David Ruggles, a native son of our town, is an American hero deserving of recognition and honor for his work advancing the cause of liberty and civil rights. He was the first black bookstore owner in the nation, a celebrated author and publisher of abolitionist literature, and a conductor on the underground railroad, personally helping 600 slaves, including Frederick Douglass, make their way to freedom. He was a founder of the tactic of non-violent civil disobedience in the 1840s, deliberately violating Jim Crow laws by sitting in the “white’s only” section of passenger trains, highlighting the injustice of segregation by stoically suffering the consequences of his resistance to it. His example set the foundation for the work of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. over a century later.
Born to free black parents in Lyme, CT on March 15, 1810 at a time when Lyme and Old Lyme were a single town, David Ruggles was educated in Norwich and moved to New York City at the age of 18 where he quickly established himself as a successful merchant. His grocery store promoted “fair trade” products such as coffee and sugar not manufactured by slave labor. One of the nation’s early abolitionists, Ruggles also authored pamphlets and published his own magazine, The Mirror of Liberty, to oppose slavery. His writing was noted for its sharp wit and fiery rhetoric. “Rise, brethren, rise!” he wrote in 1841. “Strike for freedom or die slaves!”
The greatest testament to his work perhaps came from Frederick Douglass himself who wrote of David Ruggles in his autobiography. Douglass, a fugitive slave, made his way to New York City where he found himself in “a distressed situation” before he met Ruggles. Douglass writes: “Mr. Ruggles sought me out and very kindly took me took me to his boarding house” where he was “attending to a number of other fugitive slaves, devising means for their successful escape, and though watched and hemmed in on almost every side, he seemed more than a match for his enemies.”
Douglass further notes his gratitude for “the humane hand of Mr. Ruggles, whose vigilance, kindness and perseverance I can never forget I am glad of an opportunity to express, as far as words can, the love and gratitude I bear him”. Likewise, the town of Old Lyme will always remember David Ruggles and his good work, and in this year celebrating America’s 250th year of independence we honor the contribution he has made to our national culture.
Author: Jim Lampos
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