David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City

by Graham Russell Gao Hodges

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807872642
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/01/2012
Series:	The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture
Edition description:	1
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	661,099
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Graham Russell Gao Hodges is George Dorland Langdon Jr. Professor of History and Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University. He is author or editor of sixteen books, including Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613-1863.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Graham Russell Gao Hodges has brilliantly captured the life of David Ruggles, whose mad courage and street-fighting savvy advanced 'a mighty revolution' against slavery. Once a hero to the enslaved and a terror to enslavers, Ruggles reclaims through this splendid biography his rightful place in American memory.—Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship: A Human History

In this exciting story of New York African American activist David Ruggles, Graham Hodges paints a dramatic picture of the nineteenth-century struggle against slavery. This captivating and brilliantly written chronicle fuses the activities of the interracial radical abolition movement and the underground railroad in the northeast.—James Oliver Horton, coauthor of Slavery and the Making of America and coeditor of Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory

A worthwhile and overdue biography, this is the only book-length work on one of the most influential black abolitionists of the antebellum period.—C. Peter Ripley, editor of The Black Abolitionist Papers

Editorial Reviews

Few scholars have examined the relationship between the Underground Railroad, abolition networks, and the broader currents of political and social change. Graham Hodges in David Ruggles . . . dramatize[s] these relationships by recovering [a] forgotten, heroic African-American whose actions helped create fault lines in the spread of Southern slavery."—Wall Street Journal

William Lloyd Garrison lauded [David Ruggles's] contributions to the abolitionist movement. 'He deserves to be ranked among the benefactors of his race,' Garrison wrote. 'His biography remains to be written.' . . . Dr. Hodges has now written the book Garrison called for more than 150 years ago."—New York Times

Hodges contributes to a better understanding of antebellum black activism and to shaping a fresh synthesis regarding how abolitionism shook America to its core. . . . Essential for readers and scholars interested in antebellum America, the antislavery movement, black activists, or New York City history."—Library Journal,starred review

Mention American abolitionists and David Ruggles rarely comes to mind. . . . Graham Russell Gao Hodges goes a long way toward rectifying that oversight."—New York Times

Hodges . . . skillfully weaves the life of abolitionist David Ruggles into the larger history of black abolitionists. . . . [He] convincingly argues that historians should reconfigure Ruggles from the margins to the center of abolitionist studies. . . . Highly recommended."—CHOICE

Thanks to the efforts of Hodges, David Ruggles will no longer remain a largely unknown abolitionist but rather will be seen as having played a significant role in the struggle against the slaveholding South and the segregated North."—American Historical Review

Hodges does a fine job detailing Ruggles' accomplishments and the fervor with which he pursued them. . . . Hodges has done the historical community a great service."—Maryland Historical Magazine

Using a wealth of published materials and archival sources, Hodges masterfully places Ruggles within the wider world of nineteenth-century reform. . . . Hodges is able to uncover a brand of reform activism in the radical abolition community of New York previously hidden even to seasoned scholars. This volume will go a long way towards opening eyes to the importance of men like Ruggles in the struggle to overcome slavery and racism in nineteenth-century America."—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

Hodges has diligently mined the primary sources to bring David Ruggles into the light. The result is this fine book. . . . One wonders why it has taken so long for historians to give Ruggles his due. Thankfully Hodges has done so. . . . This is a benchmark biography."—Left History

In this captivating biography, Hodges explores the life of one of the most important yet understudied abolitionists of his time, David Ruggles."—Historical Journal of Massachusetts

From the Publisher