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Having
traveled over a considerable portion of these United States, and
having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate
observations of things as they exist -- the result of my
observations has warranted the full and unshaken conviction, that
we, (coloured people of these United States,) are the most degraded,
wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world
began; and I pray God that none like us ever may live again until
time shall be no more. They tell us of the Israelites in Egypt, the
Helots in Sparta, and of the Roman Slaves, which last were made up
from almost every nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those
ancient and heathen nations, were, in comparison with ours, under
this enlightened and Christian nation, no more than a cypher -- or,
in other words, those heathen nations of antiquity, had but little
more among them than the name and form of slavery; while
wretchedness and endless miseries were reserved, apparently in a
phial, to be poured out upon, our fathers ourselves and our
children, by Christian Americans!
... I call upon the professing Christians, I call upon the
philanthropist, I call upon the very tyrant himself, to show me a
page of history, either sacred or profane, on which a verse can be
found, which maintains, that the Egyptians heaped the
insupportable insult upon the children of Israel, by telling
them that they were not of the human family. Can the whites
deny this charge? Have they not, after having reduced us to the
deplorable condition of slaves under their feet, held us up as
descending originally from the tribes of Monkeys or
Orang-Outangs? O! my God! I appeal to every man of feeling-is
not this insupportable? Is it not heaping the most gross insult upon
our miseries, because they have got us under their feet and we
cannot help ourselves? Oh! pity us we pray thee, Lord Jesus, Master.
-- Has Mr. Jefferson declared to the world, that we are inferior to
the whites, both in the endowments of our bodies and our minds? It
is indeed surprising, that a man of such great learning, combined
with such excellent natural parts, should speak so of a set of men
in chains. I do not know what to compare it to, unless, like putting
one wild deer in an iron cage, where it will be secured, and hold
another by the side of the same, then let it go, and expect the one
in the cage to run as fast as the one at liberty. So far, my
brethren, were the Egyptians from heaping these insults upon their
slaves, that Pharaoh's daughter took Moses, a son of Israel for her
own, as will appear by the following.
...
The world knows, that slavery as it existed was, mans, (which was
the primary cause of their destruction) was, comparatively speaking,
no more than a cypher, when compared with ours under the
Americans. Indeed I should not have noticed the Roman slaves, had
not the very learned and penetrating Mr. Jefferson said, "when a
master was murdered, all his slaves in the same house, or within
hearing, were condemned to death." -- Here let me ask Mr. Jefferson,
(but he is gone to answer at the bar of God, for the deeds done in
his body while living,) I therefore ask the whole American people,
had I not rather die, or be put to death, than to be a slave to any
tyrant, who takes not only my own, but my wife and children's lives
by the inches? Yea, would I meet death with avidity far! far!! in
preference to such servile submission to the murderous hands
of tyrants. Mr. Jefferson's very severe remarks on us have been so
extensively argued upon by men whose attainments in literature, I
shall never be able to reach, that I would not have meddled with it,
were it not to solicit each of my brethren, who has the spirit of a
man, to buy a copy of Mr. Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and put
it in the hand of his son.
...
But let us
review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some further. Comparing
our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of Greece, he
says: "Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging
circumstances among the Romans, their slaves were often their rarest
artists. They excelled too, in science, insomuch as to be usually
employed as tutors to their master's children; Epictetus, Terence
and Phaedrus, were slaves, -- but they were of the race of whites.
It is not their condition then, but nature, which has
produced the distinction." See this, my brethren! ! Do you believe
that this assertion is swallowed by millions of the whites? Do you
know that Mr. Jefferson was one of as great characters as ever lived
among the whites? See his writings for the world, and public labours
for the United States of America. Do you believe that the assertions
of such a man, will pass away into oblivion unobserved by this
people and the world? If you do you are much mistaken-See how the
American people treat us -- have we souls in our bodies? Are we men
who have any spirits at all? I know that there are many
swell-bellied fellows among us, whose greatest object is to fill
their stomachs. Such I do not mean -- I am after those who know and
feel, that we are MEN, as well as other people; to them, I say, that
unless we try to refute Mr. Jefferson's arguments respecting us, we
will only establish them.
...
...I must observe to my brethren that at the close of the first
Revolution in this country, with Great Britain, there were but
thirteen States in the Union, now there are twenty-four, most of
which are slave-holding States, and the whites are dragging us
around in chains and in handcuffs, to their new States and
Territories to work their mines and farms, to enrich them and their
children-and millions of them believing firmly that we being a
little darker than they, were made by our Creator to be an
inheritance to them and their children for ever-the same as a parcel
of brutes.
Are we
MEN! ! -- I ask you, 0 my brethren I are we MEN? Did our Creator
make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they not
dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their appearance
before the tribunal of Heaven, to answer for the deeds done in the
body, as well as we? Have we any other Master but Jesus Christ
alone? Is he not their Master as well as ours? -- What right then,
have we to obey and call any other Master, but Himself? How we could
be so submissive to a gang of men, whom we cannot tell
whether they are as good as ourselves or not, I never could
conceive. However, this is shut up with the Lord, and we cannot
precisely tell -- but I declare, we judge men by their works.
The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful,
avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after
power and authority.
...
...to my
no ordinary astonishment, [a] Reverend gentleman got up and told us
(coloured people) that slaves must be obedient to their masters --
must do their duty to their masters or be whipped -- the whip was
made for the backs of fools, &c. Here I pause for a moment, to give
the world time to consider what was my surprise, to hear such
preaching from a minister of my Master, whose very gospel is that of
peace and not of blood and whips, as this pretended preacher tried
to make us believe. What the American preachers can think of us, I
aver this day before my God, I have never been able to define. They
have newspapers and monthly periodicals, which they receive in
continual succession, but on the pages of which, you will scarcely
ever find a paragraph respecting slavery, which is ten thousand
times more injurious to this country than all the other evils put
together; and which will be the final overthrow of its government,
unless something is very speedily done; for their cup is nearly
full.-Perhaps they will laugh at or make light of this; but I tell
you Americans! that unless you speedily alter your course, you
and your Country are gone! ! ! ! !
...
If any of us see fit to go away, go to those who have been for many
years, and are now our greatest earthly friends and benefactors --
the English. If not so, go to our brethren, the Haytians, who,
according to their word, are bound to protect and comfort us. The
Americans say, that we are ungrateful-but I ask them for heaven's
sake, what should we be grateful to them for -- for murdering our
fathers and mothers ? -- Or do they wish us to return thanks to them
for chaining and handcuffing us, branding us, cramming fire down our
throats, or for keeping us in slavery, and beating us nearly or
quite to death to make us work in ignorance and miseries, to support
them and their families. They certainly think that we are a gang of
fools. Those among them, who have volunteered their services for our
redemption, though we are unable to compensate them for their
labours, we nevertheless thank them from the bottom of our hearts,
and have our eyes steadfastly fixed upon them, and their labours of
love for God and man. -- But do slave-holders think that we thank
them for keeping us in miseries, and taking our lives by the inches?
...
Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat
us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the
whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The
greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears:
-- and will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have
earned with our blood? They must look sharp or this very
thing will bring swift destruction upon them. The Americans have got
so fat on our blood and groans, that they have almost forgotten the
God of armies. But let the go on.
...
Do the colonizationists think to send us off without first being
reconciled to us? Do they think to bundle us up like brutes and send
us off, as they did our brethren of the State of Ohio? Have they not
to be reconciled to us, or reconcile us to them, for the cruelties
with which they have afflicted our fathers and us? Methinks
colonizationists think they have a set of brutes to deal with, sure
enough. Do they think to drive us from our country and homes, after
having enriched it with our blood and tears, and keep back millions
of our dear brethren, sunk in the most barbarous wretchedness, to
dig up gold and silver for them and their children? Surely, the
Americans must think that we are brutes, as some of them have
represented us to be. They think that we do not feel for our
brethren, whom they are murdering by the inches, but they are
dreadfully deceived.
...
What nation under heaven, will be able to do any thing with us,
unless God gives us up into its hand? But Americans. I declare to
you, while you keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us
like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we cannot be
your friends. You do not look for it do you? Treat us then like men,
and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind,
but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we
yet, under God, will become a united and happy people. The whites
may say it is impossible, but remember that nothing is impossible
with God.
...
I count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be offered at
any moment, For what is the use of living, when in fact I am dead.
But remember, Americans, that as miserable, wretched, degraded and
abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation, to
support you and your families, that some of you, (whites) on the
continent of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were
born. You want slaves, and want us for your slaves ! ! ! My colour
will yet, root some of you out of the very face of the earth ! ! ! !
! ! You may doubt it if you please. I know that thousands will
doubt-they think they have us so well secured in wretchedness, to
them and their children, that it is impossible for such things to
occur.
...
See your Declaration Americans! ! ! Do you understand your won
language? Hear your languages, proclaimed to the world, July 4th,
1776 -- "We hold these truths to be self evident -- that ALL MEN ARE
CREATED EQUAL! ! that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! !" Compare your own
language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence,
with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and
unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us -- men
who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation! ! !
! ! !
David Walker's Appeal, In Four Articles: Together With A Preamble To
The Coloured Citizens Of The World, But In Particular, And Very
Expressly, To Those Of The United States Of America,
revised Edition with an Introduction by Sean Wilentz
Hill and Wang, New York, 1995
A Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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