Lewis Tappan

Lewis Tappan (1788 - 1873) was a New York abolitionist who was most responsible in making sure the Africans of the Amistad had their freedom again. Contacted by Connecticut abolitionists soon after the Amistad arrived in its port, Tappan focused extensively on the captive Africans. He was one of the biggest supporters who acquired high quality legal representation for the captives which allowed them to be set free eventually. Lewis with his brother Arthur not only got the Africans legal help, acquittal, but also managed, increased public support, and finally organized the return home for the captive Africans.

Background

Lewis Tappan was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan and abolitionist Arthur Tappan. As a child, Lewis was raised by strict Calvinist parents. Once he was old enough to work, he helped his father in a dry goods store. The Tappans were not rich, but they were not poor either. On his sixteenth birthday, Lewis joined his brother Arthur in the silk trade. He made a fortune. This led him to other areas of commerce, and, ultimately he started The Mercantile agency in 1841 in New York. The Mercantile agency was the precursor to Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) a NYSE listed company that is still in existence today, and the modern credit reporting services. He was convinced by his brother to read a biography on William Wilberforce, the cause for abolition in Great Britain. This is what started his quest for abolition.

Moral Views and Abolitionism

Despite his orthodox Calvinist upbringing by his mother, Lewis Tappan became attracted to Unitarianism for intellectual and social reasons. During the 1820s, William Ellery Channing, a Unitarian minister, became Tappan’s pastor. As a peace advocate, Channing played an influential role in Tappan's decision to join the Massachusetts Peace Society. Unitarian disdain for missionary work, however, gradually eroded Tappan's convictions, and eventually in 1827 his brother Arthur convinced him to return to Trinitarianism and become a Presbyterian.

Lewis Tappan initially supported the American Colonization Society (ACS), which believed freed people should be sent home to Africa. Frustrated by the slow progress of the ACS, a significant nucleus of men, including Tappan, his brother Arthur, Theodore Dwight Weld, Gerrit Smith, Amos A. Phelps, and James Gillespie Birney, departed the ACS to join the ranks of what was to become known as the "immediatist" camp. Weld gained much influence with Tappan’s move to this group. In December 1833, at Philadelphia, Lewis joined the aforementioned and other immediatists such as William Lloyd Garrison to form the American Anti-Slavery Society.

The departure of the Tappans from the ACS is partially explained by one particular episode in which they attempted to repatriate an African enslaved in Mississippi. Abd-al-Rahman Ibrahima was a Fulani prince with potentially lucrative trade contacts, so partly for business reasons the Tappans focused on his repatriation, which was finally a success. In 1829 however, Ibrahima died shortly after reaching his homeland, ending the Tappans' hopes of establishing any significant African trade.

Both Tappan Brothers were strict Calvinists and uncompromising moralists with views that many even in the abolitionist movement found to be extreme. One example of his revolutionary views was the fact that Tappan advocated intermarriage as the long range solution to racial issues. He dreamed of a "copper skinned" America where race would not define any man, woman, or child. Tappan’s depiction of the arrival of the Amistad on the American shores is as he thought, a "providential occurrence" might allow "the heart of the nation" to be "touched by the power of sympathy". The Tappan brothers created many Anti-Slavery Societies in New York and other such places. Although Lewis was a very popular figure, his homes and churches were constant victims of arson and vandalism.

After 1840 church-oriented abolitionism became dominant, and in that year Tappan formed the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Earlier, in 1835, the Tappans helped establish Oberlin College, and Lewis began a nationwide mailing of abolitionist material that resulted in violent outrage in the South and denunciation for dividing the Union from Democratic politicians. Though highly divisive, the mailings generated greater sympathy and support in the North for the American Anti-Slavery Society. By 1840, however, the antislavery program was too big for the Tappans to firmly control, and the movement splintered.

Amistad Case

In 1841, Tappan attended each day of the Amistad trials and wrote daily accounts of the proceedings for the Emancipator. "The Emancipator" was a New England abolitionist paper that Tappan wrote in frequently in the nineteenth century. Throughout the trials, Tappan had several Yale students tutor the imprisoned Africans in English. The lessons Tappan provided for these slaves included the reading of New Testament scriptures and singing of Christian hymns, talents which the Africans later used to raise funds for their return to Africa.

After achieving legal victory in the Supreme Court, Tappan began plans to use the Amistad Africans as the foundation for his dream to Christianize Africa.

In the movie "Amistad", the part of Lewis Tappan was played by Stellan Skarsgård.

Civil War Years

In 1846, Tappan established the American Missionary Association, which played a crucial role in New York City during the Civil War. Unwilling to lower his commitment to U.S. government action against slavery in the southern states, Tappan and other radical political abolitionists denounced the Democratic Party as essentially pro-slavery. Though mistrustful of politicians, Tappan supported various antislavery parties that culminated in the Republican party. In both 1860 and 1864, Tappan voted for Abraham Lincoln.

See also

* Amistad Supreme Court Case

ources

* Blue, Frederick J. No Taint of Compromise. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
* Ceplair, Larry. The Public Years of Sarah and Angelina Grimke. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
* Harrold, Stanley. Subversives. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/tappan_hi.html PBS entry]
* [http://genforum.genealogy.com/tappan/messages/25.html Origin of the Tappan name]
* [http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00681.html American National Biography Entry]