David Walker was born to an enslaved father and a free mother, and because of the partus sequitur ventrem law, Walker was born free. Yet, he still bore witness to an incredible amount of violence, injustice, and dehumanization. Walker eventually settled in Boston, where he set up a clothing store in the Beacon Hill community and soon began to become involved with the abolitionist movement. He was a frequent contributor to the Freedom’s Journal (the first Black newspaper in the US), was involved in the Methodist May Street Church (a significant church for the Black community in Boston), Prince Hall Masons (Black fraternal order in Boston), and served in the Massachusetts General Colored Association (a Black abolition group).

Walker became a prominent abolitionist in the Black community. He wrote the pamphlet Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829, where he urged, encouraged, and advocated for  Black resistance to enslavement and racism. The pamphlet revealed much fear in the South and was inspiring to abolitionists. Walker died soon after, which some speculate was a result of the fear the pamphlet caused, and is buried in an unmarked grave in South Boston.