Gill Ruffin

Gill Ruffin was born in 1837 on Hugh Perry's plantation near Leigh in Harrison County, Texas. His parents were Ruben and Isabella Ruffin. The family was sold several times but always kept the name Ruffin. While Gill was still a nursing baby, he and his mother were sold to Charley Butler in Houston County, Texas, and separated from his father.

As a small boy he worked as a houseboy for the Butlers, taking corn to the mill and riding behind the mistress on her visits. When he was grown he was sent to the fields under an overseer. He said the enslaved were "used rough": one garment at a time, no shoes, work every day but Sunday from sunup to sundown, and whippings with a riding quirt. He often heard hounds chasing runaways through the woods, and heard the whip when they were caught.

Butler was shot and killed in a dispute with a white neighbor, and Gill and his mother were sold to Henry Hargrove, who had already bought Gill's father. That was the first time Gill remembered seeing his father. He said life with Hargrove felt like freedom by comparison. Hargrove did not tell them they were free after the surrender, and they worked another year before they found out. Gill later married Lucinda Greer and raised two sons and two daughters. In old age, after his wife's death, he lived with his grandson near Karnack, Texas.