ABSTRACT
David Walker, the son of a slave and a free black woman, lived in Wilmington, North Carolina. Very early in his life Walker began to doubt the American practice of Christianity. The American Colonization Society was founded in 1816. Its organizers may have been sincere in their belief that 2 million African slaves could be returned to Africa someday and that slaveholders would surrender their human property and supply of labour. Black ante bellum proponents of the repatriation found many reasons to emigrate including the desire to exploit Africa’s vast resources and economic potential, feelings of cultural and spiritual unity based upon a common ancestry, and a belief in greatness of the African past. These feelings, combined with the increasing victimization and economic deprivation in the United States resulted in the articulation of ‘Pan-Negro Nationalism’ or ‘Pan-Africanism’.
