The primary source I have chosen is in Chapter 10; Religion and Reform. The primary source I’m writing about in chapter 10 is a pamphlet that was published in 1829 by David Walker entitled “David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, 1829”. I chose this primary source because even though David Walker was not a slave, he fought against oppression and injustice for colored people who were not given the same rights as white men according to the Constitutions of Independence. The appeal that David Walker wrote had brought attention to many people about the abuse, oppression and injustice of slavery. This had brought the forth as individuals to act responsible for racial equality, according to religious and political status. People where outraged and fearful of the reaction that the pamphlet would have.
The pamphlet was one of the boldest and the most outspoken literature that has ever been written in the 1800’s. David Walker being a deeply religious man, had challenged white Christians for supporting slavery and for their savage ways toward people of color. Such abuse and treatment that was inhuman and forbidden in the eyes of God. Therefore, these men and women practicing Christianity was hypocritical and unchristian in the eye of God. Those who believe in the church believe that all people are created by God, in His image, and regardless of sex, race, color; all people should have the same rights. So if they believed in this, then why didn’t they include men and women of color? No human being should be treated the way black people where treated according to David Walker or any Christian that was a true Christian.
David Walker gets to the point as he states, “colored people of the United States are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began”. Walker recited the Declaration of Independence to in his appeal that questioned these so called white Christian Americans, “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.” Then he goes on to say as if it was a slap in the face to the people who spewed the Declaration of Independence as if it was for all nationalities, “See your Declaration of Independence Americans? Do you understand your own language? Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776.” He goes on to say, as if every white man and white woman have never heard these statements before..
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!!” David Walker continues to refer to the abuses of the king to remind them of how Great Britian had treated them and why they are in America, “was your sufferings under Great Britain, one hundredth part as cruel and tyranical as you have rendered ours under you?” In the 1800’s, there have never been any type of antislavery appeal written. David Walker was a man who was out spoken and got peoples attention. As I kept reading the primary source I felt that I was thinking about Martin Luther King and how strong of a voice he had been in the 1900’s. In writing the Appeal, Walker was looking to initiate a drastic move amongst the black population of America. He was looking for an uprising of free and enslaved black Americans to stand up for what was right. “America is more our country, than it is we have enriched it with our blood and tears.
” (Walker) His hope was for all black people to be treated as equal and with respect as the Declaration of Independence had been stated, “That All Men Are Created Equal.” His appeal to the American public was not only to abolish slavery, but once slaves were free, to allow them the same rights as any American, just as the Egyptians had to do when the Israelis were freed from slavery under Pharaoh. Walker ends with by stating “The Americans may be as vigilant as they please, but they cannot be vigilant enough for the Lord, neither can they hide themselves, where he will not find and bring them out.” In other words you can never hide from the lord, he will find you and punish you for your sins.Sources: American Yawp Reader
