Appeal…to the Colored Citizens of the World…

David Walker's pamphlet, Appeal…to the Colored Citizens of the World… (1829), was a radical call for enslaved people to fight for their freedom. Born free to an enslaved father, Walker became an abolitionist in Boston and used his secondhand clothing business to distribute the pamphlet, concealing copies in sailors' garments destined for Southern ports. The pamphlet's circulation led to stricter laws against abolitionist literature and literacy for enslaved people. Walker was warned of danger but refused to flee, and his death soon after was suspected to be poisoning, though official records cite tuberculosis. His radical call for a slave rebellion was rejected by most abolitionists at the time.1