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by Peter Huber
When Edmund Ruffin was eighteen years old in 1812 he dropped out of William
and Mary College and married a girl from Williamsburg, Virginia, where William
and Mary was located. He then enlisted in the American army in order to
fight the British in the War of 1812. Young Ruffin was unhappy when the
war ended before he had the opportunity to fight in any battles.
After the war he settled down to become a gentleman farmer on a plantation
which he had inherited from his father in Tidewater Virginia. He took his
duties as a planter seriously and studied scientific farming. Applying the
principles of scientific agriculture to the management of his plantation
he greatly increased the productivity of his lands. He became one of the
wealthiest planters in Virginia, the owner of a hundred slaves and several
plantations.
Not content with enriching himself, he became a publicist for scientific
farming. As a writer, lecturer, and editor he urged his fellow planters
to rotate their crops, fertilize their fields, drain their swamps, and sweeten
their acid soils with applications of lime. By following Ruffin's teachings,
many Southern planters increased their production.
In 1843 the Governor of South Carolina, James Hammond, invited Ruffin to
make a survey of plantations in the Governor's state, followed by recommendations
on how to improve agricultural production in South Carolina. While conducting
his agricultural survey in South Carolina, Ruffin had many conversations
with Governor Hammond. Their discussions often went beyond the subject of
agriculture to economic and political topics. Governor Hammond was one of
the first Southerners to advocate that the Southern states should secede
from the Union and form a new and independent nation. Gradually Hammond
converted Ruffin to the cause of disunion.
When Ruffin completed his agricultural survey of South Carolina, he received
high praise for his work from the planters and politicians of that state.
By contrast, Ruffin had received very little appreciation for his contributions
to agriculture in his native state of Virginia. Because he received so little
credit for advancing agriculture in Virginia, Ruffin was fond of quoting
the Biblical verse: "A prophet is never without honor, save in his
own country and in his own house."
After Ruffin's wife died in 1846, he derived less pleasure than previously
from farming. His interest in agriculture had been replaced by concern about
the general economy of the South, which was partly based on slave labor.
Ruffin believed that the economic welfare of the South was being threatened
by increasing opposition to slavery in the Northern states and in new states
in the West.
Moreover, Ruffin believed that the rapid industrialization and urbanization
of the North was creating a distinctive Northern economy. This new Northern
industrial economy, Ruffin thought, had interests and needs that were opposed
to those of the agrarian South.
As Ruffin perceived the future, the South would be increasingly impoverished
as long as it continued to be part of the United States. Ruffin believed
that the only way the South could preserve its way of life would be to leave
the Union and become a separate nation, free to pursue a course that would
be most beneficial to itself.
Just as he had been the apostle of scientific agriculture, Ruffin now became
a propagandist for Southern political and economic independence from the
North. In 1855, when he was sixty-one, he turned over his prosperous plantations
in Tidewater Virginia to his sons and daughters, in order to devote himself
full-time to the cause of promoting Southern independence from the North.
When he began his campaign for Southern autonomy Ruffin found plenty of
resentment in the South against the North. Southerners detested and hated
abolitionists, especially those who helped fugitive slaves--Southern property--escape
to freedom in Canada.
But most Southerners were not yet willing to separate from their northern
fellow countrymen. Ruffin found that pro-Union sentiment was strong in Virginia,
which had given the country four out of five of its first Presidents, including
the most revered American in both North and South, George Washington. Loyalty
to the Union was particularly strong in western Virginia. When Ruffin spoke
there, advocating disunion, he was denounced as a traitor and was threatened
with being ridden out of town on a rail.
To find congenial company, Ruffin visited some of his old friends in South
Carolina, where talk of secession was more common and less hazardous than
in Virginia. In South Carolina Ruffin found many kindred souls who shared
his belief that the South could only survive by severing its ties with the
North. Because of their radical belief in disunion, Ruffin and his fellow
disunionists were called "fire eaters" by more moderate Southerners.
By 1859, when Ruffin was sixty-five, he was becoming discouraged in his
efforts to persuade Southerners, especially Virginians, to leave the Union.
Then in a most unexpected way his spirits were suddenly lifted by a fervid
abolitionist named John Brown.
John Brown and a few of his followers took command of the federal arsenal
at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, from which they planned to supply arms for
an insurrection of slaves against their masters. Brown failed to rally any
slaves for his insurrection and was soon captured by militia.
Ruffin was not surprised that John Brown failed to enlist any slaves in
his cause; Ruffin believed that slaves loved their protective masters. Even
though John Brown had failed to accomplish his bloody goal, Ruffin did everything
he could to perpetuate the South's fears aroused by John Brown. Ruffin talked
about Brown's intentions, not his failure. He rushed to Harper's Ferry to
witness firsthand the aftermath of Brown's unrealistic scheme.
Ruffin was fascinated when he beheld 1500 spears which Brown had planned
to distribute among slaves for the purpose of impaling their masters. Brown
had said that these spears would "transform slaves into men."
Ruffin prevailed on the commander of the arsenal to give him one of the
spears for a souvenir. Ruffin carried the spear with him wherever he went
and explained to people how John Brown had wanted slaves to use it.
John Brown was duly tried for attempting to incite an insurrection and was
condemned to be hanged. As a precaution against any attempt to rescue Brown,
who was being idolized by abolitionists in the North, the court permitted
only authorized armed guards to witness the hanging. Ruffin wanted very
much to see Brown hanged; he persuaded the commander of the guard of the
Virginia Military Institute to allow him to temporarily join the cadet corps
as an "honorary member."
As an "honorary cadet," Ruffin watched John Brown ride to the
gallows sitting on his coffin which rested on the bed of a wagon. Ruffin
admired the dignity with which Brown ascended the stairs to the gallows
and, without the slightest sign of fear, allowed the rope to be put about
his neck.
After the execution Ruffin managed to acquire fifteen of Brown's spears.
He sent a spear to each Southern governor, labeling each weapon with a description
of its intended purpose. One of Ruffin's labels read, "Sample of the
favors designed for us by our Northern brethren."
After he returned to Tidewater Virginia, Ruffin continued to keep alive
the fears aroused by John Brown. Warning that slave rebellions would subject
Southern ladies to "danger and insult," Ruffin organized a "Ladies'
Shooting Club," so that white women would be able to protect themselves.
Carrying his spear, Ruffin then went to Washington, D.C., where he tried
to intensify the already seething animosity between Northern and Southern
Congressmen. He was gratified when a Southern Congressman attacked an anti-slavery
Congressman from the North with a Bowie knife.
He urged Southern Congressmen to secede from the Union. It was important,
Ruffin said, to secede "now," in 1859, while there was still time.
In another year or two growing Northern abolitionism and Northern industrial
power might make secession impossible, Ruffin warned.
In the early part of 1860 Ruffin decided that the most effective way for
him to arouse enthusiasm for the Southern cause would be to write a propagandistic
novel that would depict the likely future of North and South. Just as Harriet
Beecher Stowe had won many Northern converts to abolitionism by writing
her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ruffin hoped to win converts to the cause
of slavery by writing his own novel, Anticipations of the Future.
In Ruffin's novel the Republicans elect William H. Seward as President in
1860. In power, the Republicans proceed to "negroize" society,
Ruffin's term for granting social equality to blacks. The white daughters
of prominent abolitionists in Washington vie with each other to win the
favor of the black ambassador from Haiti, the "Count of Marmalade."
When the North emancipates the slaves, the South secedes from the Union,
and Owen Brown, son of John Brown, leads an army of blacks southward against
the seceders. Much to the surprise of the Northerners, however, the members
of the black army desert, return to the plantations where they were raised
and, on bended knees, beg their former masters to please reenslave them.
With their black army depleted by desertions, the North has no choice but
to surrender to the South.
Ruffin's book was totally ignored, and, consequently, made no converts to
the defense of slavery.
While he was writing his fanciful and ineffective book, Ruffin was also
taking practical steps to hasten Southern independence from the North. Working
with fellow "fire eaters" from the Deep South, Ruffin was laying
the political groundwork for Southern secession from the North.
Ruffin and other radical Southerners believed that there was only one event
that would cause the Southern states to secede: the election of a Republican,
anti-slavery President in 1860. The strategy of the "fire eaters"
was paradoxical; in order to realize their ultimate aim of establishing
a Southern nation based on slavery, they would first help an anti-slavery
party win the national election.
To help the Republicans win, the "fire eaters" tried to weaken
the Democratic Party by splitting it into two factions, North and South,
each with its own nominee. Their efforts to split the party were opposed
by Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic candidate for President who enjoyed
wide support in both North and South.
Ruffin and the other "fire eaters" were afraid that Douglas might
become President, unifying the republic. In the spring of 1860 Ruffin went
to work on behalf of anti-Douglas delegates from Virginia to the national
Democratic convention.
When the national Democratic Convention met, it was so divided it could
not agree on a platform or a nominee. The Southern delegates walked out,
as planned by the "fire eaters," and the convention was forced
to disband.
Subsequently the Northern and Southern factions of the Democrats met separately,
each faction nominating its own candidate. The "fire eaters" had
succeeded in splitting the Democratic Party. By doing so they had insured
the election of a Republican and the ensuing break-up of the nation.
When the Republican nominee, Abraham Lincoln, was elected in November, Southerners,
especially those in the Deep South, began to make plans to secede.
Much to Ruffin's disappointment and annoyance, Lincoln's election did not
greatly weaken the strong loyalty which many Virginians felt toward the
United States. Shaking the soil of his native state from his shoes, Ruffin
set out for South Carolina, which appeared to be the state most likely to
secede as a result of Lincoln's election.
In South Carolina Ruffin, the outspoken advocate of immediate secession,
was a hero. Carrying a musket now instead of a spear, he was recognized
and cheered wherever he went. At his appearance, military bands played more
lustily. Cannons were fired in his honor. In the evenings he was serenaded.
He was invited to address gatherings of all kinds. Not a great speaker,
he often suffered from stage fright. Once he lost his train of thought while
speaking and did not know what he was saying. His audience did not mind
his failings as a speaker. He was praised for his "plain, unadorned
oratorical style."
He was accepted into the "Minutemen" of South Carolina, military
volunteers who were ready to repel a possible Northern invasion of their
state. As a badge of his membership in this martial troop Ruffin wore a
cockade on his hat.
As secession fever mounted in Charleston, Ruffin often referred in speeches
to the timidity of his fellow Virginians. If Virginia would not secede,
he threatened to change his residence to South Carolina and "abandon
Virginia forever." Crowds of South Carolinians cheered him heartily.
On December 20, 1860, the great day arrived; South Carolina seceded from
the Union and declared itself an "independent Commonwealth." Ruffin
asked for and received the historic pen with which the delegates had signed
the declaration of secession. South Carolina's secession was followed by
the secession of other states in the Deep South.
Ruffin returned to Virginia. He could not help contrasting his arrival in
Richmond with his recent arrival in Charleston. There was no welcoming committee
to greet him in Richmond, no address of welcome, no bands, no cannons fired.
Once more he thought of the saying, "A prophet is not without honor,
save in his own country and in his own home."
Some progress toward secession in Virginia had been made since his last
visit; a secession convention had been scheduled, but a Peace Committee
had also been appointed to arrive at a compromise with the federal government.
Ruffin was determined not to spend any time in Virginia if it remained in
the Union after Lincoln took office. Accordingly, a few weeks before Lincoln's
inauguration, Ruffin went back to South Carolina.
Soon after Lincoln's inauguration, in March of 1861, the new President's
attention was focused on Fort Sumter, a federal stronghold located in the
harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, within range of Southern cannon on
shore. The question was: who would fire the first shot, North or South,
and thereby start the Civil War?
Just before dawn on April 12, 1861, the shore batteries in Charleston harbor
prepared to fire on the Union fort. In one battery Edmund Ruffin was given
the honor of firing the first shot, which arched across the water and fell
into the fort. The next day the garrison at Sumter ran up a white flag.
The news spread widely across the country that the Civil War had begun with
a shot fired by Ruffin, who had worked so tirelessly to bring the war to
pass. Thousands of copies of a portrait of the white-haired warrior, with
his musket by his side, were circulated across the South.
As a result of the firing on Sumter, President Lincoln called for 75,000
volunteers to join the Union army. Three days after Sumter surrendered,
Virginia seceded from the Union, and, by doing so, made it possible for
Ruffin to return to his native state.
In July of 1861 Ruffin participated as a member of a South Carolinian regiment
in the First Battle of Bull Run, the first large battle of the war, fought
in northern Virginia. His comrades let him fire a cannon at retreating Yankees.
After the Battle of Bull Run, Ruffin returned to his plantations in Virginia.
He fully expected the war to be over in a few months. One Southern soldier,
Ruffin believed, was a match for a dozen Yankees. But as the war continued,
and the South lost important battles in the West, Ruffin became depressed.
When the Yankees invaded Tidewater Virginia, Ruffin and his sons and daughters
were forced to abandon their plantations. When they returned to their homes,
which had been occupied by Yankee soldiers during their absence, Ruffin
found senseless wreckage and obscene graffiti scrawled on the walls. His
hatred of the Yankees became more intense and more personal.
He was most disturbed by the behavior of his slaves, who had welcomed the
Yankee invaders in their master's absence. After his return Ruffin found
the slaves surly, impudent, disobedient, and unwilling to work. He was incapable
of believing that they really wanted to be free.
Nor could he accept Southern defeat in the war, not even after it became
a certainty. Ruffin was seventy-one years old when Lee surrendered to Grant
in April of 1865. Hearing news of the surrender, Ruffin ardently wished
that he were a young man again, so that he could join other Southern diehards
who planned to fight on against the Yankees in Texas.
Several months after the surrender Ruffin made this entry in his diary:
"And now, with my latest writing & utterance, & with what will
be near to my latest breath, I hereby repeat & would willingly proclaim
my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule--to all political, social, & business
connection with Yankees, & to the perfidious, malignant, & vile
Yankee race."
A few minutes after making his diary entry he sat in a chair with a trunk
at his feet. Propping the butt of a silver-trimmed rifle on the trunk, he
stuck the end of the barrel in his mouth. Using a forked stick, he pulled
the trigger.
SOURCES:
Edmund Ruffin. by Betty L. Mitchell, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
1981.
Edmund Ruffin. by Avery Craven. Archon. Hamden, Conn. 1964.
Edmund Ruffin and the Crisis of Slavery in the Old South. by William M.
Matthew. U. of Ga. Press. Athens, Ga. 1988.
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