David Walker's Appeal: A Literary Classic.
In his powerful abolitionist essay, 19th Century author David Walker is forceful and unyielding in his argument that the enslavement of Africans by Europeans and their descendants is categorically wrong by every humanistic standard. From the essay's provocative (and some say incendiary) title "David Walker's Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America," and throughout its scholarly and fiery pages it is clear that Walker authors not only an abolitionist bible but a literary classic. Basing my discussion upon James Turner's definition of a literary classic, I will argue that the quality of Walker's didactic literary style raises the work above its original intent: a vehicle to advance the end of enslavement, to establish "The Appeal" as a classic worthy of study throughout the ages. .
In the introduction to David Walker's "Appeal", writer James Turner defines a classic as such: the work must articulate a particular genius, address universal human needs and elevate the universal intellect (Walker 9). In all areas, Walker's work fulfills this criterion, and because of his brilliance at the craft of writing the other two criteria: addressing universal human needs, and elevating the universal intellect follow as a matter of course. Indeed, Walker's influence both at the time of publishing and today, lies in his stellar presentation of the didactic argument, an expertise that places his "Appeal" in the same category of Milton's "Paradise Lost," Pope's "Essay on Man" and other great works of didactic literature. According to M. H. Abraham's A Glossary of Literary Terms adherents to the school of didactic literature follow certain conventions: "[The work] expound[s] a branch of theoretical or practical knowledge, or present[s] in an impressive and persuasive imaginative form, a moral, religious or philosophical thesis or doctrine [Turner 39].
