Ruffin's Slave Activity

Ruffin was involved in the slave industry as a slave owner and a slave trader. This gave him reason to use State v. Mann to protect the institution. Ruffin was in a slave trading partnership, even though slave trading was looked down upon by others. He and his business partner had no qualms against breaking up families of slaves in order to get a better profit. Ruffin also claimed that his involvement in the industry was solely due to financial problems he was facing. Ruffin never used any of his slave trade profits to pay off debts. Ruffin also beat one of his former slaves because she was spotted on his property. Ruffin could have faced criminal charges for the incident.