"David Walker"(September 27,1796-June 28,1830)

Was an outspoken African-American abolitionist and anti-slavery activist.In 1829,while living in Boston,Massachusetts,he published An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,a call for black unity and self-help in the fight against oppression and injustice.Historians and liberation theologians cite the Appeal as an influential political and social document of the 19th century,even though he was largely ignored for his contribution to ending slavery in the United States before half of the 20th century.David exerted a radicalizing influenced on the abolitionist movements of his day and inspired generations of black leaders and activists.Born in the Cape Fear region of North Carolina to a free mother and enslaved father,David Walker  witnessed the cruelty of whites oppressing those with darker skin color in his home state.As a young adult he moved to Charleston,a mecca for upwardly mobile free blacks,where he was affiliated with a strong African Methodist Episcopal Church community of activist.David visited and likely lived in Philadelphia,a shipbuilding center,and,importantly,the home of an active black community.He settled in Boston in the 1820s,married Eliza Butler,and immediately became active within the black community.David settled in Boston in the 1820s,married Eliza Butler and immediately became active within the black community on Beacon Hill.He operated a used clothing store near the wharves in the North End.David took part in a variety of civic and religious organizations in Boston.He was involved with Prince Hall Freemasonry,an organization formed in the 1780s that stood up the against discriminatory treatment of blacks,a founder of the Massachusetts General Colored Association,which opposed colonization,and a member of Rev.Samuel Snowden's Methodist church.Additionally,David served as a Boston agent and a writer for New York's short lived but influential Freedom Journal,the abolitionist newspaper published by blacks in the United States.He also spoke publicly by against slavery and racism.Just five years after he arrived in Boston,David died suddenly in the summer.Rumors subsequently suggested that he had been poisoned,most historians believe he died a natural death from tuberculosis,as listed in his death record.The disease was prevalent and had claimed his only daughter,Lydia Ann,the week before.David was buried in a South Boston cemetery for blacks. His probable grave site remains unmarked.