abolition

In honor of the Juneteenth holiday, the David Ruggles Center will be hosting an Open House on Wednesday, June 19 from 12-4. Come learn the stories of the Black men and women in 1840s and 1850s Florence who fought to end slavery and racism including: David Ruggles, a fierce fighter for racial justice and an architect of what came to be known as the Underground Railroad, helping over 500 people escape enslavement including Frederick Douglass, and who lived the final years of his short but heroic life in Florence ; Sojourner Truth who during her 14 years in Florence launched her career as an iconic lecturer on antislavery, women’s rights, and after emancipation, the rights of the freed people; Stephen Rush, one of the several self-emancipated formerly enslaved who sought freedom and respite at the utopian community of abolitionists, the Northampton Association; and Basil Dorsey, who also escaped enslavement and ultimately settled and stayed in Florence with his family. For more information, please contact info@davidrugglescenter.org.