The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets
First Edition
West Virginia University Press · Print & ebook · September 1, 2016
In the early nineteenth century, a ten-mile stretch along the Kanawha River in western Virginia became the largest salt-producing area in the antebellum United States.
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- Who it’s for
- John Stealey traces how Kanawha salt production shaped western markets and early extractive industries.
- Themes
- Antebellum salt production, Industrial labor and markets, Extractive-industry technology
- Genres
- Southern U.S. History, 19th-Century America, Mining & Extraction Business
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Start with this bookAbout this book
In the early nineteenth century, a ten-mile stretch along the Kanawha River in western Virginia became the largest salt-producing area in the antebellum United States. Production of this basic commodity stimulated settlement, the livestock industry, and the rise of agricultural processing, especially pork packing, in the American West. Salt extraction was then and is now a fundamental industry.
Continue reading
In his illuminating study, now available with a new preface by the author, 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 as well as men and animals, constructed a novel evaporative system, and invented drilling tools later employed in oil and natural gas exploration. Thus in many ways the salt industry was the precursor of the American extractive and chemical industries. Stealey's informative study is an important contribution to American economic, business, labor, and legal history.
Kanawha Salt Industry
John Stealey traces how Kanawha salt production shaped western markets and early extractive industries.
Come here for
- The Kanawha salt industry’s legal basis, labor practices, and market distribution
- Coal, steam, evaporative systems, and drilling tools in salt production
Expect
- A study of salt production’s role in settlement, livestock, and pork packing
- A new preface by the author
Where it sits
| Mining & Extraction Business | 74% |
|---|---|
| Southern U.S. History | 71% |
| 19th-Century America | 66% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Mining & Extraction Business
- Southern U.S. History
- Authors
- John E. Stealey
- Publisher
- West Virginia University Press
- Published
- September 1, 2016
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Antebellum salt production · Industrial labor and markets · Extractive-industry technology
- Reading lane
- Mining & Extraction Business