Walkers Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life | Page 8

for our lawful right; guaranteed to us by our
Maker; for why should we be afraid, when God is, and will continue (if
we continue humble) to be on our side?
The man who would not fight under our Lord and Master Jesus Christ,
in the glorious and heavenly cause of freedom and of God--to be
delivered from the most wretched, abject and servile slavery, that ever a
people was afflicted with since the foundation of the world, to the
present day--ought to be kept with all of his children or family, in
slavery, or in chains, to be butchered by his cruel enemies. [<-Hand]
I saw a paragraph, a few years since, in a South Carolina paper, which,
speaking of the barbarity of the Turks it said: "The Turks are the most
barbarous people in the world--they treat the Greeks more like brutes
than human beings." And in the same paper was an advertisement,
which said: "Eight well built Virginia and Maryland Negro fellows and
four wenches will positively be sold this day _to the highest bidder!_"

And what astonished me still more was, to see in this same humane
paper!! the cuts of three men, with clubs and budgets on their backs,
and an advertisement offering a considerable sum of money for their
apprehension and delivery. I declare it is really so funny to hear the
Southerners and Westerners of this country talk about barbarity, that it
is positively, enough to make a man smile.
The sufferings of the Helots among the Spartans, were somewhat
severe, it is true, but to say that theirs were as severe as ours among the
Americans I do most strenuously deny--for instance, can any man show
me an article on a page of ancient history which specifies, that, the
Spartans chained, and hand-cuffed the Helots, and dragged them from
their wives and children, children from their parents, mothers from
their sucking babes, wives from their husbands, driving them from one
end of the country to the other? Notice the Spartans were heathens, who
lived long before our Divine Master made his appearance in the flesh.
Can Christian Americans deny these barbarous cruelties? Have you not
Americans, having subjected us under you, added to these miseries, by
insulting us in telling us to our face, because we are helpless that we are
not of the human family? I ask you, O! Americans, I ask you, in the
name of the Lord, can you deny these charges? Some perhaps may
deny, by saying, that they never thought or said that we were not men.
But do not actions speak louder than words?--have they not made
provisions for the Greeks, and Irish? Nations who have never done the
least thing for them, while we who have enriched their country with our
blood and tears--have dug up gold and silver for them and their
children, from generation to generation, and are in more miseries than
any other people under heaven, are not seen, but by comparatively a
handful of the American people? There are indeed, more ways to kill a
dog besides choaking it to death with butter. Further. The Spartans or
Lacedemonians, had some frivolous pretext for enslaving the Helots,
for they (Helots) while being free inhabitants of Sparta, stirred up an
intestine commotion, and were by the Spartans subdued, and made
prisoners of war. Consequently they and their children were
condemned to perpetual slavery.[7]
I have been for years troubling the pages of historians to find out what

our fathers have done to the white Christians of America, to merit such
condign punishment as they have inflicted on them, and do continue to
inflict on us their children. But I must aver, that my researches have
hitherto been to no effect. I have therefore come to the immovable
conclusion, that they (Americans) have, and do continue to punish us
for nothing else, but for enriching them and their country. For I cannot
conceive of any thing else. Nor will I ever believe otherwise until the
Lord shall convince me.
The world knows, that slavery as it existed among the Romans, (which
was the primary cause of their destruction) was, comparatively
speaking, no more than a cypher, when compared with ours under the
Americans. Indeed, I should not have noticed the Roman slaves, had
not the very learned and penetrating Mr. Jefferson said, "When a
master was murdered, all his slaves in the same house or within hearing,
were condemned to death."[8]--Here let me ask Mr. Jefferson, (but he
is gone to answer at the bar of God, for the deeds done in his body
while living,) I therefore ask the whole American people, had I not
rather die, or be put to death than to be a slave to any tyrant, who takes
not only my