David Walker, a free Black Boston clothing dealer and abolitionist, published this fiery pamphlet in September 1829, addressing Black people in the United States and around the world. In four articles — on slavery, ignorance, religion, and colonization schemes — he demands immediate emancipation, refutes claims of Black inferiority, rejects deportation to Africa, and warns that God will punish America for slavery. Smuggled into the South in the clothing of Black sailors, the Appeal terrified slaveholders and became a founding document of militant abolitionism.
Author: David Walker · Original publisher: Published by the author, Boston, September 1829 (first edition; second and third editions followed in 1830)
