2013 May 27Ignorance is SlaveryIn the late 18th century, the British Crown imposed several unpopular taxes on its North American colonies to help pay its accumulated debt. The colonies in North America revolted against the British Crown and declared its independence. In order to justify the rebellion, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to express the colonies grievances. Jefferson championed the ideas of equality for all men, liberty, and the right to resist tyranny in the Declaration. Several decades later in the early 19th century, David Walker, a free black, authored the Appeal in which he denounces the tyranny of white American Christians and calls for a slave revolt in the South. As radical as the Appeal may seem, David Walker championed liberty to the extent .In order for a cause, rebellion, or idea to be valid, it must be justified. Thomas Jefferson took heed as he drafted the Declaration of Independence by strategically opening the document with the statement, When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.[endnoteRef:1] Jefferson continues and provides a list of colonial grievances. Jefferson found it necessary to explain the colonies situation and His Majestys crimes against liberty in order to justify the rebellion. Likewise, in his Appeal, David Walker promises, to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the most incredulous, that we (coloured people), are the most wretched, degraded and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began[endnoteRef:2] The entire Appeal describes the horror of slavery and the atrocities committed by the slave owners. Walker uses his appeal to justify his call to arms against the white Americans as Jefferson has done so against the British. By specifying the encroachments on liberty, Jefferson and Walker justify the use of force against the opposing powers. [1: Thomas Jefferson, etc. Yale Law School, "Declaration of Independence." Last modified 1878. Accessed May 31, 2013. 1.] [2: David Walker. Appeal. (Pennsylvania: Penn State University, 2008), 9.]

Whenever liberty is at stake, any means of force is reasonable and legal according to the Declaration of Independence. In fact, Walkers call for a revolt actually meets the criteria that the Declaration established for overthrowing a government. The Declaration states, Governments, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government[endnoteRef:3] When the colonists claimed that the Crown was being oppressive, the Declaration justified their attempt to rebel and establish a new government in order to secure liberty. Although it is self-evident, the American government contradicts itself as it has now become an oppressive government and it does not have the consent of the governed black slaves. Walker states, white Americans having reduced us to the wretched state of slavery, treat us in that condition more cruel than any heathen nation did any people whom it reduced to our population.[endnoteRef:4] Black slaves do not consent to such treatment and to their enslavement; thus, according to the Declaration, black slaves have every right to revolt and create a new government in order to obtain liberty. Considering all of these facts, the revolt is a legal extension of the American Revolution. [3: Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence", 1.] [4: Walker, Appeal, 9.]

Walkers radical call to arms in the name of liberty is a logical because the difficulties that slaves faced were more brutal than the conditions colonists faced. In the Declaration, there exists a lengthy list of His Majestys crimes against his colonial subjects. The majority of the crimes are political and judicial injustices committed against the colonists. For example, one of the Kings crimes is imposing taxes on us (colonists) without our consent[endnoteRef:5] and another includes depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trail by jury.[endnoteRef:6] Such were the crimes of the Crown against liberty, which provoked one of the most important revolutions in history and the Declaration of Independence. These crimes were mediocre compared with the atrocities the colonists committed against the black slaves. Unlike the politically oppressed colonists, black slaves faced physical, emotional, physiological, and political oppression. As Walker exclaims, show me a man of colour, who holds low office of Constable, or one who sits in a Juror Box, even on a case of one of his wretched brethren, through out this great Republic.[endnoteRef:7] Unlike the white colonists, black slaves never had ANY rights or liberties to begin with. Even during the war, neither the British nor colonists treated each other so brutally as the colonists treated the blacks on a regular basis. Walker asks, How would they (whites) like for us to make slaves of, and hold them in cruel slavery, and murder them as they do to us.[endnoteRef:8] Whites never faced oppression on same level, which was bestowed upon the slaves. Hence, Walker realized that it is best to fight fire with fire; hence, Walkers radical approach was necessary to free black slaves from the brutality of the slave owners. [5: Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence", 1.] [6: Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence", 1.] [7: Walker, Appeal, 10.] [8: Walker, Appeal, 14.]

Walker not only tried to liberate his fellow brethren from slavery, but he also attempted to deliver them from ignorance, which kept them enslaved. Liberty is not a gift and it is not free. It must be fought for and taken by force, as with the American Revolution. Walker recognized that ignorance was a weapon that the whites used with great zeal. He states, It is a notorious fact, that the major part of white Americans havetried to keep us ignorant, and make us believe that God made us and our children to be slaves to them and theirs.[endnoteRef:9] By preventing blacks from becoming educated, the whites not only kept them unable to fight for their freedom, but kept the blacks divided. Walker notes, ignorant and treacherous creatures (coloured people) sneaking about in large citiesare in league with tyrants scandalously deliver [other blacks] into the hands of our natural enemies!!!!!![endnoteRef:10] This division ruined any chance of a successful slave uprising as individual slaves cared less about the welfare and freedom of other slaves. This natural but ignorant instinct hindered any chance of liberty for all slaves, including the individuals slaves themselves. As long as the blacks were ignorant, white Americans were able to keep them enslaved. [9: Walker, Appeal, 36.] [10: Walker, Appeal, 25-25.]

A central idea that contributed to American Revolution was the idea that God created men equal and free; however, the colonists ignored these rights when it came to blacks. Instead of preaching freedom and peace, American Christian slave owners used the Bible to encourage slavery and obedience, ignoring the other messages, which might contradict slavery. Walker reveals, our Reverendtold usthat slaves must be obedient to their masters must do their duty or be whipped [endnoteRef:11] When slaves attempted to worship the gospel that is of peace and not of blood and whips,[endnoteRef:12] American whites would burst upon them and drag them out and commence beating them as if they would rattlesnakes.[endnoteRef:13] These savage acts committed by the whites greatly contradicted both the Declaration and the Bible. When Walker calls for a slave uprising, he refers to the Bible and to God given rights, just as the colonists have done so in the Declaration and the Revolution. Although it may seem that he is radical when he states The man who would not fight in the glorious and heavenly cause of freedom and of God ought to be kept with his family, in slavery, or in chains, to be butchered by his cruel enemies,[endnoteRef:14] it is actually rational since slaves are kept in such deplorable conditions anyways. Blacks must do what they can in order to gain God given liberty, no matter how radical it may seem. [11: Walker, Appeal, 41.] [12: Walker, Appeal, 41.] [13: Walker, Appeal, 39.] [14: Walker, Appeal, 14-15.]

To comfort themselves, the slave owners convinced themselves that blacks were morally inferior to whites, thus, they were not equal as under the Consititution. You have to prove to the Americans and the world, that we are MEN, not brutes, as we have been represented, and by millions treated.(32)

Notes

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