History
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On September 3, 1838, human-rights activist Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in Maryland by disguising himself as a sailor and traveling north by carriage, train, and boat. A few days later he arrived at 36 Lispenard Street, then a small brick building and a station on the Underground Railroad, a network of secret conductors and safe houses for fugitive slaves. There, African-American abolitionist David Ruggles kept a reading room and operated a printing press that published anti-slavery material, including Mirror of Liberty, an abolitionist newspaper. The site also served as headquarters of the New York Vigilance Committee, one of the nation's most active anti-slavery campaigns, which aided more than 1,000 freedom-seeking men, women, and children.
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New York, New York · United States
