Edmund Ruffin's Impact On Agriculture

Edmund Ruffin (Ruffin) was an American citizen with the spirit of a fighter. Ruffin fought through struggles to become as successful as he was. Without help from his close friends and family members, he still got through the conflicts life threw at him. Edmund Ruffin, a man with a fighting spirit, successfully made a huge impact on agriculture alongside history.
Ruffin was born on January 5th, 1794, in Prince George County, Virginia. His mother died whilst he was still an infant; although, his father, George Ruffin, remarried a few years later. Growing up without his real mother affected Ruffin in a long term kind of way, for he later in life he lacks the affection and compassion his mother would have taught him. To occupy his time as a young
In 1813, Ruffin married Susan Hutchings, inherited farmland from a death within the family, and later went on to have eleven children with her. Working on this farm was easy at first, but after a few crops were grown, soil depletion became an issue; therefore, Ruffin began studying agriculture (“Ruffin, Edmund”). Dead set on fixing the problem so he can grow more crops, Ruffin started adding different things to the unsuccessful soil. The mineral that he added was marl, which consists of clay and lime. After his success, he went on to write with John S. Skinner in the American Farmer and wrote his book, known as Calcareous Manures in 1832
When the Civil War first broke out, there were estimated to be around four million slaves living in the south; the estimated price for these slaves were two billion dollars. Throughout the Civil War, the number of orphans in the U.S. more than doubled, for their parents died, or their fathers were off fighting in the war. This caused a massive amount of families to fall apart. As the southern states seceded, they left in almost the exact order of their percentage of slaves (“101 Interesting”). Ruffin committed suicide in 1865, blowing his brain out with a shotgun. Some say it was an effect of General Lee surrendering his troops, and Ruffin was devastated with the loss of the Southern states (“Ruffin, Edmund”). He had a strong dependence on the southern beliefs, and knowing he would go broke and lose the small amount he had left, it demolished what little hope remained. “I here repeat and would willingly proclaim, my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule--to all political, social, and business connections with the Yankees, and to the perfidious, malignant, and vile Yankee race”