American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society

The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1840 after a break with the American Anti-Slavery Society. Sources agree that the split centered largely on questions of women’s participation in abolitionist leadership and on how broadly the movement should engage with other reform causes.

The new society was closely associated with Lewis Tappan and Arthur Tappan, who wanted an organization focused on ending slavery through more traditional political and social action. Britannica notes that Arthur Tappan created the group, and both Britannica and Wikipedia connect it with support for antislavery political work in the 1840s.

For readers today, the society is interesting not just because it fought slavery, but because it shows how even people committed to the same cause could disagree sharply about leadership, tactics, and the shape of reform. That makes it an important part of the larger history of American abolition.