Edmund Ruffin (794-1865) is remembered as an innovative American agriculturalist and pioneer in soil chemistry- and as an advocate of Southern secession.Here, published for the first time, are the two surviving volumes of Ruffin's manuscript memoirs, written in 1851 with additions in 1853 and 1855. Unlike Ruffin's diaries begun four years later, Incidents of My Life presents the public man, the Ruffin he wanted outsiders and posteriy to see. The volumes...