Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 8-2010 Early 19th Century Marginalization of David Walker and Nat Turner Taiyo Davis Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Taiyo, "Early 19th Century Marginalization of David Walker and Nat Turner" (2010). All Theses. 872. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/872 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EARLY 19TH CENTURY MARGINALIZATION OF DAVID WALKER AND NAT TURNER A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts History by Taiyo W. Davis August 2010 Accepted by: Abel Bartley, Committee Chair Edwin Moïse Richard Saunders ABSTRACT Many authors have examined Nat Turner‟s Rebellion and David Walker‟s Appeal in the context of cause and effect. This thesis will demonstrate that similar methods of marginalization were used by the dominant white culture against David Walker and Nat Turner. Instead of accepting the stigma of religious fanaticism that both received for using religion to advocate violence, this thesis will make a defense of Turner‟s and Walker‟s use of religion to advocate violence. This thesis also asks unanswered questions and covers untouched aspects of both events which may be explored by future scholars. Moreover, this thesis asserts that more needs to be done in examining both radicals as a product of cultural diffusion between dominant and minority cultures and more needs to be done to learn overlooked lessons marginalization has caused in the study of African American history. Primary sources from the South Caroliniana at USC Columbia and the South Carolina State Archives will be used. Walker‟s Appeal will also be used as a primary source in addition to secondary sources on Walker‟s time as well as from other struggles of different periods and places in history. This thesis uses statistical analysis of Aptheker‟s American Negro Slave Revolts. ii DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this study to my mother who implanted the value of education and humanity in me at an early age through her many acts of helping the downtrodden of our community before she left me for the inevitable and shared outcome of humankind. I thank my father for helping to direct my path toward success after my mother‟s death. I thank my good friend Mike Bufano for his deep conversations and advice for me. I would also like to thank my wife Tharwat Alasadi Davis who inspired me with hope for a happy life by helping me regain my innocence from my youth which I lost under the conditions of poverty. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend thanks to Professor Richard Saunders whose classes provided such a plethora of information that laid the foundation of inspiration for me. I would also like to thank Professor Edwin Moise for helping me to learn to scrutinize information and think rather than memorize. I would like to thank Professor Abel Bartley for helping me to understand how an overlooked struggle by an oppressed minority could benefit all of the constituents of society in the end and also for awakening me from an apathetic slumber to realize my dreams. Thank you to Clemson University for being the platform for which I may launch my career and life. iv Table of Contents Title...................................................................................................................................... i Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iv List of Charts and Maps ....................................................................................................v Chapter 1: David C. Walker .............................................................................................1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Personal Life ........................................................................................................................3 The Pamphlet .......................................................................................................................7 The Crucifixion of Walker .................................................................................................46 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................49 Chapter 2: A Defense of Walker .....................................................................................55 Introduction ........................................................................................................................55 Violence as a Tactic ...........................................................................................................56 I am a Man, Not a Brute! ...................................................................................................60 Religious Fanaticism ..........................................................................................................70 A Silent Minority ...............................................................................................................80 Repression ..........................................................................................................................92 Costs ...................................................................................................................................95 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................99 Chapter 3: David‟s Stone and Old Nat‟s War ............................................................101 Introduction ......................................................................................................................101 August 1831 .....................................................................................................................103 A Defense of Turner ........................................................................................................107 A Gift of God Named Hannibal .......................................................................................109 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................122 Epilogue ..........................................................................................................................124 Works Cited ....................................................................................................................129 v Charts Chart 1: Slave Plots and Rebellions ...................................................................................90 Chart 2: Slave Plots and Rebellions Per Year ....................................................................90 Chart 3: Percentage of Slave Plots and Rebellions Involving Free Blacks .......................94 Chart 4: Percentage of Slave Plots and Rebellions Involving Guerrilla Activity ............116 Chart 5: Slave Plots and Rebellions ................................................................................. 116 vi CHAPTER ONE: DAVID C. WALKER Introduction David C. Walker was an abolitionist and free African American who wrote a pamphlet titled An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World in September of 1829, which denounced slavery and racism in America and attacked American religion, Republicanism, the western economic system, etc.1 It was stealthily distributed in three separate editions in the South using discreet channels of communications which avoided detection by the Southern ruling class. John Adams himself once said about this communication “the Negroes have a wonderful art of communicating intelligence among themselves; it will run several hundreds of miles in a week or fortnight.”2 The extent of the distribution of Walker‟s pamphlet was felt by many southerners. The governor of North Carolina, John Owen, complained of the presence of Walker‟s Appeal in Wilmington and other counties in North Carolina around 1830. 3 The Magistrate of the Police in Wilmington, North Carolina believed slave plot activity 1 Donald M. Jacobs, Antebellum Black Newspapers (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976), 149. David C. Walker is listed as contributing to buy the freedom of George Horton October 3, 1828. Most books about David C. Walker omit the middle initial C. No literature that exists today to the author's knowledge explains what the C. stands for. Even reputable historian Peter Hinks who is the authority on David C. Walker does not use the middle initial C. nor has he expounded in any of his books what the C. stands for. 2 Peter P. Hinks, To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren, 2nd ed. (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), 45. 3 Sally E. Hayden, Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas