Edmund Ruffin was one of the most significant figures in the Old South. A gentleman planter, writer, and political commentator, he made his greatest contribution as an agricultural reformer, but it was as a militant defender of slavery and champion of the southern cause that he gained his greatest fame.In his voluminous diary, Ruffin has left an invaluable primary account of the crucial years from 1856 to 1865. This volume, the first of a projected...