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“Let no man of us budge one step”: David Walker and the Rhetoric of African American Emplacement

“Let no man of us budge one step”: David Walker and the Rhetoric of African American Emplacement ChRIs APAP Oakland University "Let no man of us budge one step" David Walker and the Rhetoric of African American Emplacement When David Walker sought examples from the global history of enslavement for his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America (1829; David Walker's Appeal), he didn't have to look very hard to find instances that cut to the core of the young republic's ideals. Classical exemplars like that of the Helots in Sparta or the quite larger system of Roman slavery represented a wry challenge to the national aspiration to be the modern incarnation of and improvement on the classical republican spirit, but it was the precedent set by Hebrew slaves in Egypt that Walker found most telling and most rhetorically useful. Walker employs the story of Exodus to develop his claim that African Americans (enslaved and free) are "the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began" (1), enabling him to undercut white America's vision of itself as a chosen nation.1 At the same time, Exodus provided a model for African American resistance and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Early American Literature University of North Carolina Press

“Let no man of us budge one step”: David Walker and the Rhetoric of African American Emplacement

Apap, Chris.
Early American Literature , Volume 46 (2) – Jul 3, 2011
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
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Copyright © University of North Carolina Press
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1534-147X
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Abstract

ChRIs APAP Oakland University "Let no man of us budge one step" David Walker and the Rhetoric of African American Emplacement When David Walker sought examples from the global history of enslavement for his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America (1829; David Walker's Appeal), he didn't have to look very hard to find instances that cut to the core of the young republic's ideals. Classical exemplars like that of the Helots in Sparta or the quite larger system of Roman slavery represented a wry challenge to the national aspiration to be the modern incarnation of and improvement on the classical republican spirit, but it was the precedent set by Hebrew slaves in Egypt that Walker found most telling and most rhetorically useful. Walker employs the story of Exodus to develop his claim that African Americans (enslaved and free) are "the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began" (1), enabling him to undercut white America's vision of itself as a chosen nation.1 At the same time, Exodus provided a model for African American resistance and

Journal

Early American Literature – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Jul 3, 2011

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