| David Walker (1785-1830)
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
David Walker
88 p.
Boston:
REVISED AND PUBLISHED BY DAVID WALKER.
1830.
Call number VCC326.4 W17a (North Carolina Collection, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
....we Coloured People of these United States, are, the most
wretched, degraded and abject set of beings that over lived since the
world began, down to the present day, and, that, the white Christians of
America, who hold us in slavery, (or, more properly speaking, pretenders
to Christianity,) treat us more cruel and barbarous than any Heathen
nation did any people whom it had subjected, or reduced to the same
condition, that the Americans (who are, notwithstanding, looking for the
Millennial day) have us. All I ask is, for a candid and careful perusal
of this the third and last edition of my Appeal, where the world may see
that we, the Blacks or Coloured People, are treated more cruel by the
white Christians of America, than devils themselves ever treated a set
of men, women and children on this earth.
It is expected that all coloured men, women and children,**
** Who are not too deceitful, abject, and servile to resist the
cruelties and murders inflicted upon us by the white slave holders, our
enemies by nature.
of every nation, language and tongue under heaven, will try to procure a
copy of this Appeal and read it, or get some one to read it to them, for
it is designed more particularly for them. Let them remember, that
though our cruel oppressors and murderers, may (if possible) treat us
more cruel, as Pharoah did the children of Israel, yet the God of the
Etheopeans, has been pleased to hear our moans in consequence of
oppression; and the day of our redemption from abject wretchedness
draweth near, when we shall be enabled, in the most extended sense of
the word, to stretch forth our hands to the LORD our GOD, but there must
be a willingness on our part, for GOD to do these things for us, for we
may be assured that he will not take us by the hairs of our head against
our will and desire, and drag us from our very, mean, low and abject
condition.
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APPEAL, &c.
PREAMBLE.
My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens.
HAVING travelled over a considerable portion of these United States, and
having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate
observations of things as they exist--the result of my observations has
warranted the full and unshaken conviction, that we, (coloured people of
these United States,) are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of
beings that ever lived since the world began; and I pray God that none
like us ever may live again until time shall be no more. They tell us of
the Israelites in Egypt, the Helots in Sparta, and of the Roman Slaves,
which last were made up from almost every nation under heaven, whose
sufferings under those ancient and heathen nations, were, in comparison
with ours, under this enlightened and Christian nation, no more than a
cypher--or, in other words, those heathen nations of antiquity, had but
little more among them than the name and form of slavery; while
wretchedness and endless miseries were reserved, apparently in a phial,
to be poured out upon our fathers, ourselves and our children, by
Christian Americans!
......
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ARTICLE I.
OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF SLAVERY.
My beloved brethren:--The Indians of North and of South America--the
Greeks--the Irish, subjected under the king of Great Britain--the Jews,
that ancient people of the Lord--the inhabitants of the islands of the
sea--in fine, all the inhabitants of the earth, (except however, the
sons of Africa) are called men, and of course are, and ought to be free.
But we, (coloured people) and our children are brutes!! and of course
are, and ought to be SLAVES to the American people and their children
forever!! to dig their mines and work their farms; and thus go on
enriching them, from one generation to another with our blood and our
tears!!!!
I promised in a preceding page to demonstrate to the satisfaction of
the most incredulous, that we, (coloured people of these United States
of America) are the most wretched, degraded and abject set of beings
that ever lived since the world began, and that the white Americans
having reduced us to the wretched state of slavery, treat us in that
condition more cruel (they being an enlighted and Christian people),
than any heathen nation did any people whom it had reduced to our
condition. These affirmations are so well confirmed in the minds of all
unprejudiced men, who have taken the trouble to read histories, that
they need no elucidation from me. But to put them beyond all doubt, I
refer you in the first place to the children of Jacob, or of Israel in
Egypt, under Pharaoh and his people. Some of my brethren do not know who
Pharaoh and the Egyptians were--I know it to be a fact, that some of
them take the Egyptians to have been a gang of devils, not knowing any
better, and that they (Egyptians) having got possession of the Lord's
people, treated them nearly as cruel as Christian
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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; in fact, the man who will stand still and let
another murder him, is worse than an infidel, and, if he has common
sense, ought not to be pitied. The actions of this deceitful and
ignorant coloured woman, in saving the life of a desperate wretch, whose
avaricious and cruel object was to drive her, and her companions in
miseries, through the country like cattle, to make his fortune on their
carcasses, are but too much like that of thousands of our brethren in
these states: if any thing is whispered by one, which has any allusion
to the melioration of their dreadful condition, they run and tell
tyrants, that they may be enabled to keep them the longer in
wretchedness and miseries. Oh! coloured people of these United States, I
ask you, in the name of that God who made us, have we, in consequence of
oppression, nearly lost the spirit of man, and, in no very trifling
degree, adopted that of brutes? Do you answer, no?--I ask you, then,
what set of men can you point me to, in all the world, who are so
abjectly employed by their oppressors, as we are by our natural enemies?
How can, Oh! how can those enemies but say that we and our children are
not of the HUMAN FAMILY, but were made by our Creator to be an
inheritance to them and theirs for ever? How can the slaveholders but
say that they can bribe the best coloured person in the country, to sell
his brethren for a trifling sum of money, and take that atrocity to
confirm them in their avaricious opinion, that we were made to be slaves
to them and their children? How
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could Mr. Jefferson but say, *
* See his Notes on Virginia, page 213.
" I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether
originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances,
are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and
mind?"--It," says he, "is not against experience to suppose, that
different species of the same genius, or varieties of the same species,
may possess different qualifications." [Here, my brethren, listen to
him.] "Will not a lover of natural history, then, one who views the
gradations in all the races of animals with the eye of philosophy,
excuse an effort to keep those in the department of MAN as distinct as
nature has formed them?"--I hope you will try to find out the meaning of
this verse--its widest sense and all its bearings: whether you do or
not, remember the whites do. This very verse, brethren, having emanated
from Mr. Jefferson, a much greater philosopher the world never afforded,
has in truth injured us more, and has been as great a barrier to our
emancipation as any thing that has ever been advanced against us. I hope
you will not let it pass unnoticed. He goes on further, and says: "This
unfortunate difference of colour, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful
obstacle to the emancipation of these people. Many of their advocates,
while they wish to vindicate the liberty of human nature are anxious
also to preserve its dignity and beauty. Some of these, embarrassed by
the question, 'What further is to be done with them?' join themselves in
opposition with those who are actuated by sordid avarice only." Now I
ask you candidly, my suffering brethren in time, who are candidates for
the eternal worlds, how could Mr. Jefferson but have given the world
these remarks respecting us, when we are so submissive to them, and so
much servile deceit prevail among ourselves--when we so meanly submit
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to their murderous lashes, to which neither the Indians nor any other
people under Heaven would submit? No, they would die to a man, before
they would suffer such things from men who are no better than
themselves, and perhaps not so good. Yes, how can our friends but be
embarrassed, as Mr. Jefferson says, by the question, "What further is to
be done with these people?" For while they are working for our
emancipation, we are, by our treachery, wickedness and deceit, working
against ourselves and our children--helping ours, and the enemies of
God, to keep us and our dear little children in their infernal chains of
slavery!!! Indeed, our friends cannot but relapse and join themselves
"with those who are actuated by sordid avarice only!!!!" For my own
part, I am glad Mr. Jefferson has advanced his positions for your sake;
for you will either have to contradict or confirm him by your own
actions, and not by what our friends have said or done for us; for those
things are other men's labours, and do not satisfy the Americans, who
are waiting for us to prove to them ourselves, that we are MEN, before
they will be willing to admit the fact; for I pledge you my sacred word
of honour, that Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us, have sunk deep
into the hearts of millions of the whites, and never will be removed
this side of eternity.--For how can they, when we are confirming him
every day, by our groveling submissions and treachery? I aver, that when
I look over these United States of America, and the world, and see the
ignorant deceptions and consequent wretchedness of my brethren, I am
brought oftimes solemnly to a stand, and in the midst of my reflections
I exclaim to my God, "Lord didst thou make us to be slaves to our
brethren, the whites?" But when I reflect that God is just, and that
millions of my wretched brethren would meet death with glory--yea, more,
would plunge into the very mouths of cannons and be torn into particles
as minute as the
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atoms which compose the elements of the earth, in preference to a mean
submission to the lash of tyrants, I am with streaming eyes, compelled
to shrink back into nothingness before my Maker, and exclaim again, thy
will be done, O Lord God Almighty
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