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Historical Document Richard Allen in Walker's Appeal 1829 |
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Click here for the text of this historical document. Walker's Appeal... to the Colored Citizens of the World But in Particular and very Expressly to those of the United States of America was one of the most radical documents of black protest ever published. In this document, which was first printed and distributed in 1829, David Walker analyzed slavery as the manifestation of the larger American evil of racism. It was also a call to action for Africans and their descendants in America.
Walker believed in a just God who would bring judgment upon America unless dramatic changes were made; he also believed that Christianity and education would serve as the foundation of black struggle. Walker said that Bishop Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, "has done more in a spiritual sense for his ignorant and wretched brethren than any other man of colour has, since the world began."
Walker's words were prophetic in many ways, including his prediction that "the name of this very man [Richard Allen] though now in obscurity and degradation, will notwithstanding, stand on the pages of history among the greatest divines who have lived since the apostolic age, and among the Africans, Bishop Allen's will be entirely pre-eminent."
Related Entries:
• Richard Allen
• David Walker
• David Walker's Appeal
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