Jackson advocate. [volume], November 09, 1963, Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Edition Special, SECTION A, Page 8, Image 24

About Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
David Walker
The “John' ke
Baptist" Of Tke
Anti-Slavery
Crasade
“The John the Baptist” of the
fmti-slavery crusade, as David
Walker came to be known, was
born free in Wilmington N. C.,
in 1876. To Walker, this slave
holding community was oppre
sive and degrading. He said, "If
I remain in this bloody land, I
Will not live long ... As true
kg God reigns, I will be aveng
ed for the sorrows which my
people have suffered. This is not
the place for me—no, I must
leave this part of the country
... Go, I Must.”
He travelled extensively in
the South during his youth and
finally worked his way to
Boston where he became the
properietor of a second-hand
clothing store. It was during
this time that Walker first
learned to read. He read widely
in the literature of human slav
ery, steeping himself in the
history of resistance to oppres
sion.
In 1828 he made his first
public appeal against slavery. A
year later, he published Walk
er’s Appeal. The pamphlet,
which marked the transition
from the earlier period to the
militant anti-slavery movement,
exploded with shattering force.
Into his slim volume Walker
poured the accurulated bitter
ness and disgust of his people.
He scornfully dismissed the
slaveholding Christians of "this
Republican Land of Liberty! ! !
!” . . . and urged slaves to cut
their tomentors’ throats from
ear to ear . . . Kill, or be kill
ed,” he wrote. WALKER’S AP
PEAL struck fear into the
hearts of the slaveholders. Ben
jamin Lundy condemned it as
injuring .the anti-slavery cause,
even Garrison said it was in
judicious.
Walker's mind was neither
trained nor disciplined. Accord
ing to historians, this is what
made his APPEAL one of the
greatest pieces of anti-slavery
literature. It was, in historian
Dwight Dumonds words, "A
primitive cry of anguish from a
race oppressed which would
have come from a million
throats could they have been
articulate and have been heard.”
This became the most widely
discussed book yet written by
a Negro.
Two increasingly radical edi
tions followed Walker's first
APPEAL. He wrote "we colored
people of these United States
are the most degraded, and sub
ject set of beings that ever liv
ed since the world began.” He
stated that this was the result
of slavery and not of racial in
feriority as (Thomas) Jeffer
son had said in his NOTES ON
VIRGINIA. "The white,” said
Walker, in the third edition of
his pamphlet, "want slaves and
want us for their slaves, but
some of them will curse the day
they ever saw us ... as true
as the sun ever shone in its
meridian splendor, my color will
root some of them out of the
very face of the earth , . . They
will have enough of the blacks,
yet, as true as God sits on His
Throne in Heaven.”
After the publication of his
APPEAL, Walker was not per
mitted to live in peace. The
governor of Georgia requested
Mayor Harrison Gray Otis of
Boston to suppress the book
let. Otis, a strong advocate of a
free press, refused to do so. A
group of men in Georgia then
offered $1,000 for Walker’s
head and $10,000 for him alive.
In 1830, three months after the
publication of the third version
of the APPEAL, Walker died
mysteriously in Boston. Rumors
that he had been poisoned were
persistent enough to make a
martyr of him. After Emancipa
tion, his stature as a hero in
creased and thirty-six years
after his death, his son was
elected to the Massachusetts
Legislature. Walker’s APPEAL
was again published in 1848 by
Henry Highland Garnet togeth
er with Garnet's own appeal for
every slave to cease work and
walk away. ,
Historians now attach great
importance to his contribution,
especially because of its timing.
Walker left a legacy of raging
hatred for slavery, for the de
gradation, wretchedness and
ignorance of his people. It was
onto this stage that NatTurner
strode.
COMPLIMENTS OF
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COUNTY
BANK
PURVIS, MISS.
COMPLIMENTS
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Meridian,
Mississippi
A
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Purvis,
✓
Mississippi
Sojourner Truth Woman Leader
In The Fight Against Slavery
Sojourner Truth wag a for
mer slave who became a leader
in the battle against slavery.
Sojourner stood over six feet
tall, she was freed under New
York's gradual emancipation
act. Sojourner fought her bat
tles against slavery from the
lecture platform and in the
courts.
There is some evidence that
Sojourner gave help to slaves
escaping through, the Under
ground, but the only slave she
actually freed herself was her
son, and he was freed through
court action.
Her lecture activities brought
her almost instant fame. Al
though she was illiterate, she
had the power to captivate her
audience. Her withering replies
to hecklers became legendary,
though in one famous instance
she became a heckler herself
and stopped Frederick Doug
I
I
lass cold.
In the last days before the
Civil War, Douglass, disillus
ioned with the slow progress of
the anti-slavery cause, called
for slave uprisings. Sojourner,
sitting in the back of the hall,
rose and shouted:
“‘Frederick, is God dead?”
Douglass later wrote that he
replied, “No. And that is why
slavery must end in bloodshed.”
William Lloyd Garrison, who
was present, insisted that Dou
glass could make no answer at
all.
After the Civil War, Soj
ourner Truth was active rais
ing funds to assist the freed
man and in the cause of wom
en’s suffrage. She settled in
Battle Creek, but continued
traveling on lecture tours un
til a few years before her death
in 1883. She was about 85 years
old.
Harriet Tubman Worker On
The Underground Railroad
Copyright, 1927. The Axmriatetl Puhlixhert. Inc
HARRIET TUBMAN
Antislavery Worker, Civil War Nurse,
and Secret Service Ajrent
One of the leading fighters
against slavery was Harriet
Tubman.
Harriet Tubman is credited
with leading some 300 slaves
to freedom on the Underground
Railroad.
Born a slave in Maryland,
she escaped when she was a
bout 25 years old. Not content
to have won freedom for her
self, she returned to the South
at least 19 times to lead
others to freedom in the North
and Canada.
Rewards of up to $40,000
were offered for her capture,
but she was never taken, nor did
she ever lose a passenger on
her Underground Railroad.
During the Civil War, Miss
Tubman served as a scout for
the Union Army.
After the war she settled in
her Auburn home, which had
frequently been used as a way
station on the Underground.
,
Safety Pays - • It Doesn’t Cost!
..1
100 YEARS
Of Progress
I
I
. i
The Yazoo Valley Oil Mill j
I
congratulates the Negro citizens
’
i
of this community and state on their
progress and contribution to the
agricultural life of the state during
the past 100 years.
We extend our hopes and best wishes
for continued progress.
. ■ \ ..
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GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI
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This man is performing a job in his chosen field . . .
because of this independence he works more, pro
duces more and earns more. Rugged jobs are com*,
pleted in hours . . . jobs requiring days only a few
years ago. This progress has been made possible by
labor-saving machines and appliances . . . one direct
result of electrical research and electric power. In
Western Mississippi electric power means Missis
sippi Power & Light Company, a free-enterprise com
pany operating in the American tradition ... making
it possible for every citizen to share in the progress
that is “Helping Build Misissippi.’*
Mississippi Power &' Light Company
■
. . . owned by investors “Helping Build Mississippi”