Events › David Walker's Declaration of Independence

Join the Boston Public Library's Special Collections for a talk from scholar Dr. Leon Jackson entitled David Walker’s Declaration of Independence: Building Community and Fighting Racism in Antebellum African American Boston as part of the on-going commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

When it first appeared in Boston 1829, David Walker’s Appeal struck terror into the hearts of white Americans North and South. Using a wide variety previously unexamined manuscripts, this talk reexamines the composition, publication, and circulation of the Appeal, focusing on the Boston community that often supported but sometimes thwarted his work.

Walker's Appeal is on display in the exhibition Declarations: Printing a New Nation at the Leventhal Map & Education Center from April 10- September 13. 

About the Speaker

Leon Jackson is associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina. He has published extensively on the history of American and American authorship, reading, and publishing. He is currently writing a history of African American life in Boston from the eve of the American Revolution to the Eve of the Civil War.

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