DAVID WALKER AND EARLY FREEDOM WRITERS

DAVID WALKER’S ‘APPEAL, ‘ OTHER EARLY AUTHORS David Walker, author of his iconic “Appeal” of 1829, is credited as being the ‘first’ African American freedom pamphleteer, and “black nationalist”. I found this very doubtful, given James Forten , Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, Paul Cuffee, Robert Purvis, Prince Hall, Olaudah Equiano, Phyllis Wheatley and other 18th-19th century black writer-freedom fighters . Don’t get me wrong. This is not to diminish the power of David Walker’s work, which still informs me years later. l thoroughly loved reading “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”. I read “Appeal” in high school and was amazed that there’d been so many so-called “black militants” of the 1960s-early 1970s, who did not read it, nor, for that matter, not read much of anything ! The fact remains, however, that David Walker, was not the first, nor was he the only black pamphleteer, author, writer, affirming black personality . As early as 1813, sailmaker James Forten, had published anonymously a successful diatribe opposing legislation in Pennsylvania threatening to take away voting rights of free blacks in Pennsylvania. Of equal note, was Richard Allen’s and Absalom Jones’ 1794 “A Narrative of the Proceedings of The Black People, During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793.” Although published in pamphlet form, it described ,salutarily, their African Methodist Episcopal Church’s and African Episcopal Church’s valiant work saving white people from near-death, nursing, sanitizing , burying the dead, in the Philadelphia’s Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. This is not to diminish but to contextualize David Walker. Along these lines, David Walker, was a Prince Hall mason, member of the African Lodge, No. 459, Boston, dating provisionally at 1776, formally dating from 1784 . That is the site of the first Masonry lodge of Africans in America. Prince Hall had received its Charter directly from the Grand Lodge of London, England, when the American whites refused one. Around the same time, Guinea’s Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavas Vasa, wrote a very revealing autobiography (1789) describing his capture in Africa ; his enslavements in Caribbean, North America and later liberation. He recounts his fruitful antislavery efforts in Great Britain, his maritime experiences, his education, his sailing to ports of entry in multiple environments. “The Interesting Narrative of Olaudio Equiano” was published in 1789, the year the American government opened. So, he may be the first of the stable of esteemed authors of African American narratives. His book is as vitally wonderful as its peers. I dare not omit gifted poet, Phyllis Wheatley , whose 1773, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” was the first book of poetry to be published by an African American. Although not autobiographical it was as spiritually exhortative as male peers’. Wheatley was the most famous African in the world in 1773. Contrary to unwarranted criticism by some contemporary African Americans, she was no “Uncle Tom” as this poem attests :