“There are plaques up about the Ruff family and the Ruff houses and the Ruff mills, but there was nothing to recognize Matilda and her children,” said Pat Burns, who uncovered Matilda’s name through old documents in her house, which dates back to the 1850s. “They deserve something that would stop people — stop people to look, stop people to listen, and stop people to reflect.”
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
This bench is the 34th in the Toni Morrison Society’s “Bench by the Road” project, an ongoing effort “commemorating significant moments, individuals, and locations within the history of the African Diaspora,” according to the website.
Members of the community attended the bench unveiling on the eve of Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the ending of slavery in the U.S. in 1865. State Rep. Terry Cummings, who represents the area, shared Matilda Ruff’s history of being emancipated, becoming the neighbor of her former owner’s son, and paving a path forward for her children.
“This serves as a place of reflection and remembrance of Matilda’s life, her children, her descendants, as well as other enslaved African Americans in the area,” Cummings said. “Did she do anything particularly special? No. But she lived. She survived, and so did her descendants.”
The Ruff family owned and operated Ruff’s Mill, which became a well-known Civil War battle site where Union soldiers pushed through defenses prepared by Black labor near Nickajack Creek on July 4, 1864, forcing Confederate soldiers to retreat back across the Chattahoochee, according to the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District.
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
After her emancipation, Matilda Ruff no longer worked for the Ruff family but received steady work. Within five years, her personal wealth had grown to $50, Cummings said, which would have been considered fairly well off for a former slave.
Surrounding the bench, Smyrna’s Jonquil Garden Club planted Matilda’s Garden in her honor.
“The original sin of slavery is enshrined in our history and our founding documents,” Cummings said. “We are a nation that has had to overcome hardship, pain and struggle. This is the truth. This is America’s truth and the story that must be told.”
Credit: Taylor Croft
Credit: Taylor Croft
