Edmund Ruffin Plantation

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Marlbourne
Edmund Ruffin Plantation is located in Virginia
Edmund Ruffin Plantation
LocationU.S. Route 360, Hanover County, Virginia
Nearest cityRichmond, Virginia
Coordinates37°39′15.13″N 77°13′20.92″W / 37.6542028°N 77.2224778°W / 37.6542028; -77.2224778Coordinates: 37°39′15.13″N 77°13′20.92″W / 37.6542028°N 77.2224778°W / 37.6542028; -77.2224778
Built1843
NRHP reference No.66000837
VLR No.042-0020
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966[2]
Designated NHLDJuly 19, 1964[3]
Designated VLRSeptember 9, 1969[1]

The Edmund Ruffin Plantation, also known as Marlbourne, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in Hanover County, Virginia, 11 miles (18 km) northeast of Richmond.

History[]

Built in 1840, the plantation was purchased in 1843 by Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia planter and a pioneer in agricultural improvements; he also published an agricultural journal in the 1840s named the Farmer's Register. One of a group of intellectuals they called "the sacred circle",[4] he worked to reform agriculture in the South, promoting crop rotation and soil conservation; he is considered to have been "the father of soil science" in the United States.[5] Ruffin experimented with agricultural methods and mixed marl, defined as "a friable earthy deposit consisting of clay and calcium carbonate, used esp. as a fertilizer for soils deficient in lime" to add to soils.

He and his friends: James Henry Hammond, Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, George Frederick Holmes, and William Gilmore Simms, were pro-slavery and promoted a moral reform of the South. They published numerous articles in literary and short-lived magazines, promoting a stewardship role for masters to improve conditions under slavery.[6][7]

Later Ruffin gained more attention as one of a number of secessionist fire-eaters; he traveled to South Carolina and is credited with firing one of the first shots at Fort Sumter in 1861. Despondent after General Lee's surrender in 1865, he left a note proclaiming his "unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, & to the perfidious, malignant, & vile Yankee race"[8] and committed suicide at Redmoor in Amelia County.[9] He is buried on the grounds of Marlbourne.

His Marlbourne plantation was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.[3][10]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "Marlbourne". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2007-12-29. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  4. ^ Charles B. Dew, "Review: 'A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860' by Drew Gilpin Faust", The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4 (April 1980), pp. 445-447
  5. ^ Ruffin, Edmund. Nature's Management: Writings on Landscape and Reform, 1822-1859, edited by Jack Temple Kirby, University of Georgia Press, 2006
  6. ^ Drew Gilpin Faust, A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977
  7. ^ Drew Gilpin Faust, The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South, 1830--1860 (Google Ebook), LSU Press, 1981
  8. ^ Walther, Eric (1992). The Fire-Eaters. Louisiana State University Press. pp. 228-. ISBN 0-8071-1775-7.
  9. ^ Lee, Anne Carter. "Redmor". Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia. Society of Architectural Historians/University of Virginia Press. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  10. ^ Lissandrello, Stephen (December 16, 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Marlbourne (Edmund Ruffin Plantation)" (pdf). National Park Service. Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying five photos, exterior, from c. 1970 (32 KB)

External links[]

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