Will he not stop them in their career? Does he regard the heathens abroad, more than the heathens among the Americans? Surely the Americans must believe that God is partial, notwithstanding his Apostle Peter, declared before Cornelius and others that he has no respect to persons, but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.
Do they believe it? Surely they do not. See how they treat us in open violation of the Bible!! They no doubt will be greatly offended with me, but if God does not awaken them, it will be, because they are superior to other men, as they have represented themselves to be.
Our divine Lord and Master said, "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them. Now I ask them, would they like for us to hold them and their children in abject slavery and wretchedness? No says one, that never can be done--your are too abject and ignorant to do it--you are not men--your were made to be slaves to us, to dig up gold and silver for us and our children.
Know this, my dear sirs, that although you treat us and our children now, as you do your domestic beast--yet the final result of all future events are known but to God Almighty alone, who rules in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and who dethrones one earthly king and sits up another, as it seemeth good in his holy sight. We may attribute these vicissitudes to what we please, but the God of armies and of justice rules in heaven and in earth, and the whole American people shall see and know it yet, to their satisfaction.
I have known pretended preachers of the gospel of my Master, who not only held us as their natural inheritance, but treated us with as much rigor as any Infidel or Deist in the world--just as though they were intent only on taking our blood and groans to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. The wicked and ungodly, seeing their preachers treat us with so much cruelty, they say: our preachers, who must be right, if any body are, treat them like brutes, and why cannot we?
But how far the American preachers are from preaching against slavery and oppression, which have carried their country to the brink of a precipice; to save them from plunging down the side of which, will hardly be affected, will appear in the sequel of this paragraph, which I shall narrate just as as it transpired.
I remember a Camp Meeting in South Carolina, for which I embarked in a Steam Boat at Charleston, and having been five or six hours on the water, we at last arrived at the place of hearing, where was a very great concourse of people, who were no doubt, collected together to hear the word of God, that some had collected barely as spectators to the scene, I will not here pretend to doubt, however, that is left to themselves and their God.
Myself and boat companions, having been there a little while, we were all called up to hear; I among the rest went up and took my seat--being seated, I fixed myself in a complete position to hear the word of my Saviour and to receive such as I thought was authenticated by the Holy Scriptures; but to my no ordinary astonishment, our 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.
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 Page 45 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.
For God Almighty will tear up the very face of the earth!!! Will not that very remarkable passage of Scripture be fulfilled on Christian Americans? Hear it Americans!! There are not a more wretched, ignorant, miserable, and abject set of beings in all the world, than the blacks in the Southern and Western sections of this country, under tyrants and devils.
The preachers of America cannot see them, but they can send out missionaries to convert the heathens, notwithstanding. The English are the best friends the coloured people have upon earth. Though they have oppressed us a little and have colonies now in the West Indies, which oppress us sorely.
The blacks cannot but respect the English as a nation, notwithstanding they have treated us a little cruel. There is no intelligent black man who knows any thing, but esteems a real Englishman, let him see him in what part of the world he will--for they are the greatest benefactors we have upon earth. We have here and there, in other nations, good friends. But as a nation, the English are our friends. How can the preachers and people of America believe the Bible? Does it teach them any distinction on account of a man's colour?
Hearken, Americans! Matthews's Gospel, chap. After Jesus was risen from the dead. I declare, that the very face of these injunctions appear to be of God and not of man. They do not show the slightest degree of distinction. We are a people, notwithstanding Page 48 many of you doubt it. You have the Bible in your hands, with this very injunction. This being done, have you not brought us among you, in chains and hand-cuffs, like brutes, and treated us with all the cruelties and rigour your ingenuity could invent, consistent with the laws of your country, which for the blacks are tyrannical enough?
Can the American preachers appeal unto God, the Maker and Searcher of hearts, and tell him, with the Bible in their hands, that they make no distinction on account of men's colour? Can they say, O God! Let them answer the Lord; and if they cannot do it in the affirmative, have they not departed from the Lord Jesus Christ, their master? But some may say, that they never had, or were in possession of a religion, which made no distinction, and of course they could not have departed from it.
I ask you then, in the name of the Lord, of what kind can your religion be? Can it be that which was preached by our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven? I believe you cannot be so wicked as to tell him that his Gospel was that of distinction. What can the American preachers and people take God to be?
Do they believe his words? If they do, do they believe that he will be mocked? Or do they believe, because they are whites and we blacks, that God will have respect to them? Did not God make us all as it seemed best to himself? What right, then, Page 49 has one of us, to despise another, and to treat him cruel, on account of his colour, which none, but the God who made it can alter?
Can there be a greater absurdity in nature, and particularly in a free republican country? But the Americans, having introduced slavery among them, their hearts have become almost seared, as with an hot iron, and God has nearly given them up to believe a lie in preference to the truth!!!
And I am awfully afraid that pride, prejudice, avarice and blood, will, before long prove the final ruin of this happy republic, or land of liberty!!!! Can any thing be a greater mockery of religion than the way in which it is conducted by the Americans? It appears as though they are bent only on daring God Almighty to do his best--they chain and handcuff us and our children and drive us around the country like brutes, and go into the house of the God of justice to return him thanks for having aided them in their infernal cruelties inflicted upon us.
Will the Lord suffer this people to go on much longer, taking his holy name in vain? O Americans! MY dearly beloved brethrenThis is a scheme on which so many able writers, together with that very judicious coloured Baltimorean, have commented, that I feel my delicacy about touching it.
But as I am compelled to do the will of my Master, I declare, I will give you my sentiments upon it. Henry Clay, together with that of Mr.
Elias B. Caldwell, Esq. At a meeting which was convened in the District of Columbia, for the express purpose of agitating the subject of colonizing us in some part of the world, Mr.
May we not hope that America will extinguish a great portion of that moral debt which she has contracted to that unfortunate continent? Before I proceed any further, I solicit your notice, brethren, to the foregoing part of Mr. Are Mr. Clay and the rest of the Americans, innocent of the blood and groans of our fathers and us, their children? Oh Americans!
Some of you are good men; but the will of my God must be done. Those avaricious and ungodly tyrants among you, I am awfully afraid will drag down the vengeance of God upon you. When God Almighty commences his battle on the continent of America, for the oppression of his people, tyrants will wish they never were born. But to return to Mr. Clay, whence I digressed. He says, "It was proper and necessary distinctly Page 52 to state, that he understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting, to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the coloured population of our country.
It was not proposed to deliberate upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and the West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to co-operate. It was upon that condition only, that he himself had attended. For if the free are allowed to stay among the slaves, they will have intercourse together, and, of course, the free will learn the slaves bad habits, by teaching them that they are MEN, as well as other people, and certainly ought and must be FREE.
I presume, that every intelligent man of colour must have some idea of Mr. Henry Clay, originally of Virginia, but now of Kentucky; they know too, perhaps, whether he is a friend, or a foe to the coloured citizens of this country, and of the world. This gentleman, according to his own words, had been highly favoured and blessed of the Lord, though he did not acknowledge it; but, to the contrary, he acknowledged men, for all the blessings with which God had favoured him.
At a public dinner, given him at Fowler's Garden, Lexington, Kentucky, he delivered a public speech to a very large concourse of people--in the concluding clause of which, he says, "And now, my friends and fellow citizens, I cannot part from you, on possibly Page 53 the last occasion of my ever publicly addressing you, without reiterating the expression of my thanks, from a heart overflowing with gratitude.
I came among you, now more than thirty years ago, an orphan boy, pennyless, a stranger to you all, without friends, without the favour of the great, you took me up, cherished me, protected me, honoured me, you have constantly poured upon me a bold and unabated stream of innumerable favours, time which wears out every thing has increased and strengthened your affection for me.
When I seemed deserted by almost the whole world, and assailed by almost every tongue, and pen, and press, you have fearlessly and manfully stood by me, with unsurpassed zeal and undiminished friendship. When I felt as if I should sink beneath the storm of abuse and detraction, which was violently raging around me, I have found myself upheld and sustained by your encouraging voices and approving smiles. I have doubtless, committed many faults and indiscretions, over which you have thrown the broad mantle of your charity.
But I can say, and in the presence of God and in this assembled multitude, I will say, that I have honestly and faithfully served my country--that I have never wronged it--and that, however unprepared, I lament that I am to appear in the Divine presence on other accounts, I invoke the stern justice of his judgment on my public conduct, without the slightest apprehension of his displeasure.
Hearken to this Statesman indeed, but no philanthropist, whom God sent into Kentucky, an orphan boy, pennyless, and friendless, where he not only gave him a plenty of friends and the comforts of life, but raised him almost to the very highest honour in the nation, where his great talents, with which the Lord has been pleased to bless him, has gained for him the affection of a great portion of the people with whom he had to do.
But what has this gentleman Page 54 done for the Lord, after having done so much for him? The Lord has a suffering people, whose moans and groans at his feet for deliverance from oppression and wretchedness, pierce the very throne of Heaven, and call loudly on the God of Justice, to be revenged. Now, what this gentleman, who is so highly favoured of the Lord, has done to liberate those miserable victims of oppression, shall appear before the world, by his letters to Mr.
Clay was writing for the States, yet nevertheless, it appears, from the very face of his letters to that gentleman, that he was as anxious, if not more so, to get those free people and sink them into wretchedness, as his constituents, for whom he wrote. But there is a day fast approaching, when unless there is a universal repentance on the part of the whites, which will scarcely take place, they have got to be so hardened in consequence of our blood, and so wise in their own conceit.
To be plain and candid with you, Americans! I say that the day is fast approaching, when there will be a greater time on the continent of America, than ever was witnessed upon this earth, since it came from the hand of its Creator. Some of you have done us so much injury, that you will never Page 55 be able to repent. But Mr. Henry Clay, speaking to Mr. Gallatin, respecting coloured people, who had effected their escape from the U.
States or to them hell upon earth!!! There are a series of these letters, all of which are to the same amount; some however, presenting a face more of his own responsibility. I wonder what would this gentleman think, if the Lord should give him among the rest of his blessings enough of slaves? Could he blame any other being but himself? Do we not belong to the Holy Ghost? What business has he or any body else, to be sending letters about the world respecting us?
Can we not go where we want to, as well as other people, only if we obey the voice of the Holy Ghost? This gentleman, Mr. Clay's public labor for these States--I want you candidly to answer the Lord, who sees the secrets of our hearts.
Henry Clay, late Secretary of State, and now in Kentucky, is a friend to the blacks, further, than his personal interest extends? Is it not his greatest object and glory upon earth, to sink us into miseries and wretchedness by making slaves of us, to work his plantation to enrich him and his family?
Does he care a pinch of snuff about Africa--whether it remains a land of Pagans and of blood, or of Christians, so long as he gets enough of her sons and daughters to dig up gold and silver for him? If he had no slaves, and could obtain them in no other way if it were not, repugnant to the laws of his country, which prohibit the importation of slaves which act was, indeed, more through apprehension than humanity would he not try to import a few from Africa, to work his farm?
Would he work in the hot sun to earn his bread, if he could make an African work for nothing, particularly, if he could keep him in ignorance and make him believe that God made him for nothing else but to work for him?
Is not Mr. Clay a white man, and too delicate to work in the hot sun!! Was he not made by his Creator to sit in the shade, and make the blacks work without remuneration for their services, to support him and his family!!! I have been for some time taking notice of this man's speeches and public writings, but never to my knowledge have I seen any thing in his writings which insisted on the emancipation of slavery, which has almost ruined his country. Thus we see the depravity of men's hearts, when in pursuit only of gain--particularly when they oppress their fellow creatures to obtain that gain--God suffers some to go on until they are lost forever.
This same Mr. Clay, wants to know, what he has done, to merit the Page 57 disapprobation of the American people. In a public speech delivered by him, he asked: "Did I involve my country in an unnecessary war? Clay, to ask such frivolous questions?
Does he believe that a man of his talents and standing in the midst of a people, will get along unnoticed by the penetrating and all seeing eye of God, who is continually taking cognizance of the hearts of men? Is not God against him, for advocating the murderous cause of slavery? If God is against him, what can the Americans, together with the whole world do for him? Can they save him from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ? I shall now pass in review the speech of Mr.
Clay's will be found. Caldwell, giving his opinion respecting us, at that ever memorable meeting, he says: "The more you improve the condition of these people, the more you cultivate their minds, the more miserable you make them in their present state. You give them a higher relish for those privileges which they can never attain, and turn what we intend for a blessing into a curse.
Did he mean sinking us and our children into ignorance and wretchedness, to support him and his family? What he meant will appear evident and obvious to the most ignorant in the world See Mr. Caldwell's intended blessings for us, O!
The nearer you bring them to Page 58 the condition of brutes, the better chance do you give them of possessing their apathy. I presume that every body knows the meaning of the world "apathy," --if any do not, let him get Sheridan's Dictionary, in which he will find it explained in full.
I solicit the attention of the world, to the foregoing part of Mr. Caldwell's speech, that they may see what man will do with his fellow men, when he has them under his feet. To what length will not man go in iniquity when given up to a hard heart, and reprobate mind, in consequence of blood and oppression?
The last clause of this speech, which was written in a very artful manner, and which will be taken for the speech of a friend, without close examination and deep penetration, I shall now present. He says, "surely, Americans ought to be the last people on earth, to advocate such slavish doctrines, to cry peace and contentment to those who are deprived of the privileges of civil liberty, they who have so largely partaken of its blessings, who know so well how to estimate its value, ought to be among the foremost to extend it to others.
Caldwell's speech is, get the free people of colour away to Africa, from among the slaves, where they may at once be blessed and happy, and those who we hold in slavery, will be contented to rest in ignorance and wretchedness, to dig up gold and silver for us and our children. Men have indeed got to be so cunning, these days, that it would take the eye of a Solomon to penetrate and find them out.
How obviously this declaration of our Lord Page 59 has been shown among the Americans of the United States. They have hitherto passed among some nations, who do not know any thing about their internal concerns, for the most enlightened, humane, charitable, and merciful people upon earth, when at the same time they treat us, the coloured people secretly more cruel and unmerciful than any other nation upon earth. Many of whom if they catch a coloured person, whom they hold in unjust ignorance, slavery and degradation, to them and their children, with a book in his hand, will beat him nearly to death.
I heard a wretch in the state of North Carolina said, that if any man would teach a black person whom he held in slavery, to spell, read or write, he would prosecute him to the very extent of the law. House of Delegates, but not the Senate in Virginia, to prohibit all persons of colour, free and slave from learning to read or write, and even to hinder them from meeting together in order to worship our Maker!!!!!!
I dare you to show me a parallel of cruelties in the annals of Heathens or of Devils, with those of Ohio, Virginia and of Georgia--know the world that these things were before done in the dark, or in a corner under a garb of humanity and religion. God has however, taken of the fig-leaf covering, and made them expose themselves on the house top. I tell you that God works in many ways his wonders to perform, he will unless they repent, make them expose themselves enough more yet to the world.
I write without the fear of man, I am writing for my God, and fear none but himself; they may put me to death if they choose-- I fear and esteem a Page 61 good man however, let him be black or white. But I declare that the atrocity is really to Heaven daring and infernal, that I must say that God has commenced a course of exposition among the Americans, and the glorious and heavenly work will continue to progress until they learn to do justice.
Extract from the Speech of Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke. Said he"It had been properly observed by the Chairman, as well as by the gentleman from this District meaning Messrs. Clay and Caldwell that there was nothing in the proposition submitted to consideration which in the smallest degree touches another very important and delicate question, which ought to be left as much out of view as possible, Negro Slavery.
The white Americans have applied this term to Africans, by way of reproach for our colour, to aggravate and heighten our miseries, because they have their feet on our throats. In that book, much read because coming from a practical man, this description of people, [referring to us half free ones] were pointed out as a great evil. They had indeed been held up as the greater bug-bear to every man who feels an inclination to emancipate his slaves, not to create in the bosom of his country so great a nuisance.
If a place could be provided for their reception, and a Page 62 mode of sending them hence, there were hundreds, nay thousands of citizens who would, by manumitting their slaves, relieve themselves from the cares attendant on their possession. The great slave-holder, Mr. Here is a demonstrative proof, of a plan got up, by a gang of slave-holders to select the free people of colour from among the slaves, that our more miserable brethren may be the better secured in ignorance and wretchedness, to work their farms and dig their mines, and thus go on enriching the Christians with their blood and groans.
What our brethren could have been thinking ubout , who have left their native land and home and gone away to Africa, I am unable to say. This country is as much ours as it is the whites, whether they will admit it now or not, they will see and believe it by and by. They tell us about prejudice--what have we to do with it?
Their prejudices will be obliged to fall like lightning to the ground, in succeeding generations; not, however, with the will and consent of all the whites, for some will be obliged to hold on to the old adage, viz: the blacks are not men, but were made to be an inheritance to us and our children for ever!!!!!!
I hope the residue of the coloured people, will stand still and see the salvation of God and the miracle which he will work for our delivery from wretchedness under the Christians!!!!!! 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? 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.
Before I proceed further with this scheme, I shall give an extract from the letter of that truly Reverend Divine, Bishop Allen, of Philadelphia, respecting this trick.
I, No. We are an unlettered people, brought up in ignorance, not one in a hundred can read or write, not one in a thousand has a liberal education; is there any fitness for such to be sent into a far country, among heathens, to convert or civilize them, when they themselves are neither civilized or Christianized?
See the great bulk of the poor, ignorant Africans in this country, exposed to every temptation Page 64 before them: all for the want of their morals being refined by education and proper attendance paid unto them by their owners, or those who had the charge of them. It is said by the Southern slave-holders, that the more ignorant they can bring up the Africans, the better slaves they make, 'go and come. Can we not discern the project of sending the free people of colour away from their country?
Is it not for the interest of the slave-holders to select the free people of colour out of the different states, and send them to Liberia? Will it not make their slaves uneasy to see free men of colour enjoying liberty? It is against the law in some of the Southern States, that a person of colour should receive an education, under a severe penalty.
Colonizationists speak of America being first colonized; but is there any comparison between the two? America was colonized by as wise, judicious and educated men as the world afforded. If all the people in Europe and America were as ignorant and in the same situation as our brethren, what would become of the world?
Where would be the principle or piety that would govern the people? We were stolen from our mother country, and brought here. We have tilled the ground and made fortunes for thousands, and still they are not weary of our services.
But they who stay to till the ground must be slaves. Is there not land enough in America, or 'corn enough in Egypt? See the thousands of foreigners emigrating to America every year: and if there be ground sufficient for them to cultivate, and bread for them to eat, why would they wish to send the first tillers of the land away? Africans have made fortunes for thousands, who are yet unwilling to part with their services; but the free must be sent away, and those who remain, must be Page 65 slaves.
I have no doubt that there are many good men who do not see as I do, and who are for sending us to Liberia; but they have not duly considered the subject--they are not men of colour. I have given you, my brethren, an extract verbatim, from the letter of that godly man, as you may find it on the aforementioned page of Freedom's Journal. I know that thousands, and perhaps millions of my brethren in these States, have never heard of such a man as Bishop Allen--a man whom God many years ago raised up among his ignorant and degraded brethren, to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified to them--who notwithstanding, had to wrestle against principalities and the powers of darkness to diffuse that gospel with which he was endowed among his brethren--but who having overcome the combined powers of devils and wicked men, has under God planted a Church among us which will be as durable as the foundation of the earth on which it stands.
Richard Allen! O my God!! The bare recollection of the labours of this man, and his ministers among his deplorably wretched brethren, rendered so by the whites to bring them to a knowledge of the God of Heaven, fills my soul with all those very high emotions which would take the pen of an Addison to portray.
It is impossible my brethren for me to say much in this work respecting that man of God. When the Lord shall raise up coloured historians in succeeding generations, to present the crimes of this nation, to the then gazing world, the Holy Ghost will make them do justice to the name of Bishop Allen, of Philadelphia. Page 66 Suffice it for me to say, that the name of this very man Richard Allen though now in obscurity and degradation, will notwithstanding, stand on the pages of history among the greatest divines who have lived since the apostolic age, and among the Africans, Bishop Allen's will be entirely pre-eminent.
My brethren, search after the character and exploits of this godly man among his ignorant and miserable brethren, to bring them to a knowledge of the truth as it is in our Master. Consider upon the tyrants and false Christians against whom he had to contend in order to get access to his brethren. See him and his ministers in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, carrying the gladsome tidings of free and full salvation to the coloured people.
Tyrants and false Christians however, would not allow him to penetrate far into the South, for fear that he would awaken some of his ignorant brethren, whom they held in wretchedness and misery--for fear, I say it, that he would awaken and bring them to a knowledge of their Maker.
O my Master! I cannot but think upon Christian Americans!!! Will not those who were burnt up in Sodom and Gomorrah rise up in judgment against Christian Americans with the Bible in their hands, and condemn them?
Ceased before our Lord entered the Temple, and overturned the tables of the Money Changers. The Antideluvians and heathens never dreamed of such barbarities.
But if he does not deceive them, it will be because he has overlooked it sure enough. But to return to this godly man, Bishop Allen. I do hereby openly affirm it to the world, that he has done more in a spiritual sense for his ignorant and wretched brethren than any other man of colour has, since the world began. And as for the greater part of the whites, it has hitherto been their greatest object and glory to keep us ignorant of our Maker, so as to make us believe that we were made to be slaves to them and their children, to dig up gold and silver for them.
It is notorious that not a few professing Christians among the whites, who profess to love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, have assailed this man and laid all the obstacles in his way they possibly could, consistent with their profession--and what for? Why, their course of proceeding and his, clashed exactly together--they trying their best to keep us ignorant, that we might be the better and more obedient slaves--while he, on the other hand, doing his very best to enlighten us and teach us a knowledge of the Lord.
And I am sorry that I have it to say, that many of our brethren have joined in with our oppressors, whose dearest objects are only to keep us ignorant and miserable against this man to stay his hand.
I have several times called the white Americans our natural enemies --I shall here define my meaning of the phrase. He also sent copies through the regular mail. Most slaves in the South could not read or write; it was a crime to teach them to do so. Southern authorities were alarmed by the Appeal , and did everything in their power to suppress it. They feared it would encourage revolts at a time when slave resistance was growing in many areas.
Dense swamps and pine forests offered safe havens for those who had escaped bondage; many created settled camps and armed themselves for self-defense. In , when the Appeal first surfaced in Wilmington, authorities believed that a slave rebellion was close at hand.
Food, weapons, and other hidden supplies were later found. Whites in other Southern states also feared slave uprisings. In New Orleans, arson by Blacks was suspected in a rash of suspicious fires. A rebellion north of the city by Blacks and a few white allies in March was brutally put down. Fifteen of its leaders were executed. The crackdown against the Appeal was swift and harsh.
Officials destroyed copies wherever they found them. They dealt brutally with those caught with the pamphlet in their possession. Authorities also passed new and stricter laws against anti-slavery material and against slave education. For example, Georgia required all visiting Black sailors to be quarantined that is, detained in isolation while their ships were in port.
Walker himself was a target. Packaged and sent through the regular mail Sewn into the linings of clothes Smuggled ashore from ships when they docked in port In early , in the bustling port town of Wilmington, North Carolina, a slave named Jacob Cowan took delivery of two hundred copies of the Appeal.
There was also a letter from Walker instructing him to distribute the pamphlets across the state. Cowan was arrested and jailed. Fearful and angry whites in Wilmington also targeted others who had copies of the Appeal or who had been seen reading it.
Many others did, too. Resistance and revolt would have continued there whether the Appeal had appeared or not. But the pamphlet served as a rallying point. He next surveys the legislated ban on educational opportunities for both slaves and free people of color, suggesting that the forbidden access to Christian morals promoted brute behavior, and the lack of formal education blighted the opportunity for self growth or ennoblement.
Walker next examines social and political agencies through which slaves were further subjugated. Even as the invocation of God provided solace and hope to the enslaved, He was also invoked by white clergymen—no less products of the zeitgeist than the openly racist slaveholders—who used the Bible to justify slavery, and condemned slaves for disobeying their masters.
Finally, Walker excoriates plans to re-colonize free blacks in Africa as an attempt not to rectify the suffering of an oppressed minority, but instead as a way to remove even the few exemplars of black social mobility who existed. Smuggling them into North Carolina via New York or Boston coastal vessels, distributors of the Appeal particularly sought to spread the militant call to action throughout the cities of the coastal region, such as Wilmington, Fayetteville, and Elizabeth City.
The Appeal increased southern white paranoia about the potential for slave uprising, and was an impetus for increased restrictions on both free and enslaved blacks. In Washington, for instance, blacks were forbidden to congregate except to attend white preaching services, and laws were introduced after the Nat Turner revolt to forbid blacks to preach at all. During the legislative session almost one-third of the public acts passed by legislature pertained to blacks.
To prevent the dissemination of the Appeal , Negroes were pilloried, whipped, and imprisoned for one year for a first offence.
On a second offence, the person was killed without benefit of clergy. Laws were also passed making it more difficult to attain freedom, and increased restrictions on free blacks who could, presumably, taint the minds of slaves. Laws limited the movement of free blacks, prohibited re-entry after being absent from the state for ninety days, and enjoined free black citizens from communicating with other free blacks on incoming ships.
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