1 Mrs. Viola Ruffner, the wife of General Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 2 From fearing Mrs. Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one of my best friends.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 3 Mrs. Ruffner always encouraged and sympathized with me in all my efforts to get an education.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 4 Notwithstanding my success at Mrs. Ruffner's I did not give up the idea of going to the Hampton Institute.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 5 I knew that I could sweep, for Mrs. Ruffner had thoroughly taught me how to do that when I lived with her.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 6 I cannot now recall how long I lived with Mrs. Ruffner before going to Hampton, but I think it must have been a year and a half.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 7 I had heard so much about Mrs. Ruffner's severity that I was almost afraid to see her, and trembled when I went into her presence.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 8 While at work there, I heard of a vacant position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the salt-furnace and coal-mine.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 9 General Ruffner tried to defend the coloured people, and for this he was knocked down and so seriously wounded that he never completely recovered.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter IV. 10 Mrs. Ruffner had a reputation all through the vicinity for being very strict with her servants, and especially with the boys who tried to serve her.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 11 I decided, however, that I would rather try Mrs. Ruffner's house than remain in the coal-mine, and so my mother applied to her for the vacant position.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III. 12 My good friend, Mrs. Ruffner, to whom I have already referred, always made me welcome at her home, and assisted me in many ways during this trying period.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter IV. 13 There must have been not far from a hundred persons engaged on each side; many on both sides were seriously injured, among them General Lewis Ruffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola Ruffner.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter IV. 14 At any rate, I here repeat what I have said more than once before, that the lessons that I learned in the home of Mrs. Ruffner were as valuable to me as any education I have ever gotten anywhere else.
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography By Booker T. WashingtonContextHighlight In Chapter III.