Ruffin, Edmund (1794-1865), was a noted Virginia agriculturist and a strong supporter of slavery. Ruffin favored secession (withdrawal) from the Union, and he was given the honor of firing the first shot on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, where the American Civil War was started in 1861.
Ruffin was born in Prince George County, Virginia, on Jan. 5, 1794. He experimented in crop rotation and with improved plowing, drainage, and fertilizing methods. He wrote about his theories and experiments, and helped bring about important changes in farming methods in the South. Ruffin founded the Farmer’s Register, an agricultural journal, in 1833, and headed the Virginia State Agricultural Society from 1852 to 1854. Ruffin was so disturbed when the South lost the Civil War that he committed suicide on June 18, 1865.
