David Walker’s Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World
- Title of the Document
- David Walker’s Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World
- One Line Summary
- This is the cover photo of David Walker’s Appeal
- Author
- David Walker
- Date Created
- 1829
- Location
- Boston, MA
- Type of Document
- Photograph
- Publisher
- Capt. Paul Peter Williams Jr and Samuel E. CornishCuffee was an abolitionist and a businessman from Massachusetts. Through his family’s fishing company that branched across the globe, Cuffee became one of the richest men of color in the world during the early 1800s. This was unheard of, especially in the height of slavery, for a black man to demand so much respect through his hard work.
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David Walker (1796-1830)
- Transcription
- A common theme with black historical actors is the lack of physical proof of evidence of their accomplishments. However, this drawing has always been closely associated with Walker, due to his appeal being so recognized.This particular illustration is of a black man holding up a paper to what can be interpreted as the heavens that reads “Liberita Justitia”. This statement translates to liberty and justice in Latin, and serves as the cover of his appeal to “Colored Citizens of the World”. Sadly, there is no clear information on what the specifics of this drawing truly are. But, one can assume that because it is the cover of the appeal that it is a forewarning or introduction of what Walker plans to discuss in the appeal.
- Provenance
- “Front piece showing slave on top of mountain, with his hands raised to paper labelled "libertas justitia" which appears in sky” as seen in David Walker, Appeal, in Four Articles, Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829), Library of Congress citation, https://www.loc.gov, (1848)