Ignorance,” “Our Wretchedness in Consequence
of the Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ,”
and “Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the
Colonizing Plan,” for the inhumane treatment and
wretched condition of blacks. Walker argued that
racism stood at the core of all four categories. Ac-
cording to Aptheker, Walker was “among the pio-
neer antagonists of racism” (1965, 55).
Walker directs his most scathing and acrimoni-
ous language and attack at white Christian slave
owners—“pretenders to Christianity”—who
treated blacks “more cruel than... devils them-
selves ever treated a set of men, women and chil-
dren on earth” (Barksdale, 153). He warns:
I tell you Americans! That unless you speedily
alter your course, you and your Country are
gone!!!!!! For God Almighty will tear up the
very face of the earth!!! Will not that very re-
markable passage of Scripture be fulfilled on
Christians?... ‘He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still:—and he which is filthy let him be
filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be
righteous still.’ (Appeal 39–40)Walker’s militancy is most evident in “Article II:
Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Ignorance,”
in which he admonished the oppressed slaves to
strike a physical blow against slavery, rather than
remain in bondage. He wrote, “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” (24). His words would be echoed by
MALCOLM X, AMIRI BARAKA, and other black mili-
tant leaders and writers of the BLACK POWER and
BLACK ARTS MOVEMENTS who advocated “revolution
by any means necessary” more than a century and
a half later. According to Barksdale and Kinnamon,
Walker was “the first black writer to speak out
without fear or restraint” (153) against slavery.
Significantly, however, Walker also directed his
Appeal “particularly” to freed and educated “men
of colour,” whom he admonished to work actively
and aggressively to gain the freedom and improve
the condition of enslaved brethren. Walker wrote,
“I call upon you... to cast your eye upon the
wretchedness of your brethren and to do your ut-
most to enlighten them and yourselves from deg-
radation” (28). He further wrote:“There is a great work for you to do, as trifling
as some of you may think of it. You have to
prove to the Americans and the world, that
we are MEN and not brutes, as we have been
represented, and by millions treated. Remem-
ber, to let the aim of your labours among your
brethren, and particularly the youths, be the
dissemination of education and religion.” (30)Walker was also vociferous in his objection
to the colonization program, which he saw as a
plan by slaveholders “to get those of the coloured
people, who are said to be free, away from among
those of our brethren whom they unjustly hold
in bondage, so that they may be enabled to keep
them the more secure in ignorance and wretched-
ness, to support them and their children, and con-
sequently they would have more obedient slaves”
(47). Adamantly rejecting any such plans, Walker
boldly declared, “This country is as much ours as
it is the whites, whether they will admit it now or
not” (54).
While many blacks “warmly and unequivo-
cally” endorsed Walker’s Appeal for its “undeniable
power and genuine moral fervor” (Barksdale and
Kinnamon, 152–153), leaders in the slave-holding
South were shocked and alarmed. Aptheker reports
that in response to Walker’s Appeal, “a firebrand
[which] was hurled into the charged American air”
“the slave holder’s newspapers were thrown into
paroxysms of rage... at what the Richmond En-
quire called this ‘monstrous slander’ ” (Aptheker,
1965, 1). State governments met to consider what
actions should be taken against Walker: “draco-
nian laws were enacted; editorials were published;
armories were replenished” (Aptheker, 1965, 1).
Southern slaveholders placed a reward on his head.
The Appeal was even critiqued and condemned by
supporters of emancipation and such white abo-
litionists as Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd
Garrison, who referred to the Appeal as a “most in-
judicious publication,” although he also described
Walker as intelligent and brave.Walker, David 527