An appeal to colored citizens of the world

David Walker on the Declaration of Independence

David Walker, a free African American and antislavery activist based in Boston, Massachusetts, wrote a pamphlet that pushed the antislavery movement toward demanding an immediate end to slavery. Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World argued that the brutality of American slavery made it one of the worst examples of human bondage in the history of the world. And he predicted that the institution would most likely come to an end through an armed revolt. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was so troubled by this argument that he advocated a pacifist vision of immediate abolition that he hoped would forestall that outcome. Walker died under mysterious circumstances shortly after copies of his Appeal appeared in the South. The selection here comes from Walker’s Appeal. What does he say about the Declaration of Independence and slavery’s relationship to it?

David Walker, Extract from his Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, … to Those of the United States of America (Boston: 1829) Electronic Edition http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/walker.html

If any are anxious to ascertain who I am, know the world, that I am one of the oppressed, degraded and wretched sons of Africa, rendered so by the avaricious and unmerciful, among the whites.--If any wish to plunge me into the wretched incapacity of a slave, or murder me for the truth, know ye, that I am in the hand of God, and at your disposal. I count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be offered at any moment. For what is the use of living, when in fact I am dead. But remember, Americans, that as miserable, wretched, degraded and abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation, to support you and your families, that some of you, (whites) on the continent of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were born. You want slaves, and want us for your slaves!!! My colour will yet, root some of you out of the very face of the earth!!!!!! You may doubt it if you please. I know that thousands will doubt--they think they have us so well secured in wretchedness, to them and their children, that it is impossible for such things to occur.

Why do the Slave-holders or Tyrants of America and their advocates fight so hard to keep my brethren from receiving and reading my Book of Appeal to them?--Is it because they treat us so well?--Is it because we are satisfied to rest in Slavery to them and their children?--Is is because they are treating us like men, by compensating us all over this free country!! for our labours?-- But why are the Americans so very fearfully terrified respecting my [antislavery] Book?--Why do they search vessels, &c. when entering the harbours of tyrannical States, to see if any of my Books can be found, for fear that my brethren [fellow African Americans] will get them to read. Why, I thought the Americans proclaimed to the world that they are a happy, enlightened, humane and Christian people, all the inhabitants of the country enjoy equal Rights!! America is the Asylum [place of protection] for the oppressed of all nations!!!

Now I ask the Americans to see the fearful terror they labor under for fear that my brethren will get my Book and read it--and tell me if their declaration is true--viz, if the United States of America is a Republican Government?--Is this not the most tyrannical, unmerciful, and cruel government under Heaven[?]….-But perhaps the Americans do their very best to keep my Brethren [fellow African Americans] from receiving and reading my "Appeal" [name of his book] for fear they will find in it an extract which I made from their Declaration of Independence, which says, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," &c. &c. &c.--….

[Allen extracts the following from the Declaration of Independence]

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires, that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.--We hold these truths to be self evident--that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that when ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…." ….See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language? Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776--"We hold these truths to be self evident--that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!" Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us--men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!!