Patriots, Priests and Rebels: A Virginia Family and America's History

"...a remarkable saga, with characters so plentiful and intriguing that they seem fictional. The research is impressive and integrated well into the narrative." Edward L. Ayers, American historian, President Emeritus, University of Richmond "...a wonderful and vivid collection of primary source material. ...the sections dealing with the 1850s thru the Civil War are full of great material not widely known or accessed." John L. Hennessy, former Park Service chief historian with the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park David Griffith, chaplain and surgeon in the Continental Army, counted Washington and Lafayette as friends. While rector of Christ Church in Alexandria, he played a significant role organizing the Virginia and national Episcopal Church. His daughter Sally held the family together, raising two generations of orphaned children. She also owned and rented out enslaved "servants." Her brother Llewellyn, a judge in Louisiana, requested that property he was purchasing be paid for in "young likely negroes." Sally's great niece Sallie married Alfred Randolph, Episcopal chaplain to Confederate troops and later first Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia. Four of their brothers fought for the South. Two became priests. Were these people patriotic Americans, traitors, devout Christians, evil enslavers, or a mixture? Their own words tell their story. Evelyn "Randy" Ruffin grew up on the campus of the Episcopal High School, in Alexandria, Virginia, where her father was Headmaster. She graduated from Vassar College summa cum laude with a BA in Anthropology and did a year of graduate research at the London School of Economics. She worked with Initiatives of Change, a not for profit engaged in "building trust across the world's divides." She and her husband Dick hosted a center for the work in the DC metro area for twenty-seven years, and Randy served as Program Director of its Caux Scholars Program, bringing international students together in Switzerland to study conflict transformation. The Ruffins, who have two grown children, live in Charlottesville, where Randy is active with their "intentionally diverse" Episcopal church, local Democrats, and her condo board. She enjoys reading, teaching, music and bringing people together. Read more