David Ruggles, Radical Black Abolitionist, and the Reform Tradition in Antebellum America

Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Colgate University
New York Public Library

Historian Graham Russell Gao Hodges leads a discussion of the life of David Ruggles, black abolitionist of the 1830s, conductor of the Underground Railroad in New York City, author of numerous, ground-breaking pamphlets, editor of the nation’s first black magazine, and later, a doctor of hydrotherapy. This 50 minute podcast places Ruggles in the context of abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in New York City and in the nation generally. Professor Hodges’s talk draws upon his book David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (UNC Press, 2010.).

Professor Hodges delivered this talk to a group of New York City public school teachers at the New York Public Library.