Person · 1810–1849
David Ruggles
Secretary of the New York Committee of Vigilance, who sheltered some 600 — including Frederick Douglass.
A founder of organized vigilance in the [[underground-railroad]].
A pioneering Black bookseller and journalist, David Ruggles led New York's vigilance work, fighting kidnappers and "blackbirders" and aiding the newly arrived Frederick Douglass in 1838.