ABSTRACT
The Constitution of the United States recognizes him as a person. In the days of Thomas Jefferson, Virginia and other States designated him as a citizen. The prowess of Small and other colored individuals, and the good conduct and courage of the colored troops, have proved him to be a soldier and a hgQ. The eloquence of Douglass and of other sable speakers, has shown that he can be an orator. The piety of thousands of colored men evince that he can be a Christian. If, then, he is a person, a citizen, and capable of being a soldier, an orator, and a Christian, none but an idiot or a blockhead would assert that he is not a MAN
-Lewis Tappan, February, 1865
It is important at the beginning of this study to introduce Lewis Tappan, author of the above words, and to give some perspective to the American Missionary Association (AMA), of which Tappan was a founder and leader.
