Scope and Content Note
The papers of Lewis Tappan (1788-1873) span the years 1809-1903, with the bulk dating from 1809 to 1872. The collection consists of correspondence, letterbooks, journals, notebooks, clippings, photocopies, notes, and miscellaneous other items. The journals and notebooks, which date from 1841 to 1869, are replete with information concerning Tappan’s activities in the antislavery movement and contribute as well to an understanding of his private life, particularly his religious views. The collection is organized in the following series: Journals and Notebooks, Correspondence, Miscellany, and Additions.
The bulk of the correspondence in the Lewis Tappan papers is made up of copies of his outgoing letters, ranging in date from 1812 to 1870. Legibility of many of these copies is poor, and there are a number of gaps in the chronology. Nine of the volumes include indexes to correspondents. Incoming correspondence, although limited in quantity, covers the period 1809-1871. Subject matter throughout Tappan’s correspondence strongly reflects his interest in antislavery activities and his participation in organizations that promoted abolition.
Tappan’s exposure to Calvinist and Unitarian theology is reflected in his journals by comments on ministers and the themes of their sermons. Also evident in the journals, which contain numerous newspaper clippings, and in his correspondence, is Tappan’s involvement in promoting his ideas through Bible, tract, peace, abolition, and missionary societies, and through Sunday schools, free churches, charitable organizations, political parties, and newspapers. Prominent among the organizations represented are the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, the American Bible Society, the American Colonization Society, the American Missionary Association, the Union Missionary Society, and the Liberty Party. The New York Journal of Commerce, the National Era, and the American Missionary are among the publications with which Tappan was involved. Slavery, colonization, education of African Americans, and the role of the Christian in the abolition movement dominate the writings dating from 1836. Some of the leading issues discussed are the annexation of Texas and the moves taken for the release from custody of the African captives who had mutinied aboard the Spanish schooner Amistad. Of special interest is Tappan’s journal of the General Anti-slavery Convention of 1843 in London, England.
A small portion of the collection deals with Tappan’s business ventures, particularly his Mercantile Agency, the first commercial credit-rating agency in the United States. Throughout the papers there is documentation of routine family activities of the various members of the Tappan family, as well as of their interaction on matters of mutual concern, particularly where business, religion, and abolition were involved.
Prominent correspondents include John Quincy Adams, James Gillespie Birney, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Seth Merrill Gates, Samuel D. Hastings, William Jay, Joshua Leavitt, Amos A. Phelps, Theodore Sedgwick, Joseph Sturge, and John Greenleaf Whittier. Lewis Tappan’s brothers, Benjamin and Arthur, are well represented in the collection as well as other members of the Tappan and Aspinwall families.
In addition to original manuscripts, photocopies of Tappan items in other repositories—notably from papers in the Oberlin College Library—are present in the collection. Most of these copies fall between 1831 and 1841, and consist of letters of Arthur and Lewis Tappan to John J. Shipherd, Charles G. Finney, and Samuel D. Hastings. They deal mainly with the Tappan brothers’ involvement in, and financial support of, religious movements in New York City and at Oberlin College.
Miscellaneous items include John Quincy Adams’s holograph draft of a legal brief pleading for release of the Amistad captives, autobiographical notes, genealogical material on the Tappan and Aspinwall families, and a lecture by Theodore Weld. Writings, notes, and other miscellaneous items relating to slavery include a list of articles on emancipation by Lewis Tappan, a list of antislavery hymns, a copy of a deed of manumission, an article by Ansel Bascom, and materials on the expurgation of references to slavery in published works.
The Additions consist of a letter of 1857 by Tappan to Henry A. Miles reflecting on his religious beliefs, and a letter of 1847 by Tappan expressing condolonces to Eliza Scott on the death of her husband, Orange Scott.