Graham Russell Gao Hodges Books

Focusing on David Ruggles' significant yet often overlooked role in the early abolitionist movement, this biography highlights his contributions as an activist, writer, and hydrotherapist. Ruggles secured freedom for over six hundred former enslaved individuals, including Frederick Douglass, and mentored prominent figures like Sojourner Truth. As a founder of the New York Committee of Vigilance, he championed practical abolitionism, advocating for civil disobedience and self-defense to protect the rights of self-emancipated individuals and free blacks from kidnapping.

"Author Graham Hodges, who as a younger man worked as a cabby, tells a social and labor history of taxicabs in New York City. This revised edition features a new preface and a new last chapter that covers the rise of ridesharing companies, which the author criticizes. The rise of ridesharing (Uber and Lyft) is what precipitated the reissuing the book in a new edition"-- Provided by publisher

The book offers a thorough exploration of African American history in New York City and its surrounding areas, tracing the narrative from the first African presence in 1613 to the 1863 Draft Riots. It delves into the complex themes of freedom and servitude, as well as the dynamics between urban and rural life. Additionally, the author examines the roles of work, religion, and resistance in shaping the experiences of black individuals in the region over two and a half centuries.