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David Walker Abolitionist 1785-1830

Walker was born to a free mother and slaved father. There he witnessed the cruelty of whites to African slaves. He moved to Philadelphia where he lived in a Free Black Society. Walker settled in Boston in the 1820's after seeing the black community expand. He became active in the black community almost immediately. While living in Boston he had many jobs, but the most notable was a writer for the Freedoms Journal, an abolitionist paper. This is where he first started calling for freedom from slavery. In 1829 Walker distributed his appeal. It was a 76 page document asking black's to stand up for their rights. He structured it like the constitution to pull on the fact that it was morally and ethically wrong. Unfortunately it failed to win over most abolitionists and free slaves until its reprinting in 1848.

William Lloyd Garrison after reading the appeal created the Liberator where he talked often about it. Also many people believe that the slave rebellion led by Nat Turner was influenced by Walker's appeal. Unfortunately none can be specifically linked to Walker because of his early death in 1830, only 3 months after writing his last edition of the appeal.

"David Walker (abolitionist)." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. . "David Walker, 1785-1830." //Documenting the American South//. Web. 4 Oct. 2011. .