Legacy of Frederick Douglass: Celebrating 175 Years of Abolition

New York, N.Y. When Frederick Douglass arrived in New York City on September 4, 1838, he could hardly have believed that, 175 years later, people from all over the world would know his name. Nor could he have believed that his descendants would be invited to the nation’s capital to celebrate his central role in the abolition movement and the family’s ongoing commitment to eradicating the scourge of slavery in whatever form it may take.

Today, human trafficking is that scourge, the shadowy incarnation of slavery in the modern day. Human trafficking is a terrible crime that exploits innocent and vulnerable people through recruiting, transporting, selling, or buying of people for the purpose of commercial sex or labor. These victims are often controlled through force, fraud, or coercion. Though it is rarely acknowledged and widely misunderstood, it remains the very practice against which Frederick Douglass fought so valiantly.

This plaque marks the historic home of abolitionist David Ruggles,

a former Underground Railroad station in New York City.

Some of his descendants, through the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives , are working to carry on his legacy by educating children across the country about the historical and modern-day elements of slavery and abolition. The history-based curricula teach students what it means to be enslaved versus free by drawing upon the Emancipation Proclamation and Constitution. Once students recognize the disparity, they are introduced to the issue of human trafficking and armed with the knowledge and resources to become modern abolitionists and utilize pop culture, art, and social media to spread awareness.

On June 19, 2013, Douglass family descendants, along with members of Congress, will honor Frederick Douglass’ role in the abolition movement in a ceremony in the Capitol. The United States Congress will accept a statue of Frederick Douglass as a gift from the District of Columbia and its more than 600,000 residents. Douglass is widely considered to be the father of the civil rights movement and a powerful voice for freedom. When the statue is installed in the halls of Congress, it will serve not only as a tribute to his legacy as a statesman, author, orator, civil rights leader, and Black abolitionist, but as a reminder of what it meant to be a vocal opponent of the status quo at a time when slavery was still practiced. Even more remarkable was that Douglass was not legally free until 1845, when friends raised money to purchase his freedom.

This plaque marks the place of Frederick Douglass' arrival in lower Manhattan.

His arrival in New York City on Sept. 4 marked the end of a perilous journey from Maryland, through Delaware and Philadelphia, his safety reliant on borrowed papers and a sailor’s uniform provided by his fiancée, Anna Murray. “I was in the midst of an ocean of my fellow-men,” he wrote in his autobiography, “and yet a perfect stranger to every one…I was indeed free from slavery – but free from food and shelter as well.” But he rejoiced in his newfound freedom, writing, “I found myself in the big city of New York, a free man: one more added to the mighty throng.”

Among the throng was David Ruggles, then the secretary of the anti-slavery New York Vigilance Committee, an Underground Railroad officer, and the proprietor of a grocery store-turned reading room popular among abolitionist press. Ruggles himself contributed to various abolitionist papers, in addition to publishing his own pamphlets and later editing the Mirror of Liberty, the first African-American magazine.

Douglass stayed at Ruggles’ home at 36 Lispenard – a stop on the Underground Railroad – during his time in New York City, even marrying Anna Murray there upon her arrival from Maryland. It was there, too, that Ruggles and Douglass discussed at length matters of slavery and abolition. It may have been those conversations that drew Douglass to the abolitionist movement, or perhaps the experience of seeing Ruggles beaten and jailed, only to return immediately to the cause, was the impetus. Ruggles was instrumental in bringing Frederick Douglass to the forefront of the movement. While David Ruggles, along with most fellow Black abolitionists, has been forgotten in most historical accounts of the abolition movement, Douglass praised him in his autobiography, calling him “brave and wise.”

Close to Ruggles’ home was another forgotten piece of history, the African Burial Ground, lost for two centuries beneath the streets of Tribeca. It once stretched from Broadway to Centre Street and from above Duane Street to below Chambers. Both free and enslaved Black persons were buried there between about 1650 and 1794. When it was rediscovered in 1991 amid a construction project, the remains of 419 individuals were unearthed. The New York Historical Society estimates that 20,000 graves remain undisturbed below the bustling sidewalks of lower Manhattan.

On such bustling streets across the world, including here in New York City, slavery persists through the human trafficking industry, affecting adults and children, men and women, from the United States and abroad. In 2012, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened 363 investigations into the commercial sexual exploitation of minors, and located more than 500 young victims. The Polaris Project estimates that there are 100,000 children ensnared in the sex trade in the United States every year. Thousands more cases of sex and labor trafficking of both children and adults go unreported, uninvestigated, or unpunished.

Frederick Douglass remains not only an important historical figure, but a symbol for the struggle against slavery. His legacy and convictions hold true in the fight against modern slavery, and the sort of courage that he and his contemporaries demonstrated is still required in order to put a stop to the practice, once and for all. The words inscribed on the African Burial Ground Memorial, paying tribute to long-forgotten victims of slavery, are applicable for those persons caught in the modern web of slavery, whose own plight is all-to-often ignored:

For all those who were lost

For all those who were stolen

For all those who were left behind

For all those who are not forgotten

As we celebrate the arrival of his statue at the Capitol and come upon the 175th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’ escape from slavery, we must remember that his work is not yet complete, and strive to achieve the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms.

Norma Abbene , principal author, is a modern abolitionist.

Dana Watters , a graduate student at Columbia University, co-authored this article.

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