with happiness, life, and liberty. Walker believes that his hopes can be accomplished because their situation cannot get any worse, but only better. Progress is what he is aiming for, no matter how small the change is. Throughout the Appeal, quotes from Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Virginia are repeatedly used, criticized, and analyzed by Walker, who wishes to see Jefferson's charges refuted by other blacks also.Walker states that Jefferson was supposedly the greatest philosopher of his time and that other Americans believe and hold great respect for his work and ideas. It is this outlook on Jefferson which causes Walker to think that Jefferson's "spiteful remarks" concerning blacks and slavery has further hurt their situation than assessed it (Walker 195). Jefferson believed that blacks have and always will remain inferior to whites, with no rights at all. He believed that blacks were not humans, requiring no rights, but were more equal to animals "gradations in all the races of animals-excuse an effort to keep those in the department of man as distinct as nature has formed them?" (Jefferson 197). Also, Jefferson compares blacks' enslavement to that of the Romans, which Walker and others believe are incomparable in every way. Romans had the opportunity to learn, educate others, and regain their freedom, while laws were made to forever keep blacks illiterate, uneducated, and enslaved. This was probably the case that whites were afraid to free black slaves because they believed that they would someday gain power and retaliate against them. Jefferson believed that blacks are inferior in both body and mind, and Walker believed that blacks lived up to whites' stereotypes by their "groveling submissions" and "treachery" (Jefferson 197). Walker wants blacks to prove to themselves, as well at to the world, that they are nowhere near inferior to any group and deserve the equal rights that the law of nature provides them with.Walker's...
