amistad research center

Lewis Tappan is remembered as a strong-minded individual in the pursuit of abolitionism, but the early records of the Mercantile Agency of New York present a businessman who may have been just as self-righteous as he was righteous. Nonetheless, his ambition created the first systematic scheme for credit reporting. Lewis Tappan was born in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1788, one of five brothers. Following in the commercial footsteps of his father, Tappan amassed a small fortu

This minute book of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society contains minutes of the society's executive committee dating from May 17, 1848 to May 1, 1855. Additional minutes follow for March 16-November 7, 1859. The volume also contains a list of members of the committee and the society's by-laws. Minutes reflect discussions on the general business of the society, business transactions, publications and letters received by the society from other abolitionists, and the s