Published in 1829, David Walker’s Appeal argued, in terms far more direct than most abolitionist writing of the time dared, that enslaved people had every right to resist their bondage by any means available. Southern states banned it and offered rewards for Walker’s capture.
Walker died suddenly less than a year after its publication, under circumstances that remain disputed. His Appeal is one of the earliest and boldest documents of Black resistance ever printed, decades ahead of the war that would eventually end slavery.
