Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

David Walker begins by addressing his “dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens” and arguing that enslaved Black people in the American South are the “most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began” (11). Although there have been many incarnations of enslavement throughout human history, Walker argues that none have been as cruel as the version that has taken root in the United States. Going public with his Appeal, Walker expects to face danger from both white enslavers and enslaved African Americans who have been convinced of their own inferiority. Nevertheless, he precedes, claiming that the situation African Americans find themselves in cannot get worse, and he hopes his Appeal will “awaken […] a spirit of inquiry and investigation” in the hearts of his “brethren” (12).

Walker claims that “the inhuman system of slavery” (12) is primarily responsible for the “miseries” that African Americans experience. He briefly traces the various manifestations of enslavement in Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the United States, claiming that the labor of enslaved people “comes so cheap” that nations of enslavers “overlook the evils” (13).