Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Abolitionist: David Ruggles

David Ruggles was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1810.  He believed that abolitionists should not just philosophize about the day slavery would end, but strive to help all the victims of human bondage. At the age of eighteen he opened a grocery shop in New York in order to further the anti-slavery movement growing in the Northeast.   The grocery shop circulated books and Anti-slavery publications for African-Americans who were denied access to the New York public libraries.  In addition to his anti-slavery book store, he served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  He helped to bring at least six hundred enslaved people to freedom.  His support for abolition made him one of the most hated abolitionists in New York.  

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Tien Fuh Wu

Tien Fuh Wu grew up  in Zehjiang, China in the late 1800's.  She was forced to work in a brothel to pay off gambling debts her father generated.  By the age of ten she was sent to San Francisco to continue her life of servitude and physical abuse.  In 1894 she was rescued by a local missionary, who worked to free the imprisoned women.  Her body was covered with burns, cuts, and bruises from years of abuse.  After being rescued Tien Fuh Wu served as a translator for the mission that once rescued her.  She helped Donaldina Cameron liberate Chinese women in San Francisco from a vicious system of servitude.