Arthur Tappan American Abolitionist

Arthur Tappan was an American abolitionist with strong and strict moral views . He was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan, and abolitionist Lewis Tappan. With help of his successful businesses he contributed a large amount of his wealth to campaign against alcohol and tobacco and more importantly helped fund several anti-slavery journals and in 1831 helped establish America's first Anti-Slavery Society in New York in 1831. Two years later it became a national organization and Tappan was elected its first president. Its main supporters were from religious groups such as the Quakers and the free black community. However some members of the Anti-Slavery Society considered the organization to be too radical. Leading Tappan to leave and form a rival organization: the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Who was more flexible in critiquing the US Constitution and giving a prominent role to women in the society. He also backed the new anti-slavery Liberty Party. After the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, Tappan realized that the time for change was now and helped fund the Underground Railroad; regardless of the legal and social cons
equences. The Underground Railroad freed thousands of slaves during the time leading up to the civil war and depicted the struggle and need for freedom in the United States.

Arthur Tappan was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, on 22nd May, 1786 and moved to Boston at the age of 15. Tappan was a generous philanthropist and abolition was one of his chief causes. By 1807 established his own dry goods business in Portland, Maine. He expanded his business investments and had a silk-importing firm based in New York was particularly successful. With his brother, Lewis Tappan, he established America's first commercial credit-rating service in New York City. These business help fund Tappan's radicalist and humanitarian ideals. That often made him the target of hostile northern anti-abolitionist mobs; however this hate did not cause Tappan's fire for equality to dwindle. On the contrary he funded many more Anti-Slavery campaigns like, William Lloyd Garrison's: Thoughts on African Colonization which attacked the American Colonization Society In 1832. With Tappan's support, the pamphlet gained a wide circulation, reaching as far west as Ohio. This pamphlet later had put Tappan head wanted in the South in 1835, southern governments: in East Feliciana, Louisiana, and Mount Meigs, Alabama, he was worth $50,000; New Orleans offered $100,000 for his delivery. Apart from the dangers that arose Tappan helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society; the first national abolitionist organization.. Which he also served as president of. Arthur Tappan died on 23rd July, 1865 in New Haven, Connecticut along with leaving a legacy any abolitionist would be proud of.

Arthur Tappan believed in the importance of temperance in American Society; however believed that Slavery was the biggest issue that America was facing at the time. Due to the major standstill between half the nation and the polarizing effect it was having on the nation’s unity. But overall stood up for the immoral dehumanizing attitude the United States was taking on African Americans. After the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Tappan realized that something future then conventions needed to take place in order for social justice to be achieved in the present system. The system would lead no where if not parallel to action. This action was in the form of the Underground Railroad, a maneuver around the Fugitive Act. Being part of the Society of Friends, Tappan was a radical Protestant who challenged traditional assumptions of mankind’s evil nature. These were known as Quakers, they emphasized the inherent dignity of the individual, human equality, and each person’s capacity for goodness. Tappan believed that slavery would be the end of the United States if it continued due to immorality of legislation and not being true to the Constitution and the moral values the country was founded on. Only then would the United States be a good society. Legislation has taken the issue of equality in the back burner to economic stability and according to Tappan this moral dilemma needed to stop. This reform could only be achieved through extensive assembly of radicals willing to take action for the cause of abolishment of slavery;even if it meant breaking the law. Active involvement of its citizens was another essential part of good society in the eyes of Tappan.