David Walker Research Paper
My name is David Walker and I was an abolitionist reformer during the Antebellum Era. I was born in 1796 in Wilmington, North Carolina. When I was born, my father was an enslaved man and my mother was a free woman. Due to the states’ rights at that time I inherited my mother’s free title. However, being a free man never kept me from witnessing the horrors of slavery. As time went on and slavery continued, I felt the urge to leave my hometown because, “I could not remain where I must hear slaves’ chains continually and where I must encounter the insults of their hypocritical enslavers”. My choice to leave to Boston, Massachusetts in 1815 when I was 19 years old, was mostly enforced by my continuous urge to fight against slavery and to share my abolitionist views on slavery with the rest of the country. I would not have been able to do anything in my little hometown of Wilmington. While in Boston I became greatly involved in the Massachusetts General Colored Association, which was an organization that was opposed to all slavery and racism. I had found my calling, but I wanted to take this association a step further and in order to do so, I started writing speeches and documents that I would read aloud to the public that were
…show more content…
So, in 1829 I published a pamphlet entitled “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”. In my appeal, I used references from the bible and the Declaration of Independence to argue my view on abolition and the antislavery movement. Some people such as William Lloyd Garrison, denounced my appeal by saying I was advocating violence. However, back then violence was what slaves needed to regain their humanity; I was not trying to use violence as a reprisal
So, in 1829 I published a pamphlet entitled “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”. In my appeal, I used references from the bible and the Declaration of Independence to argue my view on abolition and the antislavery movement. Some people such as William Lloyd Garrison, denounced my appeal by saying I was advocating violence. However, back then violence was what slaves needed to regain their humanity; I was not trying to use violence as a reprisal