David Walker's Appeal in Four Articles

Although slavery has long been abolished, there is no doubt that there were important pieces of literature being produced at this time. The most significant pieces of literature were those against slavery. Anti-slavery writings gave people a closer look into what it is was like to be a slave. Two writings in particular played an essential role in expressing the mistreatment of slaves and the African American race itself. The Narrative of Frederick Douglass and David Walker's Appeal, explained the problems slaves has in learning, hypocrisy in Christianity within the slave owner, and the action slaves should take.

David Walker was an abolitionist against slavery in the south and predigests in the North. He was born to parents of two different spectrums. Father was a slave and his mother was free women (Biography.com Editors, n/a). He received an education and traveled the country then deciding to settle in Boston. He owned a used clothing store in Boston that he later used in his abolitionist movements Even though he was a free man he still notice how African Americans were being treated. David joined a movement that apposed slavery and racism. He became a member of the Massachusetts General Colored Association (Biography.com Editors, n/a). In this group he would share his speeches to help spread his views of slavery. David’s movement formed a newspaper that was owned and run by African Americans called Freedom’s Journal.

Frederick Douglass was a man who would lose his future to create a better future for someone he didn’t even know. He did not know whether the black populatuion would ever be free or if free whether or not the next generation would appreciate or not. These were not thoughts in his mind for all he wanted was to accomplish his goal of free land. It was his goal to gain his freedom and then help someone else atain theirs. For he knew no matter how alone your master might make you feel everyone was in it together. His main audience were the people who were all for slavery. The two positions that douglass views are how slavery is bad for 1. The slave owners who were consumed by the power and 2. How slavery’s “oh so considerate care” was terrible for slaves.

In The Long Emancipation: The Demise of Slavery in the United States, Berlin draws attention to various parts of anti-slavery resistance that often escape consideration. He emphasizes the efforts of African Americans themselves. Berlin brings together main ideas, events, and people who made slave emancipation in the U.S. possible and that American freedom as a complex, disputed process. The author is not focused on speeches, written arguments, and petitions against slavery but with how slaves and free blacks took steps to permanently pull apart forced servitude in the face of crushing hostility. Author Glenn David Brasher of The Peninsula Campaign and the Necessity of Emancipation: African Americans and the Fight for Freedom zooms in and focuses

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resolutely responds to eight clergymen who question his methods of protest against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Specifically, in paragraphs 12-14, Dr. King explains why his protests are indeed being done in a timely manner to obtain the “constitutional and God-given rights” (A Portable Anthology, page 207) that Africans have been restricted of for over 340 years. Dr. King’s argument, combined with his strategic use of rhetorical devices to enhance it, helps create a palpable feeling of understanding that captivates the audience into seeing America through his vision.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” after an unjust proposal made by eight white clergymen. Their claims were to be that no Negro “outsider” should be allowed to establish or lead any protest and should leave them to their local neighborhoods. King replied directly to the clergymen, but used religious ties to also have his voice heard in the public. In his counter argument, King strategically used logical evidence, emotional aspects and good motives to present his perspective to the clergymen.

On Monday July 5th, 1852, Frederick Douglass captivated his audience at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York with one of the most powerful antislavery orations ever delivered, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”1 As an African American and former slave himself, Douglass was a crucial component to the Civil Rights movement and the abolishment of slavery. His concern for equal rights sprouted as early as twelve years old, often listening to debates among free blacks in Baltimore, as well as becoming a member of the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society. While enslaved, he taught himself to read and write with the patriotic essays and speeches in Caleb Bingham’s The Columbian Orator, which emphasized the power of a speaker’s

In this highly detailed book, Samuel Walker’s excerpt discusses the details of citizen complaints towards police officers. Police and Policing features a chapter discussing the characteristics of citizen reviews and its effect on society. Citizen complaonts or evaluations were not common until the late 1990’s (Walker 200). The term “citizen review” is not the universal term for this process but is referred by different names depending on location.

For almost 150 years, since the first slaves touched American soil in the early 1600’s, slavery flourished throughout America. Predominantly in the South, slaves were prized as free labor. Possibly the keystone of the entire southern economy, slaves were valuable and southerners had no plans to ever free slaves. But as time progressed, antislavery activists pushed for reform and the freeing of slaves. Developed and published by these activists were numerous signs, banners, and newspaper ads publicizing the inhumanity of slavery. In 1935, Patrick Reason engraved a picture of a female slave, praying “Am I not a Woman and a Sister!?”. (Document C) To illustrate the dehumanization of slaves, and call for change. Such propaganda illustrated the ideal of “All men are created equal” A common angle taken by antislavery activists was the point that slaves are humans and possess their own souls and identities. Thus being entitled to equality and freedom in this nation, the “land of the free”. Slaves were not the only ones who were oppressed. So were immigrants and women, though not nearly to the same extent as slaves. Immigrants were discriminated against if they weren't free white men. As stated in (Document D), as a nation of youth, we need strength in numbers to steady us in the unstable times early in our country’s youth. And to do this, reform is needed to reevaluate and

Douglass was introduced to the movement in 1841 when a man named William Coffin heard one of his speeches at an anti-slavery meeting and was so impressed with his oratorical skills that Coffin invited him to share his story as a slave in a convention organised by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (MAS). This therefore supports my previous discussion that black people could contribute to society and live normal lives without white people diminishing their human rights and privileges and making them slaves.

The Abolitionist Movement sought to end slavery and the goal to immediately emancipate of all slaves and the end of racial discrimination and segregation. David Walker and Frederick Douglass were former slaves that were now part of the Anti-Slavery movement; white abolitionists that made an impact were John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison. There were three types of Abolitionist movement groups, pacifist/moralist, militant/multi-ethnic, and black militants/separatist; each had their own opinion on how they would abolish slavery. David Walker was black militant/separatist because he wasn’t part of the abolition movement but still wanted to help the cause, he wrote “Walker’s Appeal” and stated, “Let our enemies go on with their butcheries, and

The sources used to show how Americans thought of slavery comes from multiple chapters within the Sources for America’s History. Some of which, reflect some authors or speakers opinions as other are written observations or recorded council meetings. As stated, these are opinions respectively giving by the authors that can be either pro or anti abolishment enthusiast. Some of the abolitionist consist of David Walker, with his preamble to Walker’s Appeal in Four Articles (1830). Ethan Andrews was a professor of ancient languages at the University at the University of North Carolina. Ethan recorded his experiences with slave and slave owners as

In paragraphs 12-14 of “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, Dr. King begins addressing the clergymen’s belief that the peaceful demonstrations conducted by him and his associates were untimely. King starts answering questions frequently heard by opposing or moderate forces, as well as essentially denouncing the resistance to desegregation. King then introduced the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed; concluding that the oppressor is not inclined to act on things that do not directly affect them. Therefore, providing a platform of his argument as to why blacks could no longer wait to be given their basic human rights. Action needed to take place because fair treatment was no longer a hope to be given, it had to be taken.

David Walker was an abolitionist, orator, and author of David Walker's Appeal. Although David Walker's father, who died before his birth, was enslaved, his mother was a free woman; thus, when he was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in September 1785, David Walker was also free, following the “condition” of his mother as prescribed by southern laws regulating slavery. Little is known about Walker's early life. He traveled widely in the South and probably spent time in Philadelphia. He developed early on an intense and abiding hatred of slavery, the result apparently of his travels and his firsthand knowledge of slavery.

In writing the Appeal, Walker was looking to initiate a drastic move amongst the black population of The United States of America. Those who believe in the Methodist doctrine believe that all people are created by God, in His image, and regardless of sex, race, or color, all people have the same inherent rights and Walker, who was adamant about change, incorporated this belief throughout his writing. His appeal to the American public however was not only to abolish slavery, but once slaves were free, to allow them all the Biblical rights they are due, as the Egyptians had to do when the Israelis were freed from slavery under Pharaoh. As an abolitionist urging black people, free and enslaved, to rise up against their oppressors by any means necessary, especially by violence, Walker’s purpose in writing the Appeal was to persuade his audience that enough was enough and that the time had come to take a political, social, and economical change.