David Walker's Appeal

Walker explains that there are many religions, but few are as “pure and undefiled” as Christianity. However, the Europeans acted “in open violation” of Christ’s teachings, turning Christianity into a tool of oppression. Religion came to seem like “a plan fabricated by themselves and the devils to oppress” Black people (58), but Walker knows better. He recounts how the Catholic priest Bartholomew Las Casas, who he calls a “pretend preacher,” suggested that the Spanish import enslaved African people to work in the Americas and, therefore, began the misery that has lasted for centuries.

Walker argues that individuals who accept religions like Judaism and Paganism are granted the “protection” that comes with them. However, Christian Americans deny these protections to people of color and even prevent them from adopting the Christian faith. Walker tells of Black people who were violently beaten for having the “audacity” to pray “to the God who made them” (60). Meanwhile, Christian missionaries continue to embark on trips to convert heathens around the world. Walker argues that Christian Americans are acting “in open violation of the Bible” (61), and God will “awaken them” unless they are truly superior to other men as they claim to be.

Walker turns to the commandment to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, arguing that slavery stands as a direct contradiction to this tenant of Christianity. The American people assume that if slavery were wrong, their religious leaders would condemn it. However, to illustrate how invested American preachers are in the continuation of slavery, Walker recounts a story of a religious service called a Camp Meeting that took place in South Carolina. Walker and his companion traveled for several hours on a boat to reach the meeting. However, upon reaching the service, Walker was shocked to hear the preacher advocate for obedience from enslaved people and claim that enslavers had the right to beat those who disobeyed. Walker reminds his readers that the Christian doctrine is one of “peace,” not “of blood and whips” (64). He claims that slavery is “ten thousand times more injurious to this country than all the other evils put together” (64) and insists it will lead to the eventual downfall of the United States. He hopes that white Americans will realize the harm they have done and repent, but he worries that they have already done so much damage “that their destruction may be sure” (65).

He warns that violence done toward enslaved African Americans is not hidden by missionaries or “charitable deeds.” Even in New England, Walker points out that people of color are kept away from churches. Preachers do not speak up, nor do they make any effort to recruit African Americans.

In a brief addition, Walker notes how Christian Americans fight tirelessly against perceived evils like Free Masonry and infidelity. Meanwhile, slavery is “hardly noticed.” Walker argues that this is a consequence of greed. He suggests that God sometimes allows sinners to continue “until they are ruined forever” (66). He doesn’t wish destruction on white Americans but insists that God’s will “must […] be done” (66). In contrast to the Americans, Walker calls the English “the best friends” of Black people, suggesting they have been their “greatest benefactors” despite some oppression and cruelty.

Walker points out that the Bible calls on Christians to baptize “all people” and makes no distinctions based on skin color. Instead, white Christians taught Africans “the art of throat-cutting” (68), instigating fighting and misery before taking them to America “like brutes.” Walker questions what understanding white Christians can have of God and the Bible. Based on Christian teachings, he argues that one man has no right “to despise another and to treat him cruel, on account of his colour” (69). He claims that Americans make a “mockery of religion” and calls on them to repent to avoid “the final ruin of this happy republic, or land of liberty” (69).