David Walker's Appeal is a landmark work of American history and
letters, the most radical piece of writing by an African American in the
nineteenth century. Startling in its intensity, unrelenting in its
attacks on slavery and white racism, it alarmed Southern slaveholders,
inspired Northern abolitionists, and hastened the sectional conflicts
that led to the Civil War. In this new edition of the Appeal, the
distinguished historian Sean Wilentz draws on a generation of innovative
research to throw fresh light on Walker's life and ideas--and their
enduring importance.