The driver told Ruggles to move outside to sit next to him so that she could sit inside. Shielded from the winds lashing off the Hudson River, Ruggles was sitting comfortably inside a stagecoach as he prepared to travel from New York to Newark, New Jersey, for business.Īs the stagecoach headed toward the ferry that would ultimately transport Ruggles to Newark, it stopped to pick up a white female passenger. If he had any doubts about his status as a second-class American, a single incident one icy January morning in 1834 erased them. Ruggles’ dedication to the antislavery movement followed his upbringing as a free Black person who once wrote that he spent his “happiest hours” as a child playing with both white and Black kids. "He showed that journalism counts and that writing is fighting." “Ruggles' relentless, uncompromising vigilance against kidnappers and deeply humane assistance to Blacks fleeing slavery make him a model for any American battling for our freedoms,” said Graham Hodges, a history professor at Colgate University in New York. ![]() ![]() He died blind and ill at 39, never acquiring much fame or fortune. Ruggles ultimately paid a steep price for his activism, exhausting himself and burning out way too soon. These include Freedom’s Journal, the nation's first Black newspaper started in 1827 The Liberator, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison’s famed 1831 newspaper and The Emancipator, the newspaper whose 1833 inaugural publication galvanized the abolitionist movement in New York state. To stitch his life together, USA TODAY combed through thousands of pages in dozens of antislavery publications. Unlike these heroic people whose lives and accomplishments are well-documented, Ruggles' life and work remain buried in centuries-old newspapers and pamphlets. When Frederick Douglass arrived in New York as a frightened, penniless fugitive from Baltimore, it was Ruggles who gave him money and shelter, and who eventually became his mentor. And long before Harriet Tubman became the Moses of the enslaved, Ruggles was described as the "soul of the Underground Railroad." He helped as many as 600 enslaved people escape to freedom. One century before Malcolm X emerged as a fiery critic of American values, Ruggles was a gifted orator who inspired audiences to care about the liberation of slaves. Wells-Barnett exposed the gory details of lynchings, Ruggles was a pioneering investigative journalist who wrote about free Black people being kidnapped and forced into slavery. He founded his own magazine to advance the abolitionist cause.ĭecades before Ida B. Ruggles owned a grocery store and the first Black-owned bookstore, filled with antislavery literature. This series explores the unseen, unheard, lost and forgotten stories of America’s people of color. Nearly two centuries after his death, his legacy remains obscure despite a range of accomplishments that few historical figures can match. And their freedom was precarious: At any given moment, they could be arrested and either returned to their owners or sold into slavery.Īgainst this backdrop, Ruggles emerged as a brash, outspoken activist who fiercely stood up against white supremacy. But free Black people remained second-class citizens. By 1804, most northern states had passed laws ending slavery. ![]() Fugitive slaves had been escaping to the city for decades, blending in with a small population of free Black people to avoid capture. In the 1800s before the Civil War, New York was a dangerously unpredictable place for Black Americans to navigate. Once the men left, Ruggles escaped into the frigid night. The year was 1836, and though he was a free Black man living in New York City, nearly 150 miles north of the Mason-Dixon line, he could never be entirely safe from the surreptitious band of slave catchers that prowled the city.Īnd his reputation as an abolitionist, together with his visit days before to an illegal slave ship to determine if enslaved people were on board, made him a prime target that night. Ruggles knew there was no friend outside, only danger. ![]() "A friend – David, open the door," the man said. In the dead of a cold December night, David Ruggles woke up to the sound of a commotion outside his front door.Ī voice outside asked, "Is Mr. Illustration by Andrea Brunty and Mara Corbett
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