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Stamped With Glory: Lewis Tappan And The Africans Of The Amistad, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

Abolitionism came relatively late to Lewis Tappan. Devotional, benevolent and hardworking are all words that describe Tappan in his twenties and thirties. Social reformer he was not. In 1818, Tappan abandoned the Calvinism of his mother for Unitarianism, then fashionable for a socially ambitious merchant. For the next eight years, Tappan enjoyed the typical life of an upper-middle-class New England merchant. He took his new faith seriously, however, editing a Unitarian journal, and becoming the first treasurer of the American Unitarian Association. In the mid-1820's, America experienced The Great Second Awakening, a widespread revival of religion and religious debate and …

Salvaging Amistad, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

Moviemakers believe that history can be made more dramatic. They add and subtract characters, invent dialogue and scenes, make heroes more heroic, make villains more villainous, correct incorrectness, make ends happier, and turn shades of gray into black or white. They even tell lies-all in the interest of providing a good show, of course. Steven Spielberg, producer-director of the 1997 historical drama "Amistad," is no exception.

Whether Hollywood's reshaping of history is good or bad depends upon whether one believes it is more important to be thoroughly entertained or to have a clear sense of history. Right now, on this …