Web Links
* Links active as of January 2006
Suggest a resource

David Walker's "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World" (1829)

• Excerpts from David Walker's Appeal from PBS Series "Africans in America"
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931t.html
  
  see also related topics Modern Voices David Blight on David Walker , Eric Foner on David Walker , William Scarborough on David Walker & Editorial Regarding "Walker's Appeal" & Teacher's Guide
  
  
• Full text of David Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble
  http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/menu.html
  
  

About David Walker

• David Walker biography: from PBS Series "Africans in America"
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2930.html
  
  
• David Walker (c. 1785 - 1830)
  biography from the Boston African-American National Historic Site
  http://www.nps.gov/boaf/davidwalker.htm
  
  
• David Walker and the Appeal: An Understanding of an Extraordinary Man and his Ideas For Eighth Graders (PDF file) A series of activities developed by Patty Summa / Bigelow Middle School, Newton, Mass. to expose eighth graders to the life of David Walker, introduce his ideas outlined in the Appeal, & analyze how these ideas conflicted with other abolitionists' ideas of the day . Will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the unit.
  http://www.primarysource.org/library/cur_iah.html
  
  

Other abolitionists: Maria W. Stewart

• Maria W. Stewart (1803 - 1879)
  biography from the Boston African-American National Historic Site
  http://www.nps.gov/boaf/mariastewart.htm
  
  
• Maria W. Stewart—An African American Woman Speaks. (PDF, 138 KB) Curriculum unit from five-volume sourcebook on African American History, Making Freedom. online free from publisher Heinemann. Will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the unit.
  http://www.primarysource.org/library/cur_iah.html
  
  
• Spotlight on Maria Stewart from PBS Series "Slavery & the Making of America"
  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/spotlight.html
  
  
• Women in the Anti-Slavery Movement
  http://cghs.dade.k12.fl.us/slavery/anti-slavery_movement/women.htm
  
  
• Text of five of Maria Stewart's Speeches (1831- 1833)
  http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blmaria_stewart_index.htm
  
  
• "Rachel Weeping for Her Children": Black Women and the Abolition of Slavery
  by Margaret Washington from History Now published by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
  http://www.historynow.org/09_2005/historian3.html
  
  

The Abolitionist Movement & Background in 19th Century America

• Abolitionism: from PBS Series "Africans in America"
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/index.htmll
  
  
• Abolition Issue 5, Sept. 2005 edition of History Now, online magazine published by published by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
  http://www.historynow.org/09_2005/index.html
  
  
• Selected Articles from Garrison's The Liberator. This database contains 828 indexed articles (436 which are provided in full-text) which appeared between 1831 and 1855 in William Garrison's abolitionist newspaper The Liberator.
  http://www.primaryresearch.org/bh/liberator/vasearch.php
  
  
• African American Religion, Pt. I: To the Civil War from a larger project "Divining America: Religion and the National Culture" from Teacherserve & National Humanities Council
  http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/divam.htm
  
  

Books Recommened by Speaker

• The African American Odyssey : Combined Edition (3rd Edition) by Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley Harrold link to Amazon
  
  
• A Shining Thread of Hope by by Darlene Clark Hine, Kathleen Thompson link to Amazon
  
  
• Maria W. Stewart: America's First Black Woman Political Writer : Essays and Speeches (Blacks in the Diaspora) by Maria W. Stewart, Marilyn Richardson (Editor) link to Amazon
  
  
• David Walker's Appeal: To the Coloured Citizens of the World link to Amazon
  
  
• To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance by Peter P. Hinks book review
  
  

Slavery and the Constitution: The Constitution’s explicit protections for slavery led early abolitionists such as David Walker to largely ignore the document in their rhetoric, instead turning to the natural rights tradition of the Declaration of Independence.

• Three-Fifths Clause (Article 1, Section 2) created a framework for determining representation in the House of Representatives. According to this clause, each state would be granted a number of representatives based on its population, with slaves, called "other persons," counted as three-fifths of a whole person even though they were in no sense "represented" in Congress.
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/art1.htm
  
  
• Slave Trade Clause (Article 1, Section 9) which expressly prohibited Congress from interfering with the importation of "such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit” until the year 1808.
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/art1.htm
  
  
• Fugitive Slave Clause (Article 4, Section 2). The laws of one state, the clause said, cannot excuse a person from "Service or Labour" in another state.
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/art4.htm
  
  

Walker's focus on the Declaration of Independence: Walker’s critique, for example, pointed to the hypocrisy of slavery in a nation dedicated to preserving the natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He also drew on Jefferson’s language about the right of revolution justifying the overthrow of a government committed to slavery. .

• Declaration of Independence : July 4, 1776
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/declare.htm