David Walker Presentation
Quote 2: "We must remember that humanity, kindness and the fear of the Lord, does not consist in protecting devils..."
Even though I was free, throughout my childhood I experienced the hardships of slavery. I would see rebellious slaves' heads be cut off and placed on poles right across the city's wharf. I stayed in Wilmington until I was around twenty years old, and then I traveled the country for five to ten years.
Quote 1: "Treat us like men, and there is no danger but we will all live in peace and happiness together."
Greetings! My name is David Walker. I was born around 1796 or 1797 in Wilmington North Carolina. I was an abolitionist and anti-slavery activist who stood for slaves' rights. My mother was free, which made me free, but my father was still a slave. I was married to Eliza Butler, and only had one child.
Quote 4: "The Whites have had us under them for more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes."
In 1829 I published a Pamphlet titled 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. In this I called for slaves to revolt against their masters. This caused quite an uproar at the time, and most likely was the cause of a large bounty being placed on my head by the Georgia State Legislature.
Quote 5: "They want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us in order to subject us to that wretched condition - therefore, if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed."
In 1829, 50 unsolicited copies of the Appeal were sent to a black minister in Georgia. Long story short, this minister notified the police, who notified the governor of Georgia, who met with the state legislature in a secret meeting and decided that they would offer a reward for my capture, $10,000 alive and $1,000 dead. I was found dead in Boston on June 6, 1830. Some say I was poisoned, but others think it was tuberculosis. My one son was born only months after I died. My wife re-married, a man from Hawaii named Alexander Dewson.
Quote 3: "I cannot remain where I must hear slaves' chains continually and where I must encounter the insults of their hypocritical enslavers."
Once I was done with my travels I settled in Boston, where I opened and owned a successful clothing shop. I also became involved in the Massachusetts General Colored Association, who were an organization against racism and slavery. I was able to share my views through speaking, and by being an agent for Freedom's Journal, the country's only African American owned newspaper.
Quote 6: "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."
Over my life I changed the abolitionist view. Instead of demanding the normal phasing-out of slavery, I demanded immediate removal of slavery. I also said that free slaves should not be sent back to Africa once they are freed, but instead I said that they should have the right to be a free citizen. City records say I died at only 33 years old.
