Edmund Ruffin III (January 5, 1794 – June 18, 1865) was a wealthy
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
planter who served in the
Virginia Senate
The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...
from 1823 to 1827. In the last three decades before the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, his pro-slavery writings received more attention than his agricultural work. Ruffin, a slaveholder, staunchly advocated
states' rights
In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the ...
and
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, arguing for
secession
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
years before the Civil War, and became a political activist with the so-called
Fire-Eaters. Ruffin is given credit for "firing the first shot of the war" at the
Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861 and fought as a
Confederate soldier despite his advanced age. When the war ended in Southern defeat in 1865, he committed
suicide rather than submit to "Yankee rule."
[
Ruffin is also known for his pioneering work in methods to preserve and improve soil productivity. He recommended ]crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. It reduces reliance on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, and the probability of developing resistant ...
and additions to restore soils exhausted from tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming: both a 1,000-hectare/acre cornfield and a 10-ha/acre field of organic kale are ...
. Early in his career, he studied bogs and swamps to learn how to correct soil acidity. He published essays and, in 1832, a book on his findings for improving soils. He has since become known as "the father of soil science
Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to th ...
" in the United States.[Ruffin, Edmund. ''Nature's Management: Writings on Landscape and Reform, 1822-1859''](_blank)
edited by Jack Temple Kirby, University of Georgia Press, 2006
Early and family life
Ruffin was born on January 5, 1794, at Evergreen Plantation just east of Hopewell in Prince George County, Virginia
Prince George County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,010. Its county seat is Prince George.
Prince George County is located within the Greater Richmond Region of the U.S. st ...
. A descendant of William Randolph
William Randolph I (bapt. 7 November 1650 – 11 April 1711) was a planter, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who played an important role in the development of the colony. Born in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, Randolph moved to th ...
, he was born into Virginia's planter class
The planter class, known alternatively in the United States as the Southern aristocracy, was a racial and socioeconomic caste of pan-American society that dominated 17th and 18th century agricultural markets. The Atlantic slave trade permitted ...
aristocracy and inherited large tracts of land along the James River. His father was George Ruffin (1765-1810) and Edmund was named after his grandfather, Edmund Ruffin
Edmund Ruffin III (January 5, 1794 – June 18, 1865) was a wealthy Virginia planter who served in the Virginia Senate from 1823 to 1827. In the last three decades before the American Civil War, his pro-slavery writings received more attention th ...
(1744-1807), who represented Prince George County in the Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...
during the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
(1775-1778, 1782-1788). He received a private education suitable to his class, then attended the College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...
in Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is ...
.
In 1813, Ruffin married Susan Hutchings Travis of Williamsburg. The couple moved to a plantation that Ruffin inherited from his namesake grandfather, at Coggin's Point, along the James River in Prince George County, which was noted as the departure point of Benedict Arnold after he switched allegiances and raided along the James River (including Richmond) in 1781. They had eleven children before Susan Ruffin died in 1846, although most would die before the American Civil War ended and their father committed suicide: Edmund Ruffin Jr. (1814-1875), Agnes Ruffin Beckwith (1816–1865), Julian Calx Ruffin (1821–1864, who died at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff), Elizabeth Ruffin Sayre (1821–1860), Rebecca Ruffin Bland (1823–1855), Jane Ruffin Dupuy (1829–1855), Charles Lorraine Ruffin (1832–1870; VMI graduate who survived the war), Ella Ruffin (1832–1855), Ann Ruffin (1844–1863) and George Champion Ruffin (1845-1913).
Antebellum life
Soldier
Ruffin enlisted as a private in the Virginia Militia during the War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
, and served as secretary of the 4th Virginia Infantry, but did not experience battle. Decades later he enlisted in the Palmetto Guards of South Carolina.
Planter and intellectual
Ruffin, like many other planters in Virginia, farmed using enslaved labor. He owned several plantations including Coggins Point and Shellbanks in Prince George. In 1820, he owned 52 enslaved negroes and mulattoes in Prince George county, which number had grown by 1830 to 86 enslaved people, and by 1840 grew to 96 enslaved people. The 1850 census was the first with separate slave schedules, and by then Edmund Ruffin owned 84 enslaved people in Prince George county,
and 41 enslaved people in Hanover County, Virginia. In the 1860 census, 31 slaves of Edmund Ruffin were leased to someone in Charles City county, his sons Edmund Ruffin Jr. and J. C. Ruffin owned 95 slaves and 22 slaves, respectively in Prince George county, and probably Edmund owned additional slaves in Hanover County.
In his twenties, Ruffin began experimenting with using marl to rejuvenate the soil on his land that had been worn out by more than a century of monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming: both a 1,000-hectare/acre cornfield and a 10-ha/acre field of organic kale are ...
of tobacco, a crop which consumes many nutrients from the soil. An educated man, Ruffin was interested in agricultural science but did not like farming or supervising slaves and in 1835 moved from his plantation in Prince George to the City of Petersburg becoming an absentee landowner, leaving the day to day management of his plantations and supervision of slaves to overseers. In 1843, Ruffin purchased another plantation, Marlbourne, in Hanover County
Hanover County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 109,979. Its county seat is Hanover Courthouse.
Hanover County is a part of the Greater Richmond Region.
History
Located in the wester ...
near Richmond, in the Virginia Tidewater and moved there from Petersburg. Tobacco had long been cultivated on the land and the soil was exhausted, so Ruffin became a serious agronomist
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...
and a pioneer in promoting conservation and soil rejuvenation.
Ruffin became one of a circle of intellectuals who worked to change various aspects of Southern life. His colleagues included Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, George Frederick Holmes
George Frederick Holmes (1820 – November 4, 1897), emigrated to the United States where he taught history and literature and became the first Chancellor of the University of Mississippi (from 1848 to 1849). From 1857 until his death, Holmes taug ...
, James Henry Hammond
James Henry Hammond (November 15, 1807 – November 13, 1864) was an attorney, politician, and planter from South Carolina. He served as a United States representative from 1835 to 1836, the 60th Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844, and ...
, and William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simms (April 17, 1806 – June 11, 1870) was an American writer and politician from the American South who was a "staunch defender" of slavery. A poet, novelist, and historian, his ''History of South Carolina'' served as the defin ...
.[Drew Gilpin Faust, ''A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977] Their interests spanned Southern society. For example, Ruffin edited writings of William Byrd
William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...
of Westover Plantation ''The Westover Manuscripts, containing a history of the dividing line twixt Virginia and North Carolina: a Journey to the Land of Eden A.D. 1733 and a Progress to the Mines.'' (Published in Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Econ ...
in 1841 and in Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...
in 2 volumes in 1866). Many in the group argued "stewardship" justified slavery, influenced by the evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
tradition that generated reform in the North as well, and published their recommendations and "jeremiads" in short-lived periodicals and felt unjustly neglected by fellow Southerners.
For a time in the 1840s, Ruffin was editor of the ''Farmers Register
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...
''. He did serious studies of the possibility of using lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
to raise pH in peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...
soils. Ruffin presented a paper, later expanded into an article for '' American Farmer'' and eventually into the highly influential book ''An Essay on Calcareous Manures'' (1852). He explained how applications of calcareous earths ( marl) had reduced soil acidity and improved yields of mixed crops of corn and wheat on his land, which had been worn out by two centuries of tobacco farming. These works and others have led to his being called the "father of soil science" in modern times.
During the pre-war years, Ruffin also studied the origin of bogs and published several detailed descriptions of the Dismal and Blackwater swamps in Virginia. Some now consider Ruffin better known for his substantive contributions to agriculture, rather than his claim to have fired the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
. However, his advice on the value of marl was not widely followed in his own time. In an 1852 address, he warned planters that not paying attention to their soil could lead to ruin, and the South suffered from exhausted soils after the Civil War.[Steven Stoll, ''Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth Century America'' (New York, 2002), pp. 165-166]
Pro-slavery activist
Ruffin strongly supported slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and what he considered the Southern way of life. He became increasingly outspoken as sectional hostilities heightened in the 1850s. Some called him a Fire Eater
Fire eating is the act of putting a flaming object into the mouth and extinguishing it. A fire eater can be an entertainer, a street performer, part of a sideshow or a circus act but has also been part of spiritual tradition in India.
Physi ...
because he advocated secession and armed conflict in defense of the South. Noting how his audience had changed, he wrote in his diary in January 1859, "I have had more notice taken on my late pamphlet n slaverythan on anything I ever wrote before."[Drew Gilpin Faust, ''The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South, 1830--1860''](_blank)
(Google Ebook), LSU Press, 1981
In 1859, Ruffin traveled to attend the execution of John Brown at Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
), following the abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
's abortive slave revolt at Harper's Ferry
Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...
earlier that year. To gain access to the event, Ruffin joined the Virginia Military Institute
la, Consilio et Animis (on seal)
, mottoeng = "In peace a glorious asset, In war a tower of strength""By courage and wisdom" (on seal)
, established =
, type = Public senior military college
, accreditation = SACS
, endowment = $696.8 mill ...
corps of cadets (from which his son had graduated). Wearing a borrowed overcoat and carrying a weapon; the aging, white-haired secessionist marched into Charles Town with the young cadets who had been ordered up from Lexington. Ruffin would soon collect several of the pikes captured from Brown and his forces, which had been intended to arm slaves in a general uprising. Ruffin sent a pike to each of the governors of the slave-holding states, except Delaware, as proof of violent Northern enmity against the South and slavery.[
In 1860, Ruffin published his book, ''Anticipations of the Future, to Serve as Lessons for the Present Time''. Written in the form of letters to the '']London Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' from 1864 to 1870 from a fictional English resident in the United States, he played out the result of the election of Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
candidates in the United States. He predicted an American civil war in 1868 that would follow the re-election of President William H. Seward
William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. A determined oppon ...
, and predicted that it would ultimately result in a victory for Southern states. Although most of his predictions were wrong, Ruffin did correctly predict that the war would start with a Southern attack on Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
in South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
.[Ruffin, E, ''Anticipations of the Future to Serve as Lessons for the Present Time,'' J. W. Randolph, 1860]
Civil War
After the election of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
as president in 1860, Ruffin traveled to South Carolina, where he had previously worked as an agronomist, hoping to encourage secession (perhaps because, as Swanberg says, his fellow Virginians found his views too extreme). He wrote to his son, "The time since I have been here has been the happiest of my life." Ruffin is credited with firing one of the first shots from Morris Island against the federally held Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle ...
on April 12, 1861, which is generally considered the military event that initiated the war; the actual first shot against Fort Sumter was a signal shot by Lt. Henry S. Farley from Fort Johnson
Fort Johnson was a U.S. Army post built on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in modern-day Warsaw, Illinois, during the War of 1812. The fort was established in September 1814 by Major Zachary Taylor, future 12th President of the United Sta ...
under the command of Captain George S. James. Ruffin was also the first person to enter Fort Sumter after it fell to Southern forces.
During the Civil War, his grandson Julian Beckwith was one of the first Petersburg Confederate soldiers to fall during the Battle of Seven Pines
The Battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks or Fair Oaks Station, took place on May 31 and June 1, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, nearby Sandston, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. It was th ...
on May 31, 1862. As Union forces threatened Richmond the next summer, Ruffin left Marlbourne for Beechwood, the Prince George County home of his son, Edmund Ruffin Jr. In June 1864, after the Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confede ...
under General Ulysses S. Grant stealthily crossed the James River into Prince George over a hastily constructed pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load that they can carry.
...
a few miles east of Beechwood at Flowerdew Hundred
Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir George Yeardley, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of on the south side of the James River. Yeardley probably named the plantation after his wife's wealthy father, ...
, Ruffin allegedly escaped capture by hiding under a load of hay in a wagon driven by one of his slaves. He fled west to the relative safety of another son's plantation home, Redmoor, in Confederate-held territory west of Petersburg in Amelia County. Several of Ruffin's plantations were occupied and plundered by Union forces during the war. His plantation on Coggins Point was the scene of the Beefsteak Raid during the Siege of Petersburg
The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a cla ...
.
Death and legacy
When the war ended with Confederate defeat, Ruffin, who had already suffered the loss of his wife and eight of his eleven children, was crushed. Increasingly despondent after the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House in 1865, along with the other surrenders that were to follow, Ruffin decided to commit suicide. On June 18, 1865, while staying with his son and daughter-in-law at Redmoor in Amelia County, Ruffin went up to his room with a rifle and a forked stick. He was called away to greet visitors at the front door.
After they left, Ruffin returned to write a final diary entry:
And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will enear to my latest breath, I here repeat, & would willingly proclaim, my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, & to the perfidious, malignant, & vile Yankee race.
Ruffin wrapped himself in a Confederate flag
The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...
, put the rifle muzzle in his mouth and used the forked stick to manipulate the trigger. The percussion cap
The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise ...
went off without firing the rifle, and the noise alerted Ruffin's daughter-in-law. However, by the time she and his son reached his room, Ruffin had reloaded the rifle and fired a fatal shot. Edmund Jr. and neighbor William H. Harrison transported his body to Marlbourne, his plantation in Hanover County, Virginia
Hanover County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 109,979. Its county seat is Hanover Courthouse.
Hanover County is a part of the Greater Richmond Region.
History
Located in the wester ...
, for burial.
Both Evergreen (Hopewell, Virginia), the plantation house which his father built in 1807 on the plantation on which Edmund was born, and the Edmund Ruffin Plantation (also known as Marlbourne), remain today and are designated as National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
s. Ruffin is often called the "father of soil science" in the United States, and his writings have been influential in soil conservation.
Date of death uncertainty
Ruffin had long proven himself to be a dedicated diarist. He posted three diary entries on the day of his suicide indicating that day to be June 18, which fell on Sunday. Nevertheless, the date was drawn into question by his son Edmund Jr.’s June 20 letter advising brothers George and Thomas of the death. Edmund Jr.’s letter, which surfaced in 1924, unambiguously related the death to have occurred “Saturday last at 12 1/2 o’clock” which was June 17. Biographers Allmendinger and Scarborough extensively reviewed Ruffin’s diary entries and the son’s letter, as well as the circumstances of burial and newspaper publication of the death, and they have debated the case to be made for the 17th and the 18th dates. They have both concluded June 17 to be the more probable date of death, and that Ruffin had become confused and erred in dating his final diary entries.[Allmendinger; Scarborough (1989)]
Works by Edmund Ruffin
''Slavery and Free Labor, Described and Compared'' / by Edmund Ruffin
Accessed December 8, 2006.
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References
Further reading
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* iscussion re question of date of death–June 17, 1865 v. June 18
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruffin, Edmund
1794 births
1865 deaths
American agronomists
American proslavery activists
Farmers from Virginia
American people of English descent
College of William & Mary alumni
People from Prince George County, Virginia
People of Virginia in the American Civil War
Suicides by firearm in Virginia
Scientists from Virginia
American Fire-Eaters
Writers from Virginia
1860s suicides
American planters
American slave owners
Ruffin family
Witnesses to John Brown's execution