FRANK RUFFIN PAPERS, #640, 1802-1909
Postwar business papers of Ruffin, planter of Chesterfield County, Virginia, Confederate
colonel, Second Auditor of Virginia, editor, and writer; and antebellum and Civil War items
of Ruffin and relations. Antebellum papers concern the treatment of plantation slaves
(1829-1837); slave bills of sale and jail receipts for runaways apprehended in other counties
(1817-1829); the management of slaves and hiring of overseers (1829-1839); and a female
plantation owner's fear of her slaves (n.d.). Later papers include items related to Asa
Ruffin's publication of several pamphlets, including "The Negro as a Social and Political
Factor" and "The Cost and Outcome of Negro Education in Virginia" (1882-1892); letters which
discuss racial problems in Virginia, complaining that the "New South" has ruined black labor
(1882); and letters expressing the opinion that blacks have
neither the capacity to govern themselves nor any mechanical ability (1883). The collection
also contains a handwritten copy of an extract from "The Negro as a Soldier" (n.d.).
Microfilm available.
