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

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...