David Walker's Appeal

Walker begins the final article by discussing Henry Clay and Elias B. Cawell’s thoughts on the colonizing plan. In the face of the “unconquerable prejudices” facing free Black people in the United States, Clay suggested it was best “to drain them off” and return them to Africa (71). He proposed creating a new colony on the coast of Africa that could become an outpost “of the arts, civilization, and Christianity” (72). There was a “moral fitness” in returning African Americans to their homeland that Clay suggested would “extinguish a great portion of that moral debt” that the United States had accrued to redeem the suffering they “had been the innocent cause of inflicting” (72-73).

Walker takes great issue with this claim of innocence but believes that God will sort out issues of guilt and innocence and punish those he deems deserving. He returns to Clay, who assured enslavers that the colonizing plan did not include any talk of emancipation. In other words, Walker argues that Clay hoped to get rid of free African Americans to maintain the “ignorance” of enslaved people and avoid acquiring “bad habits” like the belief “that they are men” (74). Originally from Kentucky, Clay grew up orphaned and penniless. However, he experienced great blessings, was taken in, cared for, and rose to occupy an important place in his country and community. In return for these blessings, Clay did not seek “to liberate those miserable victims of oppression” (76) but rather proposed extending their “wretchedness.”

Walker points out that many of the residents of North and South America fled Europe “to save their necks or banishment” and found “all the comforts of life” in North America (77). However, when enslaved African Americans sought freedom in Canada, Clay and other government officials demanded the return of these people. Walker asserts that enslaved African Americans have the right to go where they like and are beholden only to the Holy Ghost. He insists that Clay is not a friend to Black people; he cares only for his own wealth and wellbeing, illustrating the “depravity of men's hearts, when in pursuit only of gain” (80). Although Clay believed he never lost “an opportunity to advance the fame, honor and prosperity of this State and the Union” (80), he never advocated for the end of slavery.

Likewise, Elias B. Caldwell argued that “improv[ing] the condition” of enslaved people only made them “more miserable” and turned “a blessing into a curse” (81). It was better, he argued, to “keep them in the lowest state of degradation and ignorance” (81). John Randolph echoed Clay’s assurance that enslavers would not be affected by the colonizing project and that “the measure proposed would prove one of greatest securities to enable the master to keep in possession his own property” (83). Therefore, Walker argues that the colonizing project was meant to ensure the continued “ignorance and wretchedness” (83) of enslaved people in the United States. African Americans belong in the United States, and they should remain and fight for their rights.

To better illustrate the “trick” of the colonizing plan, Walker recounts a letter from the African American leader Bishop Richard Allen. The Bishop argues that African Americans are “an unlettered people” and there is no “fitness” to sending these uncivilized individuals to create their own “civilized” colony. He points out that it is “in the interest of the slave-holders” to rid the country of free people of color and argues that African Americans have invested in and built the wealth of the United States. It is now the African American’s “mother country,” and they ought to stay.

Walker articulates his admiration for Bishop Allen, who has frustrated white Christians’ mission to keep enslaved African Americans ignorant and obedient. Nevertheless, many “have joined in with [their] oppressors” (90) to oppose the Bishop. They “fight against [them]selves” and, therefore, “strengthen the hands of [their] natural enemies” (90). Here, Walker explains why he refers to white Americans as the “natural enemies” of African Americans. When Noah, his sons, and their wives survived the great flood, they were the only eight people alive on Earth, and they were not “natural enemies.” However, over the course of history and centuries of cruel, inhuman treatment, white people have made themselves the natural enemy of people of color. Walker argues that the only way for African Americans to help themselves is to “lay aside abject servility and be determined to act like men” (93). He complains that people of color around the world possess “a mean, servile spirit” that enables their oppression (93). In many places, Black enslaved people far outnumber their white enslavers, yet their “servile” apathy prevents them from rebelling.

Walker argues that Clay and Bishop Allen represent the two opposing sides of the colonizing project debate. After centuries of “blood and tears,” Walker argues that “America is more our country, than it is the whites” (96), and he hopes that African Americans will follow Bishop Allen’s lead and oppose returning to Africa. However, Walker recognized that not all those who support the “colonizing trick” are enemies of African Americans. Some truly believe that it is a way to escape the prejudice and injustice they experience in the United States. Nevertheless, Walker urges these supporters to see that the plan supports “the perpetuation of slavery in this country” (99). It affirms that white Americans see them as “brutes” who do not care for their brethren or their country. Walker again calls on white Americans to repent or face their imminent destruction. To “become a united and happy people,” white Americans must acknowledge African Americans as “respectable men, and […] make a national acknowledgment […] for the wrongs they have inflicted on [them]” (102).

Walker urges his readers to remember that “freedom is [their] natural right” and that their “rightful owner” is God alone (103). Although white Americans might doubt the impending retribution of God, Walker insists it is coming; just as God punished ancient civilizations for the cruelty of slavery, he will soon punish the United States.

To conclude, Walker again returns to his argument that no other group of people has been treated as inhumanly as white Americans have treated enslaved Black people. He offers an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, quoting that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (106). He calls on Americans to read their own declaration and compare it to their actions. He goes on to quote the Declaration’s insistence that men have a “duty” to “throw off” an abusive government and “provide new guards for their future security” (108). Walker insists that African Americans’ suffering cannot compare to white American suffering under Great Britain and holds that God will soon ensure justice is done.