Subverting the American Paradox: Race, Redemption, and Revolution in David Walker’s Appeal

Abstract

What role might the Declaration of Independence play in the struggle for racial justice in the United States? Dominant accounts suggest the Declaration’s principles have served as a wellspring for increasingly expanding rights claims, enabling progress in American history. However, critics allege that this redemptive view reinforces an exceptionalist national identity, disavows race’s constitutive role in ordering the polity, and circumscribes the scope of change. This article recovers an overlooked alternative through an analysis of David Walker’s 1829 pamphlet, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Like many abolitionists, Walker called upon the Declaration to authorize opposition to racial tyranny. However, his engagement with it was distinctively revolutionary rather than reverent: he rejected American exceptionalism but found in the nation’s central icon a radical model for contesting its fundamental injustices.