David Walker
American abolitionist (1796–1830) whose 1829 Appeal called on Black Americans to resist slavery.
At a glance
Main ideas
Racial equality, Act, not only pray, Education and religion …
See all 4Books to start with
Walker's Appeal
Connections
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Walker was an American abolitionist and writer, born free in Wilmington, North Carolina, because his mother was free.
- He settled in Boston by 1825, ran a clothing store and became the city's leading spokesman against slavery.
- In 1829 he published An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, a call for Black unity and a fight against slavery.
- Southern states banned it and Georgia offered a reward for him.
- He died of tuberculosis in 1830.
Why it matters
- Historian Herbert Aptheker called the Appeal the first sustained written assault on slavery and racism by a Black man in the United States; Walker influenced Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Malcolm X.
Key facts
- Born
- 28 Sep 1796, Wilmington, North Carolina1
- Died
- 6 Aug 1830, Boston, of tuberculosis, as his death record lists1
- Status at birth
- Free, because his mother was free (partus sequitur ventrem); his father had been enslaved1
- Boston
- Settled there by 1825; married Eliza Butler on 23 Feb 1826; ran a used-clothing store1
- Freedom's Journal
- Boston subscription agent and writer for the first newspaper owned and run by African Americans (1827–1829)1
- Organizations
- Prince Hall Freemasonry; a founder of the Massachusetts General Colored Association, which opposed colonizing free Black Americans in Africa1
- Bounty
- Georgia announced $10,000 to anyone who handed him over alive, $1,000 if dead1
Main ideas
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Racial equality1
He rejected the idea that dark skin meant lesser humanity, and answered Thomas Jefferson's published claims of Black inferiority.
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Act, not only pray1
He urged Black Americans to take an active part in ending their oppression, whatever the risk.
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Education and religion1
Education would refute claims of inferiority, and the educated had a duty to teach others; he attacked preachers who held slaves.
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Against colonization1
He opposed the American Colonization Society's plan to send free Black people to Africa: "America is more our country, than it is the whites".
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
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His appeal to Black Americans, enslaved or free, to unite against slavery; his only book.
Connections
Writes
Links
Sources
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