#davidruggles #abolitionist #firstblackbookstoreowner #journalist #hydrotherapist #commiteeofvigilance #undergroundrailroad David Ruggles was born in 1810 in Norwich, Connecticut. By 1827 he was in New York city running a grocery store. In 1833 he traveled across the Northeast promoting the "Emancipator and Journal of Public Morals", an abolitionist weekly paper for which he was a sales agent and contributor to. He also worked with the Liberator. In 1834 he left the grocery business to open up the first black owned bookstore in America on Lispenard St near St. John's park in what's now Tribeca. He sold a lot of publications and prints that promoted the abolition of slavery and also feminism. He also offered printing services, letterpress work, picture framing, and bookbinding. As an editor he worked on a New York journal called "The Mirror of Liberty". He published a pamphlet called "The Extinguisher" and "The Abrogation of the Seventh Commandment" in 1835, an Appeal to northern women to confront husbands who kept enslaved black women as mistresses. September 1835 an angry white anti abolitionist mob burned his store. There also were attempts on his life as well as failed kidnap attempts. From 1835-1838 he was active in the Underground Railroad. In 1835 when the New York Vigilance Committee was organized he became their secretary. Ruggles is said to have helped 600 slaves escape. In 1836 he found out that a Portuguese sea Captain had 5 kidnapped Africans on his ship. Ruggles got a writ of habeas corpus & had the captives taken to a local jail until there was a hearing on their status. After the captain who he got arrested was released, he & a slave catcher tried to grab Ruggles so they could sell him into slavery. In 1838 he helped another escaped slave, Frederick Washington Bailey of Maryland. Who became Frederick Douglas. He ended up becoming mentored by Ruggles. Ruggles fight for freedom took a toll on his health, he died December 18, 1849. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2S020jnb81/?igshid=d9ffep01uc7t
