David Ruggles
{{Short description|American abolitionist (1810–1849)}}
File:The disappointed abolitionists LCCN2008661783.jpg and lithographer Henry R. Robinson, cartoon of Ruggles (center), with Isaac T. Hopper on his left and Barney Corse on his right, confronting John P. Darg in 1838]]
David Ruggles (March 15, 1810 – December 16, 1849) was an African-American abolitionist in New York who resisted slavery by his participation in a Committee of Vigilance, which worked on the Underground Railroad to help fugitive slaves reach free states. He was a printer in New York City during the 1830s, who also wrote numerous articles, and "was the prototype for black activist journalists of his time." He claimed to have led more than 600 fugitive slaves to freedom in the North, including Frederick Douglass, who became a friend and fellow activist. Ruggles opened the first African-American bookstore in 1834.Highland, Kristen Doyle. "In the Bookstore: The Houses of Appleton and Book Cultures in Antebellum New York City." Book History 19 (2016): 221. doi:10.1353/bh.2016.0006.Porter, Dorothy B. (January 1943). "David Ruggles: An Apostle of Human Rights". Journal of Negro History. Association for the Study of African American Life and History. 28 (1): 28. doi:10.2307/2714783. JSTOR [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2714783 2714783]. S2CID [https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:150135247 150135247].
Early life
Ruggles was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1810. His parents, David Sr. and Nancy Ruggles, were free African Americans. His father was born in Norwich in 1775 and worked as a journeyman blacksmith. His mother was born in 1785 in either Lyme or Norwich and worked as a caterer.{{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Laurie |title=Rebels in Paradise : Sketches of Northampton Abolitionists |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=2014 |pages=36 |chapter=David Ruggles: Blind Man with a Vision}} Ruggles was the first of eight children.{{Cite book |last=Gao Hodges |first=Graham Russell |title=David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2010}}{{rp|11}}
His early education took place at religious charity schools in Norwich.Porter 1943, p. 25.
Bookstore and abolitionist organizing
In 1826, at the age of sixteen, Ruggles moved to New York City, where he worked as a mariner before opening a grocery store. Nearby, other African-Americans ran grocery businesses in Golden Hill (John Street east of William Street), such as Mary Simpson (1752-March 18, 1836). After 1829, abolitionist Sojourner Truth (born Isabella ("Bell") Baumfree; c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) also lived in lower Manhattan. At first, he sold liquor, then embraced temperance. He became involved in anti-slavery and the free produce movement. He was a sales agent for and contributor to The Liberator and The Emancipator, abolitionist newspapers. Due to the selling of anti-slavery publications, Ruggle's store was eventually destroyed by a mob.{{Cite web |last=Pasquale |first=Andrew |title=David Ruggles |url=https://davidrugglescenter.org/david-ruggles/ |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=David Ruggles Center for History and Education |language=en-US}}
After closing the grocery, Ruggles opened the first African American-owned bookstore in the United States. The bookstore was located on Lispenard Street near St. John's park in what is today the Tribeca neighborhood. Ruggles' bookstore specialized in abolitionist and feminist literature, including works by African-American abolitionist Maria Stewart.{{Cite web|url=http://chiseler.org/post/114058945271/david-ruggles|title=DAVID RUGGLES|website=THE CHISELER|access-date=2019-02-16|archive-date=2019-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190217084935/http://chiseler.org/post/114058945271/david-ruggles|url-status=dead}} He edited a New York journal called The Mirror of Liberty,[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html The "Quarterly" Almanac], 1893, edited by John C. Dancy, editor of A.M.E. Zion Quarterly (Wilmington, N.C.: s.n., 1893) (Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection, Library of Congress) (Ruggles published Mirror of Liberty, one of the earliest African American journals in the U.S.). and published a pamphlet called The Extinguisher. He also published "The Abrogation of the Seventh Commandment" in 1835, an appeal to northern women to confront husbands who kept enslaved black women as mistresses.
New York Committee of Vigilance
Ruggles was secretary of the New York Committee of Vigilance, a radical biracial organization to aid fugitive slaves, oppose slavery, and inform enslaved workers in New York about their rights in the state."Helped to free 119 slaves, John J. Zuille, famous in slavery days, still alive," [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ The Sun (New York, NY)], November 10, 1889, Page 22, Image 22, col 7 ("Phillips and [William Lloyd] Garrison I first met at an anniversary meeting of the Anti-Slavery Association. Those meetings were held here annually in May. The two gentlemen I mentioned had for their colleagues in their work Henry Channing, Charles C. Barlow, David Ruggles, and Louis Napolean.") New York had abolished slavery and stated that slaves voluntarily brought to the state by a master would automatically gain freedom after nine months of residence. On occasion, Ruggles went to private homes after learning that enslaved blacks were hidden there, to tell workers that they were free.
Ruggles was especially active against kidnapping bounty hunters (also known as "blackbirds"), who made a living by capturing free Black people in the North and illegally selling them into slavery in the Deep South, as was done to Solomon Northup. With the Vigilance Committee, Ruggles fought for fugitive slaves to have the right to jury trials and helped arrange legal assistance for them. In 1837, Ruggles led efforts to defend William Dixon, who had been accused of being a fugitive slave.{{rp|107–108}}
His activism earned him many enemies, including fellow abolitionists who disagreed with his tactics. Ruggles was physically assaulted, and his bookshop was destroyed through arson. He quickly reopened his library and bookshop. There were two known attempts to kidnap him and sell him into slavery in the South.Letter to the editor from L.M.F. Hamilton, [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ The New York Herald], July 24, 1872, Page 3, Image 3 ("I was in the Old Underground Railway depot, corner of Church and Lispenard streets, on the night of the raid by Boudinott and Nash for the purpose of kidnapping David Ruggles.") He was criticized for his role in the well-publicized Darg case of 1838, in which Ruggles and other abolitionists sought freedom for Thomas Hughes, a slave accused of robbing his enslaver, a Virginia man named John P. Darg."Examination of the Black Man, Ruggles," [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ The Morning Herald (New York, NY)], September 10, 1838, Image 2, col 4 ("On Saturday afternoon, David Ruggles, the black, charged with aiding and abetting the slave Tom in robbing his master, concealing the fugitive, was brought out for examination before Justice Hobsen. A vast number of abolitionists, and other crazy fanatics, pressed toward the magistrate's desk to witness the proceedings, and who seemed to take a great interest in the result. The developments made upon the occasion, which we give below, fully justifies the arrest of Ruggles and his friend Corse, and exhibit the miserable gang to which they belong to be but a very little better than a band of freebooters.")
In October 1838, Ruggles assisted Frederick Douglass on his journey to freedom, and reunited Douglass with his fiancé Anna Murray. Rev. James Pennington, a self-emancipated slave, married Murray and Douglass in Ruggles' home shortly thereafter.{{Cite book|title=Frederick Douglass|last=McFeely|first=William|publisher=Norton|year=1991|isbn=0393028232|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0/page/72 72-77, 97]|url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0/page/72}} Douglass' autobiography 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' explains "I had been in New York but a few days, when Mr. Ruggles sought me out, and very kindly took me to his boarding-house at the corner of Church and Lespenard Streets. Mr. Ruggles was then very deeply engaged in the memorable Darg case, as well as attending to a number of other fugitive slaves, devising ways and means for their successful escape; and, though watched and hemmed in on almost every side, he seemed to be more than a match for his enemies."{{cite book|last1=Douglass|first1=Frederick|title=NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS AN AMERICAN SLAVE. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.|date=1845|publisher=PUBLISHED AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE, NO. 25 CORNHILL 1845|location=Boston|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm}}
Later life
Ruggles suffered from ill health, which intensified following the Darg case. In 1841, his father died, and Ruggles was ailing and almost blind. In 1842, Lydia Maria Child, a fellow abolitionist and friend, arranged for him to join a radical Utopian commune called the Ross Farm, operated by the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Florence, Massachusetts.
File:05 27 2022 David Riggles Junior High School 256 NYC.jpg]]
Applying home treatment upon hydropathic principles, he regained his health to some degree, but not his eyesight. He began practicing hydrotherapy, and by 1845, had established a "water cure" hospital in Florence. This was one of the earliest in the United States. Joel Shew and Russell Thacher Trall (R.T. Trall) had preceded him in using this type of therapy. Ruggles died in Florence in 1849, at age 39, due to a bowel infection.
Bibliography
- {{cite book| last= Clark | first= Christopher| title= The Communitarian Moment: The Radical Challenge of the Northampton Association| publisher= University of Massachusetts | year= 1995| location= Amherst}}
- {{cite book|last=Foner|first=Eric|title=Gateway To Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad|year=2015|publisher=W.W. Norton and Company|isbn=978-0-393-24407-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/gatewaytofreedom0000fone}}
- {{cite book |author=Gaffney, Paul| chapter=Coloring Utopia: The African American Presence in the Northampton Association of Education and Industry |title=Letters from an American Utopia: The Stetson Family and the Northampton Association, 1843-1847 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=y12RGI4TzVoC&q=%22Letters+from+an+American+Utopia%22 |editor1=Christopher Clark |editor2=Kerry W. Buckley | year=2004| publisher=University of Massachusetts Press| location=Amherst, Mass| pages=239–278|isbn=1-55849-431-6|access-date=16 December 2009}}
- {{Cite journal| last= Hodges| first= Graham Russell| author-link= Graham Russell Gao Hodges| title= David Ruggles: The Hazards of Anti-Slavery Journalism| journal= Media Studies Journal| volume= 14| issue= 2| date= Spring–Summer 2000| url= http://www.freedomforum.org/publications/msj/courage.summer2000/y02.html| url-status= dead| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070307075218/http://www.freedomforum.org/publications/msj/courage.summer2000/y02.html| archive-date= 2007-03-07}}
- {{Cite book |year=2010 |author=Hodges, Graham Russell Gao |title=David Ruggles: A radical black abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City |place=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3326-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvKmxAO81lYC&q=%22david+ruggles%22 |access-date=31 August 2010}}
- {{Cite web |date=18 January 1830 |author=General Lafayette |title=(Facsimile of letter from) General Lafayette to David Ruggles |url=https://archive.org/stream/facsimileoflette00lafarich#page/n3/mode/1up |access-date=1 September 2010 }}
- {{Cite book |year=2001 |editor1=Newman, Richard |editor2=Rael, Patrick |editor3=Lapsansky, Phillip |chapter=David Ruggles |pages=144–155 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j6JunalrLj4C&q=%22david+ruggles%22&pg=PA144 |title=in Pamphlets of protest: an anthology of early African-American protest |place=New York |isbn=0-415-92443-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j6JunalrLj4C&q=pamphlets+protest |access-date=1 September 2010 |publisher=Routledge}} Paperback {{ISBN|0-415-92444-8}}
- {{Cite journal| last= Porter| first= Dorothy B.| author-link=Dorothy B. Porter | title = David Ruggles: An Apostle of Human Rights| journal=Journal of Negro History| volume= 28| issue= 1| pages= 23–50| date= January 1943| doi= 10.2307/2714783| publisher=Association for the Study of African American Life and History| jstor= 2714783| s2cid= 150135247}}
- {{Cite book |date=1995|others=First published 1971.
|author=Porter, Dorothy |title=Early Negro Writing 1760-1837 |place=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Black Classic Press |isbn=0-933121-59-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaUFeuToWhwC&q=Early+Negro |access-date=1 September 2010}} Hardback {{ISBN|0-933121-60-1}}
- {{Cite book |year=1834 |author=David Ruggles: A Man of Color |title=The "Extinguisher" extinguished! Or David M. Reese M.D. "Used Up" |publisher=D. Ruggles |place=New York |url=https://archive.org/stream/extinguisherexti00rugg#page/n2/mode/1up |access-date=1 September 2010}} (Note: The title page shows that in authorship, Ruggles pointedly identified himself as "A Man of Color")
References
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External links
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=David Ruggles}}
- [http://www.davidrugglescenter.org/ The David Ruggles Center]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruggles, David}}
Category:19th-century American journalists
Category:19th-century American male writers
Category:Activists from New York (state)
Category:African-American abolitionists
Category:American abolitionists
Category:African-American history in New York City
Category:African-American journalists
Category:American male journalists
Category:Journalists from New York City
Category:Activists from Manhattan
Category:People from Norwich, Connecticut