David Walker was an African-American abolitionist who was born in 1796 to a father that was a slave and a mother who was free, thus making Walker free as well. Walker grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina in a town where African-Americans were the majority in the region and their presence in the town was profound. Most labor--skilled or unskilled--was performed by “black slaves who were the foundation of the region's key industries: naval stores production, lumbering, rice cultivation, building construction, and shipping.” (Hinks) When he grew older he moved away from his hometown to Charleston, South Carolina because free African-Americans made up much of the population and had many more economic and social opportunities. Walker’s local church faced white oppression as they continuously tried to close the church down. In the early 1820s increased attacks on the church deeply angered its members, with some looking to rebel and fight against …show more content…
This can be seen as an early cause of Walker’s strong desire to fight for the abolition of slavery.
In 1825 he moved to Boston, Massachusetts and become prevalent in the African-American community and got married in 1826 to Eliza Butler. By 1827 Walker “was a member of a black Methodist congregation and had become the principal local agent for America's first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal.” (Hinks) Walker saw that blacks could advance socially and politically and wanted to organize blacks by founding the Massachusetts General Colored Association in 1828, which was one of the earliest political organizations for African-Americans in the United States. On 28 September 1829 David Walker published the Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which became one of the most significant black political documents of its time. The