David Walker's Appeal

First published in 1829, Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles, Together with a Preamble, to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America, is one of the United States’s first examples of abolitionist literature. The text’s author, the free Black abolitionist David Walker, condemned American slavery as the cruelest and most inhumane practice in the history of humanity, made all the worse by the United States’s claim to be a Christian nation. He calls on his African American brethren to fight against the oppression they experience and calls on white Americans to see the immorality of slavery and repent. Walker explores these contradictions between slavery and Christian democratic ideals as well as the role of education and religion in uplifting oppressed populations. At the time of publication, there was no national emancipation movement, and Walker’s Appeal was considered quite radical. However, it soon became a key text in abolitionist literature and inspired generations of abolitionists and civil rights activists.

This guide uses the 2012 Public Domain Kindle edition titled Walker's Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life And Also Garnet's Address to the Slaves of the United States of America.