The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets (WEST VIRGINIA & APPALACHIA)

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Description

In the early nineteenth century, a ten-mile stretch along the Kanawha River in western Virginia become the most important salt-producing area within the antebellum United States. Production of this basic commodity stimulated settlement, the livestock industry, and the upward push of agricultural processing, especially pork packing, within the American West. Salt extraction was once then and is now a fundamental industry.
 
In his illuminating study, now to be had with a new preface by the creator, John Stealey examines the legal basis of this industry, its labor practices, and its marketing and distribution patterns. Through technological innovation, salt producers harnessed coal and steam in addition to men and animals, constructed a novel evaporative system, and invented drilling tools later employed in oil and natural gas exploration. Thus in some ways the salt industry was once the precursor of the American extractive and chemical industries. Stealey’s informative study is the most important contribution to American economic, business, labor, and legal history.
 

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