David Walker, 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 (1829) (selections)

Abstract

Abstract David Walker’s Appeal is the most influential black-authored political treatise written before the US Civil War. Walker’s militant calls for abolition by any means necessary, including violence, inspired antislavery activists and incensed authorities. In these selections Walker argues God will bring bloody justice upon the perpetrators of American chattel slavery. He also takes his fellow African American to task for not doing their part in improving their condition and working to free their brethren in chains.