One of the most remarkable papers written by a Negro during the Anti-Slavery Agitation Movement was the Appeal of David Walker, of Boston, Massachusetts. He was a shopkeeper and dealer in second-hand clothes. He was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, September 28, 1785, of a free mother by a slave father. When quite young he said: "If I remain in this bloody land, I will not live long. As true as God reigns, I will be avenged for the sorrow which my people have suffered. This is not the place for me—no, no. I must leave this part of the country. It will be a great trial for me to live on the same soil where so many men are in slavery; certainly I cannot remain where I must hear their chains continually, and where I must encounter the insults of their hypocritical enslavers. Go, I must!"

He went to Boston, Massachusetts, where he took up his residence. He applied himself to study, and in 1827, capable of reading and writing, he began business in Brattle Street. He was possessed of a rather reflective and penetrating mind. And before Mr. William Lloyd Garrison unfurled his flag for the Agitation Movement, David Walker wrote and published his Appeal in 1829. It was circulated widely, and touched and stirred the South as no other pamphlet had ever done. Three editions were published. The feeling at the South was intense. The following correspondence shows how deeply agitated the South was by Walker's Appeal. The editor of the Boston Courier observed: "It will be recollected that some time in December last [1829] Gov. Giles sent a message to the Legislature of Virginia complaining of an attempt to circulate in the city of Richmond a seditious pamphlet, said to have been sent there from Boston. We find in the Richmond Enquirer of the 18th inst. [February, 1830] the following Message from the Governor, enclosing a correspondence which unravels all the mystery which has hitherto enveloped the transaction."

Executive Department, Feb. 16th, 1830.

Sir: In compliance with the advice of the Executive Council, I do myself the honor of transmitting herewith the copy of a letter from the Honorable Harrison Gray Otis, Mayor of Boston, conveying the copy of a letter from him addressed to the Mayor of Savannah, in answer to one received by him from that gentleman respecting a seditious pamphlet written by a person of color in Boston, and circulated by him in other parts of the United States.

Very respectfully, your obd't serv't,

WM. B. GILES.

The Hon. Linn Banks, Speaker of the House of Delegates.

To his Excellency, the Governor of Virginia:

Sir: Perceiving that a pamphlet published in this city has been a subject of animadversion and uneasiness in Virginia as well as in Georgia, I have presumed that it might not be amiss to apprize you of the sentiments and feelings of the city authorities in this place respecting it, and for that purpose I beg leave to send you a copy of my answer to a letter from the Mayor of Savannah, addressed to me on that subject. You may be assured that your good people cannot hold in more absolute detestation the sentiments of the writer than do the people of this city, and as I verily believe, the mass of the New England population. The only difference is, that the insignificance of the writer, the extravagance of his sanguinary fanaticism tending to disgust all persons of common humanity with his object, and the very partial circulation of this book, prevent the affair from being a subject of excitement and hardly of serious attention.

I have reason to believe that the book is disapproved of by the decent portion even of the free colored population in this place, and it would be a cause of deep regret to me, and I believe to all my well-disposed fellow-citizens, if a publication of this character, and emanating from such a source, should be thought to be countenanced by any of their number.

I have the honor to be respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. G. OTIS, Mayor of the City of Boston.

Boston, Feb. 10, 1830.

To the Mayor of Savannah:

Sir: Indisposition has prevented an earlier reply to your favor of the 12th December. A few days before the receipt of it, the pamphlet had been put into my hands by one of the Board of Aldermen of this city, who received it from an individual, it not having been circulated here. I perused it carefully, in order to ascertain whether the writer had made himself amenable to our laws; but notwithstanding the extremely bad and inflammatory tendency of the publication, he does not seem to have violated any of these laws. It is written by a free black man, whose true name it bears. He is a shopkeeper and dealer in old clothes, and in a conversation which I authorized a young friend of mine to hold with him, he openly avows the sentiments of the book and authorship. I also hear that he declares his intention to be, to circulate his pamphlets by mail, at his own expense, if he cannot otherwise effect his object.

You may be assured, sir, that a disposition would not be wanting on the part of the city authorities here, to avail themselves of any lawful means for preventing this attempt to throw firebrands into your country. We regard it with deep disapprobation and abhorrence. But, we have no power to control the purpose of the author, and without it we think that any public notice of him or his book, would make matters worse.

We have been determined, however, to publish a general caution to Captains and others, against exposing themselves to the consequences of transporting incendiary writings into your and the other Southern States.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

H. G. OTIS.

Part 6.
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION.

CHAPTER XI.

LIST OF WORKS BY NEGRO AUTHORS.