Lewis Tappan

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Lewis Tappan Abolitionist Lewis Tappan 1788-1863 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 extensible 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. Both Tappan Brothers were uncompromising moralist with views that many even in the abolitionist movement found to be extreme. One example of his revolutionary view, was the fact that Lewis 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”.

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. 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.