Thread by @SethCotlar

1. Every time I teach David Walker's "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World" (1829) we linger on this passage. It has special resonance today.

"Now let us reason—I mean you of the United States, whom I believe God designs to save from destruction, if you will hear..."

2. "For I declare to you, whether you believe it or not, that there are some on the continent of America, who will never be able to repent. God will surely destroy them, to show you his disapprobation of the murders they and you have inflicted on us..."

3. "Remember Americans, that we must and shall be free and enlightened as you are, will you wait until we shall, under God, obtain our liberty by the crushing arm of power? Will it not be dreadful for you? I speak Americans for your good..."

4. "We must and shall be free I say, in spite of you. You may do your best to keep us in wretchedness and misery, to enrich you and your children; but God will deliver us from under you. And wo, wo, will be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by fighting..."

5. "Throw away your fears and prejudices then, and...treat us like men [sic], and we will like you more than we do now hate you and tell us now no more about colonization [i.e., white nationalism], for America is as much our country, as it is yours..."

6. "Treat us like men [sic], and there is no danger but we will all live in peace and happiness together. For we are not like you, hard hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving. What a happy country this will be, IF THE WHITES WILL LISTEN..."

7. "Americans, I declare to you, while you keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your friends. You do not look for it, do you? Treat us then like men [sic], and we will be your friends..."

8. "And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible, but remember that nothing is impossible with God..."

9. "The Americans may say or do as they please, but they have to raise us from the condition of brutes to that of respectable men [sic], and to make a national acknowledgement to us for the wrongs they have inflicted on us."

10. David Walker, an African-American 2nd hand clothes dealer in Boston wrote those words 190 years ago. docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/walk…

11. A good short bio of David Walker, a remarkably prophetic voice from the American past that too few contemporary Americans, IMO, know about. davidwalkermemorial.org/david-walker/d…

12. One thing that made him so prophetic was the way he put the Declaration of Independence, and its language of equality, at the center of the American political tradition. "See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language?..."

13. "Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776—"We hold these truths to be self evident—that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!"

14. "Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us—men [sic] who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!"