Why David Walker and his Appeal Matters!

David Walker (1796–1830) was a free-born African American (due to his mother being free, his father was enslaved), an outspoken abolitionist, writer, Pan-Africanist, and anti-slavery activist, who used his freedom to advance the cause of his enslaved brothers and sisters. Walker's seminal and timeless treatise David Walker’s Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829) is considered by many to be the first written Black nationalist manifesto and a trenchant example of early 19th-century Black literary nationalism and resistance to white hegemony. Walker’s exposition excoriates the global overt and pernicious treatment of African people worldwide. Consequently, Walker’s essay perturbed the white power structure, as he spoke out against the motives of the American Colonialization Society (ACS) and the institution of southern slavery. In his manuscript, Walker delineates the causes of African “wretchedness”1. Slavery, 2. Ignorance, 3.The preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ, and 4. The Colonizing Plan. Of these four causes, Walker specifically attacked “the colonizing plan” in which he condemned former Secretary of State and Speaker of the House Henry Clay (1777–1852), who argued for the resettlement of “colored” people to Africa to bring “the arts, civilization, and Christianity.” Moreover, Walker, in the spirit and memory of Africa, distinguished the God of African people from that of…