Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin
Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Thomas Ruffin 1787 1870. Jurist and agriculturist. Chief Justice of North Carolina Supreme Court, 1833-1852 and 1858-1859. Grave 3/10 mile east.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Thomas Ruffin was one of antebellum North Carolina's most powerful figures, serving as Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court across two stints between 1833 and 1859. Known also as an agriculturist, he shaped the law of a slaveholding South through decades of influential rulings. His grave lies a short distance east of this marker.
Why it matters
Ruffin embodies the authority of the antebellum Southern bench, whose decisions gave legal force to the social and economic order of the slaveholding states.
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