Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery (review)

BOOK REVIEWS81 the risks of the trade and the price of the slaves. Yet improved techniques , changes in the laws of various countries, and diplomatic successes all contributed to making the antislavery patrol an increasingly effective deterrent. Ward tells this story of persistent effort through a series of case studies which illustrate the various problems encountered . He has relied mainly on primary materials, but he is aware of other works on the subject, including Warren S. Howard's study of the United States government's attempts to end the slave trade. The author's long familiarity with African geography makes it possible for him to identify the locales mentioned in the reports. While there is virtually no intrepretation, Ward's narrative does give us some glimpses of the powerful forces at work in various countries whose aim was to end or minimize the Royal Navy's impact on the slave trade. It is an interesting book. A chronology, a glossary of nautical terms, and an index contribute to the utility of this volume. Harold D. Langley The Catholic University of America Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery. By Bertram Wyatt-Brown. (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1969. Pp. xxi, 376. $8.95.) This book traces the business career and reform activities of the noted antislavery crusader Lewis Tappan. It is a richly textured narrative, as definitive an account as we are likely to see, not only about Lewis, but also about his brother Arthur. Insufficient material survives for a satisfactory biography about Arthur, but the careers of both men were closely intertwined, and the author's decision to focus on Lewis, but to present an extended discussion of Arthur's activities, was a felicitous one. Professor Wyatt-Brown traces the antislavery movement through the eyes of Lewis Tappan. Particularly well handled are the evangelical and theological underpinnings of the Tappan brothers' business and benevolent activities; the story of their complex relationships with William Lloyd Garrison; their role in the founding of the American AntiSlavery Society and in the later split that led to the creation of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society; Lewis' part in the early history of the American Missionary Association, and his sincere but paternalistic attitudes toward Negroes. There is also a skillfully drawn picture of the business activities of the Tappan brothers—of Arthur's prosperous silk-importing business which later failed, and of Lewis' Mercantile Agency—an innovative enterprise that originated credit-rating and ultimately became the noted firm of Dun and Bradstreet. While an admirer of the achievements and contributions of his subject , the author has not written a reverential or uncritical biography. 82CIVIL WAR HISTORY Rather, he has given us a realistic portrait of a humorless man, dedicated to a cause, evidently at the expense of a warm and close relationship with his wife and children. Well written and exhaustively researched, Professor Wyatt-Brown's biography is a noteworthy addition to the literature on the antislavery movement. August Meifr Kent State University Lords of the Loom: The Cotton Whigs and the Coming of the Civil War. By Thomas H. O'Connor. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968. Pp. ix, 214. $7.50.) This is a generally sympathetic account of the leading Massachusetts Cotton Whigs, primarily the Lawrences. The author sketches the background of these textile magnates' rise, starting with the effects of the Embargo on the Massachusetts economy; he then picks up the thread of political history in the 1830's, and carries it down to the Civil War. The material will be familiar to readers of Josephson's Golden Threads, Brauer's Cotton versus Conscience, and Donald's Charles Sumner, although the emphasis on the Lawrence family and the gentle and approving handling of the moderate men of the center are factors which make the work swim against most recent historiographical currents. Too many of the pages, however, dwell in overlong fashion on thoroughly well-known details, recounting such episodes as the Boston anti-Garrison riot in 1835, and the effects of Harrison's death on Whig politics six years later. There are some errors (Channing is made to appear anti-antislavery, and Emerson is made an...