, and dear little children? Look upon your mother, wife and children, and answer God Almighty; and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man, who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty; ....
David Walker, Walker's Appeal, pp. 29-30
Walker distributed his work through black civic associations in Northern cities, and tried many different schemes to get the pamphlet to slaves and free blacks in the South. By 1830, outraged white authorities in the Southern states had begun a campaign to suppress it. In New Orleans, four black men were arrested for owning it; vigilantes attacked free blacks in Walker's home in Wilmington. In Savannah, Georgia, the white authorities seized dozens of copies smuggled in by black sailors (who had bought jackets from Walker in Boston, who in turn had stitched copies into the lining); in response they banned black seaman from coming ashore at the city's port (Mayer 83, 84). The mayor of Savannah demanded that the mayor of Boston arrest Walker and outlaw the pamphlet: it was already illegal in Georgia to teach a slave to read (Boston's mayor refused the order). Plantation owners offered a $3,000 bounty for Walker's death, and a $10,000 reward for anyone who brought him to the South alive [2].
The Appeal made a great impression in the South, with both slaves and slaveholders. To the slaves the words were inspiring and instilled a sense of pride and hope. Horrified whites, on the other hand, initiated laws that forbade blacks to learn to read and banned the distribution of antislavery literature. They offered a $3,000 reward for Walker's head, and $10,000 to anyone who could bring him to the South alive. Friends concerned about his safety implored him to flee to Canada. Walker responded that he would stand his ground. "Somebody must die in this cause," he added. "I may be doomed to the stake and the fire, or to the scaffold tree, but it is not in me to falter if I can promote the work of emancipation." A devout Christian, he believed that abolition was a "glorious and heavenly cause."
Legacy
David Walker's objective was nothing short of revolutionary. He would arouse slaves of the South into rebelling against their master. His tool would be his own pamphlet, the Appeal, a document that has been described as "for a brief and terrifying moment. . ., the most notorious document in America."
The Appeal was controversial even among abolitionists, and sparked debates that in many ways anticipated later debates over black nationalism and Black Power. Many white abolitionists, such as Benjamin Lundy, condemned it as inflammatory, and argued that it appealed to the worst passions of vengeance. William Lloyd Garrison expressed mixed feelings, criticizing the appeal to violence on the grounds of his religious pacifism, while arguing that Walker's call for violent revolution against slave-holders was the logical extension of the principles behind the American revolution, and that "if any people were ever justified in throwing off the yoke of their tyrants, the slaves are that people" [3].
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Hinks, Peter P. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0271015798
- Mayer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery, St. Martin's Press, 1998. B0000TNRHA
- Walker, David. David Walker's Appeal, Black Classics Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0933121386
External links
- Walker's Appeal, at Documenting the American South
- Works by David Walker. Project Gutenberg
- David Walker, David Walker's Appeal ... To the Coloured Citizens of the World, 1829.
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