As many African American activists would later intone, the key to overcoming oppression was solidarity and autonomy: one had to stand together with his fellows, secure in the knowledge of his own rights and potential and assert against a common enemy. Only then would freedom be attained. David Walker (1796-1830) would be among the first to risk his life to bring the message of freedom to African Americans and to challenge, head-on, a white power structure determined to prevent his success.
Walker was born in Cape Fear, NC, to a free mother and an enslaved father who passed away before David was born. The law of the land dictated "partus sequitur ventrem" (that which is brought forth follows the womb/the child follows the condition of the mother), he too was free. As a young man, he often bemoaned the condition of fellow blacks who were still enslaved, finding it unbearable to look on while others suffered in bondage. He relocated to Charleston, SC, a haven for free blacks, which led to his involvement with the African American Methodist Church (AME) and with activism. From there he would move to Philadelphia and then on to Boston by 1825. Shortly thereafter, he would marry, and set up a used clothing business. The American Revolutionary War had brought an end to slavery in Boston, and by this time, the racial climate was comparatively mild. Nevertheless, Walker was active in anti-slavery activism and an outspoken opponent of the Peculiar Institution, having founded the Massachusetts General Colored Association and writing for the first African American owned and operated newspaper, Freedom's Journal. These activities and his outspokenness had, as 1828 came to a close, elevated Walker to Boston's premier spokesman against slavery and racial injustice. The next year, he would publish his Appeal (1).
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 of America, Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829.
In this brief pamphlet, its author railed against the assumptions of white inferiority made by former president, Thomas Jefferson, alarmed the nation by alleging that racism was a "national problem" and that "slavery was its most egregious manifestation" (Gates, et al. 159). He attacked the American Colonization Society for its plans to deport newly freed African Americans to a distant enclave in Africa now known as Liberia (2). Most notably, Walker called upon African Americans--free and enslaved--to assert themselves against their white oppressor and to band together as one. His would be perhaps the earliest call for Black Nationalism, and would inspire a progeny of black authors, scholars, philosophers, and activists to harken to Walker's Appeal.
Walker's pamphlet was more than mere militant outcry. He carefully structured his Appeal according to that of the United States Constitution--in so doing, he signified against the very document that excluded him. In its formalized language and orderly segments, Walker synthesizes the two master texts that white southerners had used as tools against African Americans: the Constitution and the Bible. While reinventing a social contract for the African American that enfranchised him equally, he exposed the religious hypocrisy practiced by whites. Stridently denouncing the wretched condition to which blacks had been rendered, he called for "constructive social change" that would rehabilitate the minds and bodies of black Americans and align them under a "unity of purpose." Strength garnered from numbers and resolve would bring about a future of freedom. This pamphlet was, of course, heresy from the standpoint of most whites: the white power structure took great pains to keep its pages from the slave population (160).
While rumor persisted that Walker was poisoned to death, recent scholars assert that the pamphleteer and activist died from tuberculosis. However, in his short time on earth, Walker presented future generations with a model to follow, one that would inspire the call for unity and solidarity, pride in one's self, and resistance to tyranny.
(images from Wikipedia.com)
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