Lewis Tappan, ca. 1853. Engraving.
Lewis Tappan
Lewis Tappan (1788-1873), a wealthy merchant from a strong Calvinist family,
is best known for his role in organizing the defense of Joseph Cinque
in the Amistad trial. Tappan also funded anti-slavery journals and helped
to form the American Anti-Slavery Society, which he later abandoned because
of his disapproval of women’s involvement in the society. Tappan
and other disaffected former members of the American Anti-Slavery Society
formed the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which employed political
abolitionism. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Tappan
supported the Underground Railroad, and he fought for black civil rights
in the North. His abolitionist deeds were often met with hostility, which
extended as far as the destruction of a church built by Tappan and his
brother.
- William Lloyd Garrison
- Wendell Phillips
- Lydia Maria Child
- Samuel J. May
- Lucretia Mott
- Sojourner Truth
- Lewis Tappan
- William Seward
- Frederick Douglass
- Gerrit Smith
- Pennsylvania Hall
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