Walkers Appeal, with a Brief Sketch of His Life | Page 9

own, but my wife and children's lives by the inches? Yea,
would I meet death with avidity far! far!! in preference to such servile
submission to the murderous hands of tyrants. Mr. Jefferson's very
severe remarks on us have been so extensively argued upon by men
whose attainments in literature, I shall never be able to reach, that I
would not have meddled with it, were it not to solicit each of my
brethren, who has the spirit of a man, to buy a copy of Mr. Jefferson's
"Notes on Virginia," and put it in the hand of his son. For let no one of
us suppose that the refutations which have been written by our white
friends are enough--they are _whites_--we are blacks. We, and the
world wish to see the charges of Mr. Jefferson refuted by the blacks
themselves, according to their chance: for we must remember that what
the whites have written respecting this subject, is other men's labors
and did not emanate from the blacks. I know well, that there are some
talents and learning among the coloured people of this country, which
we have not a chance to develope, in consequence of oppression; but
our oppression ought not to hinder us from acquiring all we can.--For
we will have a chance to develope them by and by. God will not suffer

us, always to be oppressed. Our sufferings will come to an end, in spite
of all the Americans this side of eternity. Then we will want all the
learning and talents among ourselves, and perhaps more, to govern
ourselves.--"Every dog must have its day," the American's is coming to
an end.
But let us review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some further.
Comparing our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of
Greece, he says:
"Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging circumstances
among the Romans, their slaves were often their rarest artists. They
excelled too in science, insomuch as to be usually employed as tutors to
their master's children; Epictetus, Terence and Phædrus, were
slaves,--but they were of the race of whites. It is not their condition
then, but nature, which has produced the distinction."[9]
See this, my brethren!! Do you believe that this assertion is swallowed
by millions of the whites? Do you know that Mr. Jefferson was one of
as great characters as ever lived among the whites? See his writings for
the world, and public labors for the United States of America. Do you
believe that the assertions of such a man, will pass away into oblivion
unobserved by this people and the world? If you do you are much
mistaken--See how the American people treat us--have we souls in our
bodies? are we men who have any spirits at all? I know that there are
many _swell-bellied_ fellows among us whose greatest object is to fill
their stomachs. Such I do not mean--I am after those who know and
feel, that we are MEN as well as other people; to them, I say, that
unless we try to refute Mr. Jefferson's arguments respecting us, we will
only establish them.
But the slaves among the Romans. Every body who has read history,
knows, that as soon as a slave among the Romans obtained his freedom,
he could rise to the greatest eminence in the State, and there was no law
instituted to hinder a slave from buying his freedom. Have not the
Americans instituted laws to hinder us from obtaining our freedom. Do
any deny this charge? Read the laws of Virginia, North Carolina, &c.
Further: have not the Americans instituted laws to prohibit a man of

colour from obtaining and holding any office whatever, under the
government of the United States of America? Now, Mr. Jefferson tells
us that our condition is not so hard, as the slaves were under the
Romans!!!!
It is time for me to bring this article to a close. But before I close it, I
must observe to my brethren that at the close of the first Revolution in
this country with Great Britain, there were but thirteen States in the
Union, now there are twenty-four, most of which are slave-holding
States, and the whites are dragging us around in chains and hand-cuffs
to their new States and Territories to work their mines and farms, to
enrich them and their children, and millions of them believing firmly
that we being a little darker than they, were made by our creator to be
an inheritance to them and their children forever--the same as a parcel
of brutes!!
Are we MEN!!--I ask you, O my brethren! are we MEN? Did our
creator make us to be slaves to dust and ashes like ourselves? Are they
not dying worms as well as we? Have they not to make their
appearance before