"25
Books That Changed the History of
African-America"
Book
3: David Walker’s Appeal
In
1829, David Walker, a free man of color living in Boston, gave
himself a forty-fourth birthday present publication of his anti-slavery
pro-revolt pamphlet.
Its
title in full: “Walker’s Appeal in four Articles: Together with
a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in particular
and very expressly, to those of the United States, written in
Boston, State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829.”
Published
within memory of the Haitian revolution of 1799, Gabriel Prosser’s
slave revolt of 1800, and Denmark Vesey’s barely-aborted revolt
of 1822, Walker called for a massive armed uprising by slaves
and freemen to end, once and for all, the scourge of slavery.
In so doing, Walker recognized the danger to his person and paid
the ultimate price with his mysterious disappearance and murder.
But,
as match to torch, the arguments raised in the pages of his “Appeal”
have ignited scholar-activists from Frederick Douglass to Marcus
Garvey, W. E. B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan.
For
the full text of the Appeal, the words “Walker’s Appeal” in your
favorite search engine will list several sources.
©
Janus Adams 2003
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