Edmund Ruffin Plantation
Marlbourne | |
   | |
| Location | U.S. Route 360, Hanover County, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Richmond, Virginia |
| Coordinates | 37°39′15.13″N 77°13′20.92″W / 37.6542028°N 77.2224778°W |
| Built | 1843 |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000837 |
| VLR No. | 042-0020 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966[2] |
| Designated NHLD | July 19, 1964[3] |
| Designated VLR | September 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
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
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Virginia
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Hanover County, Virginia
References
- ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ a b "Marlbourne". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
- ^ 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
- ^ Ruffin, Edmund. Nature's Management: Writings on Landscape and Reform, 1822-1859, edited by Jack Temple Kirby, University of Georgia Press, 2006
- ^ Drew Gilpin Faust, A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977
- ^ Drew Gilpin Faust, The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South, 1830--1860 (Google Ebook), LSU Press, 1981
- ISBN 0-8071-1775-7.
- ^ Lee, Anne Carter (June 18, 2018). "Redmor". Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia. Society of Architectural Historians/University of Virginia Press. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
- ^ Lissandrello, Stephen (December 16, 1974), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Marlbourne (Edmund Ruffin Plantation) (pdf), National Park Service and Accompanying five photos, exterior, from c. 1970 (32 KB)
External links
- Photo at Virginia DHR
- Diary records of Ruffin's son, Edmund Ruffin, Jr., survive and describe events at this and other Ruffin plantations: Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations From the Revolution Through the Civil War
- Marl defined at www.dictionary.com
- Edmund Ruffin at another encyclopedia, mentioning his use of marl
