Campbell's Choice | Big Stone Gap Publishing

Works until 1833. It was White whom Toncray sued over the shipping contract which was broken after the disaster of 1825.

The labor force at Saltville was slave labor. It is unknown if any of the slaves were owned by the company. However, it was common for plantation owners to lease slaves to industry. This started as an off season process as planters sought to gainfully employ their slaves during the winter. Later slaves were leased around the calendar. The account book of the Salt Works shows a line item for Wednesday October 10, 1822 documenting money owed to Joel Meadows, Jr. for 260 Negroes at a rate of $6.00 each.

The national competitive situation in the salt industry rapidly changed in the two decades before the Civil War. A large salt deposit at present Charleston, West Virginia began to be industrially exploited in 1797. It is located on the banks of the lower Great Kanawha River, which leads directly to the Ohio-Mississippi-Missouri River Systems. This position allowed the cheap transport via river steamer to much of the interior of the developing country. It is also in a region where there are large deposits of coal which could be transported to the furnaces by water.

Pages From the 1822 Account Book of the Saltworks

... Continue to Page 30

CAMPBELL'S CHOICE	Page
INTRODUCTION	1
SALTVILLE GEOLOGY	1
SALTVILLE INDIANS	4
LEGAL MECHANISMS OF LAND TITLE OWNERSHIP IN VA.	6
THE SETTLEMENT OF SALTVILLE	13
INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AROUND SALTVILLE BETWEEN THE PIONEER PERIOD AND THE CIVIL WAR	27
SALTVILLE IN THE CIVIL WAR	31
AFTER THE WAR	47
A MODERN CHEMICAL FACTORY	52
EPILOGUE	57
BIBLIOGRAPHY	61
INDEX	66

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