David Walker's Appeal

by Walker, David; Wilentz, Sean

• ISBN13: 9780809015818
• ISBN10: 0809015811
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-04-30
• Publisher: Hill and Wang

Summary

David Walker's Appealis a landmark work of American history and letters, the most radical piece of writing by an African American in the nineteenth century. Startling in its intensity, unrelenting in its attacks on slavery and white racism, it alarmed Southern slaveholders, inspired Northern abolitionists, and hastened the sectional conflicts that led to the Civil War. In this new edition of theAppeal, the distinguished historian Sean Wilentz draws on a generation of innovative research to throw fresh light on Walker's life and ideas--and their enduring importance.

Author Biography

David Walker was born in or near Wilmington, North Carolina, the son of a slave father and a free black mother (thus, under the laws of slavery, he was born free). the year of his birth is uncertain, although the most convincing recent research contends that it was 1796 or 1797. By his own account in the Appeal, Walker left Wilmington as a young man and wandered around the United States, residing for an unspecified period in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1825, he turned up as a used-clothes dealer in Boston, where he would spend the rest of his abbreviated life. He died suddenly in 1830.

Sean Wilentz is the Cotsen Fellow and professor of history at Princeton University. His books include Chants Democratic and, with Paul E. Johnson, The Kingdom of Matthias.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Mysteries of David Walker
Preamble	p. 1
Article I: Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Slavery	p. 7
Article II: Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Ignorance	p. 19
Article III: Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ	p. 35
Article IV: Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Colonizing Plan	p. 45
Appendix I: Walker's Address to the Massachusetts General Colored Association	p. 79
Appendix II: Edward Smith's Confession of Sedition in Distributing Copies of the Appeal	p. 85
Selected Reading	p. 89
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