New York Vigilance Committee

1775: New York City Revolutionaries Seize British Arms

August 12, 2025 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

In the early part of the year 1775 a state of uneasiness and expectancy pervaded the City of New York. Trade was prostrate. The merchants met at the Exchange or at the Coffee House and nervously talked over the situation, for which there seemed to be no remedy; while they looked out on the quiet docks, now almost deserted.

They were calmly waiting for something to happen, and it came in the news of the battle of Lexington. This was the crisis which produced a decided change in conditions. The dissatisfied people now showed that they had lost all respect for English rule. [Read more…] about 1775: New York City Revolutionaries Seize British Arms

New York’s Kidnapping Club Redux

April 9, 2025 by Alan J. Singer Leave a Comment

David Ruggles was a free Black man born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1810. He moved to the city of New York in 1826 where he worked as a mariner, eventually opened a grocery, and later ran book store. An active opponent of slavery, Ruggles was a sales agent for abolitionist newspapers, published his own anti-slavery journal, and was secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee aiding freedom seekers who escaped from slavery, helping them evade slavecatchers, and providing legal assistance if they were captured.

One of the people Ruggles helped to escape from slavery was Frederick Douglass. [Read more…] about New York’s Kidnapping Club Redux

New York Vigilance Committee

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