In 1830, David Walker died of tuberculosis.
In 1830, David Walker, son of an enslaved father and a freedwoman, stitched his incendiary pamphlet, the “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,” into the lining of a sailor’s coat near the Boston Harbor. This was an attempt to smuggle it throughout the country, as many members of the US government considered it one of the most dangerous documents in American history. Walker had moved to Charleston as a young man and become closely involved with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which practiced a more radical brand of abolition than the mainstream movement. In 1825, he surfaced in Boston, where he married fellow activist Eliza Butler, opened a clothing store, and helped fund America’s first Black-owned newspaper. His passionate articles and public speeches sought to instill pride and camaraderie into those fighting for Black liberation.
In the “Appeal,” Walker argued for an international Black freedom struggle, connected American abolitionism with global movements for Black liberation, and defended the right to militant action. He also emphasized the spiritual righteousness of resistance and described the suffering of enslaved people in graphic detail to prove that the reality for Black Americans was often “kill or be killed.” However, he opposed the popular movement for Black Americans to emigrate to Africa, instead insisting that Black people were essential to the country’s creation and had an undeniable right to American citizenship.
The “Appeal” traveled down the coast into the hands of shopkeepers, church leaders, political organizers, and underground abolitionist networks. For these readers, Walker’s words galvanized militant efforts to overthrow slave owners and its call to arms struck fear into white officials. Police intercepted its delivery, and quarantines Black sailors at Southern ports. The pamphlet inspired Louisiana to ban anti-slavery literature, and both North and South Carolina cracked down on Black education to prevent literacy among enslaved peoples. Southern officials even placed a bounty on Walker’s head worth the modern equivalent of $322,000. However, Walker refused to abandon his cause and tragically died of tuberculosis in 1830. In August 1830, Walker was found dead and while his associates declared him the victim of assassination, it is now widely believed that he died from tuberculosis. Despite his passing, Walker’s message continued to resound. Frederick Douglass credited him as the originator of radical abolitionism, and his “Appeal” inspired some of the most influential members of the 20th century liberation movement. Malcolm X’s militant approach to Black resistance, James Cone’s writing on Black spirituality, and many other visions for the future all owe a debt to Walker’s legacy.