David Ruggles (1810-1849) was one of the most heroic--and has been one
of the most often overlooked--figures of the early abolitionist movement
in America. Graham Russell Gao Hodges provides the first biography of
this African American activist, writer, publisher, and hydrotherapist
who secured liberty for more than six hundred former bond people, the
most famous of whom was Frederick Douglass. A forceful, courageous voice
for black freedom, Ruggles mentored Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and
William Cooper Nell in the skills of antislavery activism. As a founder
of the New York Committee of Vigilance, he advocated a "practical
abolitionism" that included civil disobedience and self-defense in order
to preserve the rights of self-emancipated enslaved people and to
protect free blacks from kidnappers who would sell them into slavery in
the South.
Hodges's narrative places Ruggles in the fractious politics and society
of New York, where he moved among the highest ranks of state leaders and
spoke up for common black New Yorkers. His work on the Committee of
Vigilance inspired many upstate New York and New England whites, who
allied with him to form a network that became the Underground
Railroad.
Hodges's portrait of David Ruggles establishes the abolitionist as an
essential link between disparate groups--male and female, black and
white, clerical and secular, elite and rank-and-file--recasting the
history of antebellum abolitionism as a more integrated and cohesive
movement than is often portrayed.