David Walker's Appeal

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses enslavement and racism.

“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.”

In the opening sentences of the Preamble, Walker articulates his argument that slavery in the United States is the most inhumane practice to be enacted against a group of people in the history of the world. As proof, he offers his own observations and studies, which have led him to the unequivocal conviction that African Americans are uniquely disadvantaged even in comparison to other oppressed groups.

“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.”

Walker argues that the fall of Spain was due to the nation’s perpetuation of slavery. He writes that anyone who accepts the humanity of Black people can see that slavery is wrong. If one believes in a just God, it then becomes clear that he has brought violence and disharmony among the Spaniards as punishment for their acts inhumane treatment of their fellow man.

“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!!!”

In this passage, Walker restates The Contradiction of Slavery and Democratic Christian Ideals. He argues that such a God will not allow the cruelty and injustice of slavery to continue, and anyone who believes he will does not accept the humanity of his fellow man. This argument highlights the hypocrisy of white Christians, a theme that Walker will revisit throughout the Appeal.