Behind the Book with David Ruggles: The First Black-Owned Bookstore in the United States

On episode 53 of the Reed, Write, & Create podcast, we’re going Behind the Book to learn about David Ruggles, the man who used his own personal collection of books and printed materials to create the very first Black-owned bookstore in the United States in 1834. 

David Ruggles was a revolutionary thinker, a bibliophile, a healer, and a radical abolitionist who believed that reading and the written word would set his people free. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, David Ruggles crossed paths with the likes of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William Lloyd Garrison, and was well known in New York’s abolitionist communities. It is said that Ruggles helped more than 600 African-Americans escape slavery through his work with the Underground Railroad. Suffice it to say, David Ruggles was a true freedom fighter.

Listen to this fascinating episode to see how and why David Ruggles opened a bookstore, what happened to the store, and what unexpected career pivot Ruggles had to make after losing his eyesight.

The Literary Legacy of D. Ruggles Books

In the gorgeous new book, Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores, the authors write the following about David Ruggles and his revolutionary bookshop. “[David Ruggles] envisioned a free society and believed books could break slavery’s chains. As the father of stateside Black bookstores, Ruggles served as a lighthouse for later booksellers seeking freedom through literacy. D. Ruggles Books mark the genesis of the storied  history of Black bookstores in the United States and their key role as sites for Black liberation.”

To learn more about David Ruggles, visit the David Ruggles Center for History and Education website. 

If you want to read a complete biography of Ruggles, try this well regarded biography  by Graham Russell Gao Hodges.