Person · 1796–1830
David Walker
The free Black abolitionist whose 1829 "Appeal" was the most radical antislavery document of its time, calling on the enslaved to claim their freedom.
A radical voice of early [[abolitionism]].
Born free in North Carolina, David Walker settled in Boston and in 1829 published Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World — a fierce, learned call for the immediate end of slavery, by force if necessary, and a denunciation of American hypocrisy.
Smuggled into the South sewn into clothing, the Appeal terrified slaveholders, who banned it and put a price on Walker's head. He died suddenly in 1830, but his pamphlet helped inspire a more militant abolitionism.