This paper was written by Emilie Springsteen and was awarded the Civil Resistance Prize by the History Department in 2022. It was written for History 393: Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction taught by Professor Stephen Kantrowitz.
Our prompt is: Struggles over slavery’s mortality, political implications, and geography were central to the crisis of the United States in the 1840s and 1850s; the challenge is to explain how these factors interacted to produce the crisis of 1860-61 and the war that followed. The trial is to explain how one group of Americans understood the meaning of those struggles, how their understanding shaped their part in the crisis of the 1840s and 1850s, and what the relationship of their actions was to the crisis of 1860-61.[1] In response, I ask you, why do we categorize influential people from this era as one group instead of individuals? In this paper, I argue that we, as historians, need to stop looking at Black Abolitionists as one monolithic unit, and instead, we should look at them as individuals making life or death decisions to help free others and themselves from the bonds of slavery.
David Ruggles has been categorized as a Black Abolitionist of the Underground Railroad. However, he understood the meaning of enslavement in his own way. Ruggles had a unique and powerful effect on the crisis of the 1840s and 1850s, as well as the crisis of 1860–61 than other Black abolitionists or Railroad members. Underground Railroad members may have communicated with or helped one another, but they were not one cohesive unit. David Ruggles
should not be remembered simply as a connection of the Railroad, but as a person and individual.
David Ruggles was a free, Black abolitionist living in 1830s New York. He was a writer, a vigilante, and a leader in the Underground Railroad who dedicated his life and body to the abolitionist movement. According to historian Graham Russell Hodges, Ruggles was often, “lauded as a ‘thorough-going abolitionist – one that works by day and by night, with hands, feet, and pen’… He is the most successful, as well as the most inveterate enemy of the slaveholder.[2] Ruggles was part of the abolitionist movement for twenty years. In that time, he never stopped fighting. Instead, he was a significant unmoving threat to slavery who helped over six-hundred people escape by changing their geological borders with the Underground Railroad.[3]
Ruggles’ abolitionist efforts likely played a part in the crisis of the 1840s, as slaveholders’ anxiety and anger increased with each successful escape. Ruggles’ efforts were no secret to those wishing for freedom:
For freedom-minded blacks in Maryland, David Ruggles was the North Star…There were major strands to his network… In numerous small towns in New England and New York, a black person armed with a letter from David Ruggles quickly found warmhearted sympathizers who would [help] on the way to free soil.[4]
Many enslaved people who escaped either knew to find Ruggles in New York or were directed his way by others on the Underground Railroad’s Eastern Line. His home was open to anyone feeling lost and wishing to escape the chains of enslavement, as Frederick Douglass recalled:
“There I was in the midst of thousands, and yet a perfect stranger; without a home and without friends, in the midst of thousands of my own brethren– …Thank Heaven, I remained but a short time in this distressed situation… 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.”[5]
He was one of the most influential abolitionists of his time because of his kind-hearted determination. Ruggles gained many allies, some of whom he helped free, such as Frederick Douglass, who went on to fuel the fire of abolitionism.
Along with his Stationmaster work for the Railroad, he served on the Vigilance Committee in New York. He was confronting and fighting slave catchers, and preventing Blacks, free and fugitive, from being taken to the South for sale. At one point, Ruggles escaped an attempted kidnapping himself. It left him blinded and needing the kindness given to him that he so often gave others, as Douglass wrote about in his narrative:[6] “Ruggles worked very hard to free blacks caught in the devices of slave catchers.”[7] He’d enter the house of slave catchers to challenge and arrest them because it was morally right, though it sometimes resulted in injury, “The black man refused… Wilson then pushed Ruggles out of the room and kicked him down two flights of stairs, causing serious injuries to his liver.”[8]
The work he was doing was mentally and physically stressful; it caused his body to shut down. Between the damage done from his fights with slave catchers and stress, Ruggles was forced to move to a quieter area and semi-retire. In 1842 he moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, and became a Water Cure Doctor. He continued his abolition efforts, rallying the townspeople to fight against slavery. His presence in Northampton was reassuring enough that formerly enslaved people settled there listed their previous state in the 1850 census.[9]
Ruggles’s health declined suddenly in 1849.[10] He never lived to see the Emancipation Proclamation, but his efforts on paper and in person helped pave the way for the next generation. “Ruggles had become perhaps the most significant knot in these cords of benevolent conspirators and was so long before better-remembered activities of Harriet Tubman and William Still.”[11] His fight contributed to the crisis of the 1840s and 1850s in a distinctive way that no other may have been able to. He inspired the younger generation to continue fighting and pushing for emancipation. People like Frederick Douglass, abolition movement speaker and writer,[12] William Still, Railroad Stationmaster and Union soldier,[13] and Harriet Tubman, Railroad Conductor and Union army nurse and spy,[14] were all able to fight because of the path Ruggles had laid before them. He was gone before the crisis of 1860 to 1861, so they continued the fight he could not.
Historians must consider Black Abolitionists as individuals, not one monolithic unit. The case of Underground Railroad Stationmaster, David Ruggles is a particularly powerful example of the individual contributions made to abolition efforts. He risked everything to help others, which included his personal safety and physicality. Ruggles was an activist on the ground and in the news, his efforts to end slavery only being stopped by his unexpected death in 1849. Even in
retirement, he continued to spread the word in his community and helped new escapees settle in Northampton. Ruggles was one of the most renowned, influential people of his time because of his work for the Underground Railroad, the abolitionist movement, and his kindness. He made it possible for a younger generation of abolitionists to have a jumping-off point. Without his work, there’s no telling how different United States history would be. David Ruggles deserves to be remembered as his own, individual person who did incredible things for the sake of others.
[1] Stephen Kantrowitz, “PDF” (Madison, WI, 2022), pg. 6.
[2] Graham Russell Hodges, “Chapter 4: Melding Black Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad,” in David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), p. 121.
[3] “David Ruggles,” David Ruggles Center for History and Education, August 18, 2018, https://davidrugglescenter.org/david-ruggles/.
[4] Graham Russell Hodges, “Chapter 4: Melding Black Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad,” in David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), pp. 124-127.
[5] Frederick Douglass, “Chapter XI,” in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 1995), p. 64-65.
[6] Frederick Douglass, “Chapter XI,” in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 1995), p. 64.
[7] Graham Russell Hodges, “Chapter 4: Melding Black Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad,” in David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), p. 127.
[8] Graham Russell Hodges, “Chapter 4: Melding Black Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad,” in David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), p. 128.
[9] “The Underground Railroad,” David Ruggles Center for History and Education, April 17, 2018, https://davidrugglescenter.org/the-underground-railroad/.
[10] “David Ruggles,” David Ruggles Center for History and Education, August 18, 2018, https://davidrugglescenter.org/david-ruggles/.
[11] Graham Russell Hodges, “Chapter 4: Melding Black Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad,” in David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (University of North Carolina Press, 2010), p. 127.
[12] Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Dover Publications, Inc, 1995), p. iii.
[13] William C. Kashatus, William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia ( Notre Dame, Indiana: University Of Notre Dame Press, 2021), p. 56, 178.
[14] “Harriet Tubman (U.S. National Park Service),” National Parks Service (U.S. Department of the Interior, December 22, 2021), https://www.nps.gov/people/harriet-tubman.htm.
Bibliography
“David Ruggles.” David Ruggles Center for History and Education, August 18, 2018. https://davidrugglescenter.org/david-ruggles/.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, iii, 64. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc, 1995.
“Harriet Tubman (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, December 22, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/people/harriet-tubman.htm.
Hodges, Graham Russell. “Chapter 4: Melding Black Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad.” Essay. In David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture), 121-128. University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Kantrowitz, Stephen. “History 393: Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction Syllabus, Pg. 6.” Madison, WI, 2022.
Kashatus, William C. William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia, 56, 178. Notre Dame, Indiana: University Of Notre Dame Press, 2021.
“The Underground Railroad.” David Ruggles Center for History and Education, April 17, 2018. https://davidrugglescenter.org/the-underground-railroad/.
Emilie Springsteen is a UW Winter 2022 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Theatre and Drama as an Acting Specialist and an additional major in History. She will soon complete her Education courses to become a certified 4-12 Social Studies teacher. She firmly believes that those who changed the course of history should be remembered as the individuals they were, not just as a member of the group they stood with. This is a belief she hopes to instill in her students someday and shape the way they view history.