Despite his
Congregationalist upbringing, Lewis Tappan became attracted to
Unitarianism for intellectual and social reasons.
William Ellery Channing, a Unitarian minister, became Tappan's pastor. As a peace advocate, Channing played an influential role in Tappan's decision to join the
Massachusetts Peace Society. In 1827 his brother Arthur convinced him to return to a
Trinitarian denomination. Tappan joined Arthur in the
Congregational church. Lewis Tappan initially supported the
American Colonization Society (ACS), which promoted sending freed blacks from the United States to Africa, based on the assumption that this was their homeland, regardless of where they were born. Frustrated by the slow progress of the ACS, Tappan and a sizable nucleus of men, including his brother Arthur,
Theodore Dwight Weld,
Gerrit Smith,
Amos A. Phelps, and
James Gillespie Birney, left the ACS to join what was to become known as the "immediatist" camp, who wanted to end slavery in the United States (US). Weld gained considerable influence following the move of the Tappan brothers to this group. In December 1833, at Philadelphia, Lewis Tappan joined activists such as
William Lloyd Garrison to form the
American Anti-Slavery Society. The departure of the Tappans from the ACS is partially explained by the death of an African whom they repatriated. Captured in Africa and enslaved in
Mississippi,
Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori was a
Fulani prince. He would have had potentially lucrative trade contacts in Africa. Partly for business reasons, the Tappans focused on Ibrahim's repatriation, which was finally achieved. Shortly after reaching his homeland, however, Ibrahim died in 1829. This ended the Tappans' hopes of easily establishing significant African trade. The Tappan brothers were
Congregationalists and uncompromising moralists; even within the abolitionist movement, other members found their views extreme. Lewis Tappan advocated
intermarriage (at the time called "
amalgamation") as the long-range solution to racial issues, as all people would eventually be mixed race. He dreamed of a "copper-skinned" America where
race would not define any man, woman, or child. Tappan characterized the arrival of the
Amistad and its Africans on American shores as a "providential occurrence" that might allow "the heart of the nation" to be "touched ... through the power of sympathy." The Tappan brothers created chapters of the
American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS) throughout New York state and in other sympathetic areas. Although Tappan was popular among many, opponents of abolition attacked his homes and churches by arson and vandalism. Lewis began a nationwide mailing of abolitionist material, which resulted in violent outrage in
the South and denunciation by
Democratic politicians, who accused him of trying to divide
the Union. In the North, the mailings generated widespread sympathy and financial support for the American Anti-Slavery Society. By 1840, however, the anti-slavery program had expanded and the movement splintered. After 1840, church-oriented abolitionism became dominant. That year Tappan formed the
American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in disagreement with the AAS. The latter allowed a woman,
Abby Kelley, to be elected to serve on the AAS business committee. Because of his strict religious beliefs, Tappan opposed the participation of women in an official capacity in the public society. Tappan founded the abolitionist
Human Rights journal and a children's anti-slavery magazine, ''
The Slave's Friend''. ==Manual labor movement in education==