Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery

Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery - Cover

by Bertram Wyatt-Brown

376 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / 1 halftone

History / American History

Paperback / 9780807122235 / October 1997

Lewis Tappan (1788–1873), founder of the Journal of Commerce and the nation’s first credit rating firm, is probably best known for his business accomplishments. His greatest achievement, however, was not finance but freedom. In the 1830s, he and his wealthy brother Arthur underwrote and inspired the Manhattan headquarters of the American Anti-Slavery Society and founded many other organizations to promote freedom, faith, and racial tolerance. As prominent historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown demonstrates in this fascinating portrait, Tappan contributed much more to the cause of liberty and equality than has yet been acknowledged. 

Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Richard J. Milbauer Professor of History at the University of Florida, is the author of Southern Honor, The House of Percy, and The Shaping of Southern Culture, among other books.

Praise for Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery

“Wyatt-Brown has given us a fast-moving, penetrating, and comprehensive book that combines biography and social history. . . . Indispensable for students of the period, and for those who like a well-told story.”—Church History

“We are indebted to Bertram Wyatt-Brown for finally supplying a long overdue scholarly treatment of Lewis Tappan and his career as evangelical antislavery crusader.”—Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

“Well written and exhaustively researched, Professor Wyatt-Brown’s biography is a noteworthy addition to the literature on antislavery movement.”—Civil War History

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