David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet - Walker\'s Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life

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Transcriber's Note: This book includes several pointing hand symbols.
A hand pointing to the left is represented as [<-Hand] and a hand
pointing to the right is represented as [Hand->].

WALKER'S APPEAL,

WITH A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.

BY

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.

AND ALSO

GARNET'S ADDRESS

TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

NEW-YORK:
Printed by J.H. Tobitt, 9 Spruce st
1848.

PREFACE.

Such is the very high esteem which is entertained for the memory of
DAVID WALKER, and so general is the desire to preserve his
"Appeal," that the subscriber has undertaken, and performed the task
of re-publication, with a brief notice of his life, having procured
permission from his widow, Mrs. Dewson.

The work is valuable, because it was among the first, and was actually
the boldest and most direct appeal in behalf of freedom, which was
made in the early part of the Anti-Slavery Reformation. When the
history of the emancipation of the bondmen of America shall be
written, whatever name shall be placed first on the list of heroes,
that of the author of the Appeal will not be second.

_Troy, N.Y., April 12, 1848._

A BRIEF SKETCH

OF THE

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DAVID WALKER.

It is generally the desire of the reader of any intellectual
production, to know something of the character and the life of the
author. The character of _David Walker_ is indicated in his writings.
In regard to his life, but a few materials can be gathered; but what
is known of him, furnishes proof to the opinion which the friends of
man have formed of him--that he possessed a noble and a courageous
spirit, and that he was ardently attached to the cause of liberty.

Mr. Walker was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sept. 28, 1785. His
mother was a free woman, and his father was a slave. His innate hatred
to slavery was very early developed. When yet a boy, he declared that
the slaveholding South was not the place for him. His soul became so
indignant at the wrongs which his father and his kindred bore, that he
determined to find some portion of his country where he would see less
to harrow up his soul. Said he, "If I remain in this bloody land, I
will not live long. As true as God reigns, I will be avenged for the
sorrow which my people have suffered. This is not the place for
me--no, no. I must leave this part of the country. It will be a great
trial for me to live on the same soil where so many men are in
slavery; certainly I cannot remain where I must hear their chains
continually, and where I must encounter the insults of their
hypocritical enslaver. Go, I must."

The youthful Walker embraced his mother, and received a mother's
blessings, and turned his back upon North Carolina. His father died a
few months before his birth; and it is a remarkable coincidence, that
the son of the subject of this Memoir, was a posthumous child.

After leaving home, David Walker travelled rapidly towards the North,
shaking off the dust of his feet, and breathing curses upon the system
of human slavery, America's darling institution. As might be expected,
he met with trials during his journey; and at last he reached Boston,
Mass., where he took up his permanent residence. There he applied
himself to study, and soon learned to read and write, in order that he
might contribute something to the cause of humanity. Mr. Walker, like
most of reformers, was a poor man--he lived poor, and died poor.

In 1827 be entered into the clothing business in Brattle street, in
which he prospered; and had it not been for his great liberality and
hospitality, he would have become wealthy. In 1828, he married Miss
Eliza ----. He was emphatically a self-made man, and he spent all his
leisure moments in the cultivation of his mind. Before the
Anti-Slavery Reformation had assumed a form, he was ardently engaged
in the work. His hands were always open to contribute to the wants of
the fugitive. His house was the shelter and the home of the poor and
needy. Mr. Walker is known principally by his "APPEAL," but it was in
his private walks, and by his unceasing labors in the cause of
freedom, that he has made his memory sacred.

With an overflowing heart, he published his "Appeal" in 1829. This
little book produced more commotion among slaveholders than any volume
of its size that was ever issued from an American press. They saw that
it was a bold attack upon their idolatry, and that too by a black man
who once lived among them. It was merely a smooth stone which this
David took up, yet it terrified a host of Goliaths. When the fame of
this book reached the South, the poor, cowardly, pusillanimous
tyrants, grew pale behind their cotton bags, and armed themselves to
the teeth. They set watches to look after their happy and contented
slaves. The Governor of GEORGIA wrote to the Hon. Harrison Grey Otis,
the Mayor of Boston, requesting him to suppress the Appeal. His Honor
replied to the Southern Censor, that he had no power nor disposition
to hinder Mr. Walker from pursuing a lawful course in the utterance of
his thoughts. A company of Georgia men then bound themselves by an
oath, that they would eat as little as possible until they had killed
the youthful author. They also offered a reward of a thousand dollars
for his head, and ten times as much for the live Walker. His consort,
with the solicitude of an affectionate wife, together with some
friends, advised him to go to Canada, lest he should be abducted.
Walker said that he had nothing to fear from such a pack of coward
blood-hounds; but if he did go, he would hurl back such thunder across
the great lakes, that would cause them to tremble in their strong
holds. Said he, "I will stand my ground. _Somebody must die in this
cause._ I may be doomed to the stake and the fire, or to the scaffold
tree, but it is not in me to falter if I can promote the work of
emancipation." He did not leave the country, but was soon laid in the
grave. It was the opinion of many that he was hurried out of life by
the means of poison, but whether this was the case or not, the writer
is not prepared to affirm.

He had many enemies, and not a few were his brethren whose cause he
espoused. They said that he went too far, and was making trouble. So
the Jews spoke of Moses. They valued the flesh-pots of Egypt more than
the milk and honey of Canaan. He died 1830 in Bridge street, at the
hopeful and enthusiastic age of 34 years. His ruling passion blazed up
in the hour of death, and threw an indescribable grandeur over the
last dark scene. The heroic young man passed away without a struggle,
and a few weeping friends

"Saw in death his eyelids close,
Calmly, as to a night's repose,
Like flowers at set of sun."

The personal appearance of Mr. Walker was prepossessing, being six
feet in height, slender and well proportioned. His hair was loose, and
his complexion was dark. His son, the only child he left, is now 18
years of age, and is said to resemble his father; he now resides at
Charlestown, Mass., with his mother, Mrs. Dewson. Mr. Walker was a
faithful member of the Methodist Church at Boston, whose pastor is the
venerable father Snowden.

The reader thus has a brief notice of the life and character of David
Walker.

WALKER'S

APPEAL,

IN FOUR ARTICLES,

TOGETHER WITH

A PREAMBLE,

TO THE

COLORED CITIZENS OF THE WORLD,

BUT IN PARTICULAR, AND VERY EXPRESSLY TO THOSE OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

_Written in Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, Sept. 28, 1829._

SECOND EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS, &c.

BY DAVID WALKER.

1830.

APPEAL. &c.

PREAMBLE.

_My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens:_

Having travelled over a considerable portion of these United States,
and having, in the course of my travels taken the most accurate
observations of things as they exist--the result of my observations
has warranted the full and unshakened conviction, that we, (colored
people of these United States) are the most degraded, wretched, and
abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began, and I pray
God, that none like us ever may live again until time shall be no
more. They tell us of the Israelites in Egypt, the Helots in Sparta,
and of the Roman Slaves, which last, were made up from almost every
nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those ancient and heathen
nations were, in comparison with ours, under this enlightened and
christian nation, no more than a cypher--or in other words, those
heathen nations of antiquity, had but little more among them than the
name and form of slavery, while wretchedness and endless miseries were
reserved, apparently in a phial, to be poured out upon our fathers,
ourselves and our children by _christian_ Americans!

These positions, I shall endeavour, by the help of the Lord, to
demonstrate in the course of this _appeal_, to the satisfaction of the
most incredulous mind--and may God Almighty who is the father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, open your hearts to understand and believe the
truth.

The _causes_, my brethren, which produce our wretchedness and
miseries, are so very numerous and aggravating, that I believe the pen
only of a Josephus or a Plutarch, can well enumerate and explain them.
Upon subjects, then, of such incomprehensible magnitude, so
impenetrable, and so notorious, I shall be obliged to omit a large
class of, and content myself with giving you an exposition of a few of
those, which do indeed rage to such an alarming pitch, that they
cannot but be a perpetual source of terror and dismay to every
reflecting mind.

I am fully aware, in making this appeal to my much afflicted and
suffering brethren, that I shall not only be assailed by those whose
greatest earthly desires are, to keep us in abject ignorance and
wretchedness, and who are of the firm conviction that heaven has
designed us and our children to be slaves and _beasts of burden_ to
them and their children.--I say, I do not only expect to be held up to
the public as an ignorant, impudent and restless disturber of the
public peace, by such avaricious creatures, as well as a mover of
insubordination--and perhaps put in prison or to death, for giving a
superficial exposition of our miseries, and exposing tyrants. But I am
persuaded, that many of my brethren, particularly those who are
ignorantly in league with slave-holders or tyrants, who acquire their
daily bread by the blood and sweat of their more ignorant
brethren--and not a few of those too, who are too ignorant to see an
inch beyond their noses, will rise up and call me cursed--Yea, the
jealous ones among us will perhaps use more abject subtlety by
affirming that this work is not worth perusing; that we are well
situated and there is no use in trying to better our condition, for we
cannot. I will ask one question here.--Can our condition be any
worse?--Can it be more mean and abject? If there are any changes, will
they not be for the better, though they may appear for the worse at
first? Can they get us any lower? Where can they get us? They are
afraid to treat us worse, for they know well, the day they do it they
are gone. But against all accusations which may or can be preferred
against me, I appeal to heaven for my motive in writing--who knows
that my object is, if possible, to awaken in the breasts of my
afflicted, degraded and slumbering brethren, a spirit of enquiry and
investigation respecting our miseries and wretchedness in this
_Republican Land of Liberty!!!!!_

The sources from which our miseries are derived and on which I shall
comment, I shall not combine in one, but shall put them under distinct
heads and expose them in their turn; in doing which, keeping truth on
my side, and not departing from the strictest rules of morality, I
shall endeavor to penetrate, search out, and lay them open for your
inspection. If you cannot or will not profit by them, I shall have
done _my_ duty to you, my country and my God.

And as the inhuman system of _slavery_, is the _source_ from which
most of our miseries proceed, I shall begin with that _curse to
nations_; which has spread terror and devastation through so many
nations of antiquity, and which is raging to such a pitch at the
present day in Spain and in Portugal. It had one tug in England, in
France, and in the United States of America; yet the inhabitants
thereof, do not learn wisdom, and erase it entirely from their
dwellings and from all with whom they have to do. The fact is, the
labor of slaves comes so cheap to the avaricious usurpers, and is (as
they think) of such great utility to the country where it exists, that
those who are actuated by sordid avarice only, overlook the evils,
which will as sure as the Lord lives, follow after the good. In fact,
they are so happy to keep in ignorance and degradation, and to receive
the homage and the labor of the slaves, they forget that God rules in
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, having
his ears continually open to the cries, tears and groans of his
oppressed people; and being a just and holy Being will at one day
appear fully in behalf of the oppressed, and arrest the progress of
the avaricious oppressors; for although the destruction of the
oppressors God may not effect by the oppressed, yet the Lord our God
will bring other destructions upon them--for not unfrequently will he
cause them to rise up one against another, to be split and divided,
and to oppress each other, and sometimes to open hostilities with
sword in hand. Some may ask, what is the matter with this enlightened
and happy people?--Some say it is the cause of political usurpers,
tyrants, oppressors, &c. But has not the Lord an oppressed and
suffering people among them? Does the Lord condescend to hear their
cries and see their tears in consequence of oppression? Will he let
the oppressors rest comfortably and happy always? Will he not cause
the very children of the oppressors to rise up against them, and
oftimes put them to death? "God works in many ways his wonders to
perform."

I will not here speak of the destructions which the Lord brought upon
Egypt, in consequence of the oppression and consequent groans of the
oppressed--of the hundreds and thousands of Egyptians whom God hurled
into the Red Sea for afflicting his people in their land--of the
Lord's suffering people in Sparta or Lacedemon, the land of the truly
famous Lycurgus--nor have I time to comment upon the cause which
produced the fierceness with which Sylla usurped the title, and
absolutely acted as dictator of the Roman people--the conspiracy of
Cataline--the conspiracy against, and murder of Caesar in the Senate
house--the spirit with which Marc Antony made himself master of the
commonwealth--his associating Octavius and Lipidus with himself in
power,--their dividing the provinces of Rome among themselves--their
attack and defeat on the plains of Phillipi the last defenders of
their liberty, (Brutus and Cassius)--the tyranny of Tiberius, and from
him to the final overthrow of Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan,
Mahomed II., A.D. 1453. I say, I shall not take up time to speak of
the _causes_ which produced so much wretchedness and massacre among
those heathen nations, for I am aware that you know too well, that God
is just, as well as merciful!--I shall call your attention a few
moments to that _christian_ nation, the Spaniards, while I shall leave
almost unnoticed that avaricious and cruel people, the Portuguese,
among whom all true hearted christians and lovers of Jesus Christ,
must evidently see the judgments of God displayed. To show the
judgments of God upon the Spaniards I shall occupy but little time,
leaving a plenty of room for the candid and unprejudiced to reflect.

All persons who are acquainted with history, and particularly the
Bible, who are not blinded by the God of this world, and are not
actuated solely by avarice--who are able to lay aside prejudice long
enough to view candidly and impartially, things as they were, are, and
probably will be, who are willing to admit that God made man to serve
him _alone_, and that man should have no other Lord or Lords but
himself--that God Almighty is the _sole proprietor_ or _master_ of the
WHOLE human family, and will not on any consideration admit of a
colleague, being unwilling to divide his glory with another.--And who
can dispense with prejudice long enough to admit that we are men,
notwithstanding our _improminent noses_ and _woolly heads_, and
believe that we feel for our fathers, mothers, wives and children as
well as they do for theirs.--I say, all who are permitted to see and
believe these things, can easily recognize the judgments of God among
the Spaniards. Though others may lay the cause of the fierceness with
which they cut each other's throats, to some other circumstances, yet
they who believe that God is a God of justice, will believe that
SLAVERY _is the principal cause_.

While the Spaniards are running about upon the field of battle cutting
each other's throats, has not the Lord an afflicted and suffering
people in the midst of them whose cries and groans in consequence of
oppression are continually pouring into the ears of the God of
justice? Would they not cease to cut each others throats if they
could? But how can they? The very support which they draw from
government to aid them in perpetrating such enormities, does it not
arise in a great degree from the wretched victims of oppression among
them? And yet they are calling for _Peace!--Peace!!_ Will any peace be
given unto them? Their destruction may indeed be procrastinated
awhile, but can it continue long while they are oppressing the Lord's
people? Has He not the hearts of all men in His hand? Will he suffer
one part of his creatures to go on oppressing another like brutes
always, with impunity? And yet those avaricious wretches are calling
for _Peace!!!!_ I declare it does appear to me, as though some nations
think God is asleep, or that he made the Africans for nothing else but
to dig their mines and work their farms, or they cannot believe
history, sacred or profane. I ask every man who has a heart and is
blessed with the privilege of believing--Is not God a God of justice
to all his creatures? Do you say he is? Then if he gives peace and
tranquility to tyrants, and permits them to keep our fathers, our
mothers, ourselves and our children in eternal ignorance and
wretchedness to support them and their families, would he be to us a
God of _justice_? I ask O ye _christians!!!_ who hold us and our
children, in the most abject ignorance and degradation, that ever a
people were afflicted with since the world began--I say, if God gives
you peace and tranquility, and suffers you thus to go on afflicting
us and our children, who have never given you the least
provocation,--Would he be to us _a God of justice_? If you will allow
that we are MEN, who feel for each other, does not the blood of our
fathers and of us their children, cry aloud to the Lord of Sabaoth
against you, for the cruelties and murders with which you have, and do
continue to afflict us. But it is time for me to close my remarks on
the suburbs, just to enter more fully into the interior of this system
of cruelty and oppression.

ARTICLE I.

OUR WRETCHEDNESS IN CONSEQUENCE OF SLAVERY.

My beloved brethren: The Indians of North and of South America--the
Greeks--the Irish subjected under the king of Great Britain--the Jews
that ancient people of the Lord--the inhabitants of the islands of the
sea--in fine, all the inhabitants of the earth, (except however, the
sons of Africa) are called _men_, and of course are, and ought to be
free. But we, (coloured people) and our children are _brutes!!_ and of
course are and ought to be SLAVES to the American people and their
children forever! to dig their mines and work their farms; and thus go
on enriching them, from one generation to another with our blood and
our tears!!

I promised in a preceding page to demonstrate to the satisfaction of
the most incredulous, that we, (colored people of these United States
of America) are the _most wretched, degraded_ and abject set of beings
that ever _lived_ since the world began, and that the white Americans
having reduced us to the wretched state of _slavery_, treat us in that
condition _more cruel_ (they being an enlightened and Christian
people) than any heathen nation did any people whom it had reduced to
our condition. These affirmations are so well confirmed in the minds
of all unprejudiced men who have taken the trouble to read histories,
that they need no elucidation from me. But to put them beyond all
doubt, I refer you in the first place to the children of Jacob, or of
Israel in Egypt, under Pharaoh and his people. Some of my brethren do
not know who Pharaoh and the Egyptians were--I know it to be a fact
that some of them take the Egyptians to have been a gang of _devils_,
not knowing any better, and that they (Egyptians) having got
possession of the Lord's people, treated them _nearly_ as cruel as
_christians Americans_ do us, at the present day. For the information
of such, I would only mention that the Egyptians, were Africans or
colored people, such as we are--some of them yellow and others dark--a
mixture of Ethiopians and the natives of Egypt--about the same as you
see the colored people of the United States at the present day,--I
say, I call your attention then, to the children of Jacob, while I
point out particularly to you his son Joseph among the rest, in Egypt.

"And Pharaoh, said unto Joseph, thou shalt be over my house,
and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled;
only in the throne will I be greater than thou."[1]

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, see, I have set thee over all
the land of Egypt."[2]

"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without
thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land
of Egypt."[3]

Now I appeal to heaven and to earth, and particularly to the American
people themselves who cease not to declare that our condition is not
_hard_, and that we are comparatively satisfied to rest in
wretchedness and misery, under them and their children. Not, indeed,
to show me a colored President, a Governor, a Legislator, a Senator, a
Mayor, or an Attorney at the Bar.--But to show me a man of color, who
holds the low office of a Constable, or one who sits in a Juror Box,
even on a case of one of his wretched brethren, throughout this great
Republic!!--But let us pass Joseph the son of Israel a little further
in review, as he existed with that heathen nation.

"And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he
gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest
of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt."[4]

Compare the above, with the American institutions. Do they not
institute laws to prohibit us from marrying among the whites? I would
wish, candidly, however, before the Lord, to be understood, that I
would not give _a pinch of snuff_ to be married to any white person I
ever saw in all the days of my life. And I do say it, that the black
man, or man of color, who will leave his own color (provided he can
get one who is good for any thing) and marry a white woman, to be a
double slave to her just because she is _white_, ought to be treated
by her as he surely will be, viz; as a NIGER!!! It is not indeed what
I care about intermarriages with the whites, which induced me to pass
this subject in review; for the Lord knows, that there is a day coming
when they will be glad enough to get into the company of the blacks,
notwithstanding, we are, in this generation, levelled by them almost
on a level with the brute creation; and some of us they treat even
worse than they do the brutes that perish. I only made this extract to
show how much lower we are held, and how much more cruel we are
treated by the Americans, than were the children of Jacob, by the
Egyptians. We will notice the sufferings of Israel some further, under
_heathen Pharaoh_, compared with ours under the _enlightened
christians of America_.

"And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, thy father and thy
brethren are come unto thee:"

"The land of Egypt is before thee: in the best of the land
make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen
let them dwell; and if thou knowest any men of activity
among them, then make them rulers over my cattle."[5]

I ask those people who treat us so _well_, Oh! I ask them, where is
the most barren spot of land which they have given unto us? Israel had
the most fertile land in all Egypt. Need I mention the very notorious
fact, that I have known a poor man of color, who labored night and
day, to acquire a little money, and having acquired it, he vested it
in a small piece of land, and got him a house erected thereon, and
having paid for the whole, he moved his family into it, where he was
suffered to remain but nine months, when he was cheated out of his
property by a white man, and driven out of door!--And is not this the
case generally? Can a man of color buy a piece of land and keep it
peaceably? Will not some white man try to get it from him even if it
is in a _mud hole_? I need not comment any farther on a subject, which
all, both black and white, will readily admit. But I must, really,
observe that in this very city, when a man of color dies, if he owned
any real estate it must generally fall into the hands of some white
person. The wife and children of the deceased may weep and lament if
they please, but the estate will be kept snug enough by its white
possessors.

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