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Historical Document Editorial Regarding "Walker's Appeal" 1831 |
Resource Bank Contents |
Click here for the text of this historical document. With its call for revolts and insurrection,David Walker's Appeal was a strong statement against slavery, even in the eyes of radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. In the second issue of his anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, Garrison denounced Walker's Appeal. "Believing, as we do," Garrison wrote, "that a good end does not justify wicked means. . . , we deprecate [disapprove of] the spirit and tendency of this Appeal." Garrison did, however, qualify his denouncement. He continued, "Nevertheless, it is not for the American people, as a nation, to denounce it as bloody or monstrous." And it was not the slaves or the abolitionists who were responsible for Walker's call for violence, but slaveholders and other slavery proponents. "Every sentence they write -- every word they speak -- every resistance they make. . .," Garrison said, "is a call upon their slaves to destroy them."
Related Entries:
• William Lloyd Garrison
• David Walker's Appeal
• David Walker
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