The David Ruggles Center for History and Education, 225 Nonotuck Street, Florence, MA (2026)

Along with the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee (http://bit.ly/2pUx1QL) we attempt to fight racism by honoring and documenting the lives of the trailblazers that came before us. The David Ruggles Center for History and Education

Several strands of history meet in the oldest section of Florence, Massachusetts down by the Mill River, on Nonotuck Street, Spring Street, Florence Road and Lower Mea

dow Street. David Ruggles--the country's first African American bookseller, founding secretary of New York City's Vigilance Committee, assistant to over 600 fugitive slaves including Frederick Douglass--joined them in 1842. Here he established one of the first hydropathic hospitals in the country in 1846 and lived his remaining three years in the village that would become Florence in 1852. We name our education center in his honor and dedicate it to remembering this "utopian" attempt at founding a society of equal rights and social justice. We explore the growth of the factory village they created which continued as a center of abolitionism through the Civil War. We trace its emergence as a manufacturing powerhouse whose institutions continued to reflect the progressive ideals of the founders.

06/04/2026

June 21 at 1:00 pm at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity. Don't miss this unforgettable performance of music, led by Dr. Kathy Bullock, carrying a people through bo***ge and into freedom. Songs of Slavery & Emancipation is more than a concert, it is a living tribute to resilience, faith and the unbreakable spirit of a people.

The David Ruggles Center will be open from noon-3:30 before the concert, walking distance from Bombyx. Learn about the community of abolitionists, including Sojourner Truth and David Ruggles, who settled Florence before the Civil War. Learn more at davidrugglescenter.org.

https://bombyx.live/events/songs-of-slavery-emancipation/

Join us for an unforgettable performance of music, led by Dr. Kathy Bullock, carrying a people through bo***ge and into freedom. Songs of Slavery & Emancipation is more than a concert, it is a living tribute to resilience, faith and the unbreakable spirit of a people.

10/30/2025

The Greater Springfield NAACP proudly honors Dr. Amilcar Shabazz with the Hennessey Award at this year’s Freedom Fund Banquet.

Dr. Shabazz is a Professor and Undergraduate Program Director in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst, former President of the National Council for Black Studies, and a leading voice for reparations and social justice for more than four decades.

From his scholarship and global work in over 20 countries, to his leadership in making Juneteenth an official holiday in Massachusetts, to advancing reparative justice in Amherst, Dr. Shabazz continues to uplift truth, equity, and liberation.

His most recent book, In Defiance: 20 Abolitionists You Were Never Taught in School (2025), co-authored with Tom Weiner, is available at:https://www.odysseybks.com/event/tom-weiner-and-amilcar-shabazz-person

Please join us as we celebrate his extraordinary impact and unwavering commitment to justice.

10/10/2025

Join Grow Food Northampton and the The David Ruggles Center for History and Education for a hands-on exploration of the abolitionist roots of our land.

In the 1840s, members of the Northampton Association for Education and Industry (NAEI), an abolitionist community, farmed what is now the Grow Food Northampton Community Farm. They grew sugar beets as an alternative to slave-produced sugar cane, and flax for linen, oil, and cloth.

✨ Hear stories of the NAEI and the early days of Florence’s abolitionist movement.
🥣 Harvest sugar beets and taste sweet molasses.
🌾Try out historic flax-processing tools like a flax break, scutching board, and hatchels!

Free! Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwDqiBVMkaf5A6Mo4JNb_2hVg17Yimt7K4roCr_rq0-O1wWQ/viewform

09/14/2025

Protesting with Rosa Parks book launch with author John Bollard, this Wednesday at 6:30 at Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity. Register on the Bombyx site.

By STEVE PFARRERFor the GazetteAlong with Martin Luther King, Jr., Ma

05/25/2025

Our museum is OPEN Sundays 12-4. Stop by this afternoon before or after the Sojourner Truth Memorial Committee award ceremony. Come learn about the incredible Sojourner Truth who lived in Florence for 14 years.

05/03/2025

Our Museum is OPEN Sundays 12-4 May-October.. Stop by our museum at 225 Nonotuck St to learn about local abolitionist history and the courageous indidividuals who sought to create a community based on equality of race, gender, religion and class. This includes the stories of national abolitionist icons like our namesake, David Ruggles the intrepid antislavery activist, and Sojourner Truth, who launched her career in Florence. We also tell the story of ordinary heroes, like Basil Dorsey who escaped slavery and settled in Florence, and Almira Stetson who was a teenager in the utopian community that sought to create an alternative to the social inequalities exacerbated by the rise of industrialism in the young United States. Our knowledgeable docents are on hand as you wander through our exhibits. Questions? Email us at [email protected]

Address

225 Nonotuck Street
Florence, MA
01062

Website

http://www.davidrugglescenter.org/

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