Summary: | Due to salt shortages during the Civil War, a state commission was established to oversee the purchase, manufacture, and distribution of the resource in Alabama. These records document a variety of expenditures incurred during the construction and operation of salt works in the state, including the payment of wages to overseers, blacksmiths, brickmasons, engineers, wagonmasters, and clerks; the purchase of provisions, livestock, and fodder; the monthly hire of enslaved people, mules, and wagons; and freight charges for transporting salt and provisions by riverboat, railroad, and wagon.
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