Further Reading — Chapter 7: The Frontier Economy

Essential Readings

The Appalachian Frontier Economy

  • Dunaway, Wilma A. The First American Frontier: Transition to Capitalism in Southern Appalachia, 1700–1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. The most comprehensive scholarly treatment of the Appalachian frontier economy, arguing that the mountains were integrated into capitalist markets far earlier than the self-sufficiency myth suggests. Dunaway's work on women's economic roles and the global connections of the mountain economy is foundational. Essential reading for this chapter's core argument.

  • Pudup, Mary Beth, Dwight B. Billings, and Altina L. Waller, eds. Appalachia in the Making: The Mountain South in the Nineteenth Century. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. A landmark collection of essays that challenged the older "culture of poverty" framework by documenting the market connections, industrial development, and class structures of nineteenth-century Appalachia. Multiple chapters directly relevant to the frontier economy.

  • Hsiung, David C. Two Worlds in the Tennessee Mountains: Exploring the Origins of Appalachian Stereotypes. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997. An important study of economic life in the upper Tennessee Valley that demonstrates the coexistence of subsistence and market economies. Hsiung shows that the stereotype of mountain isolation was a construction imposed from outside, not a description of reality.

The Ginseng Trade

  • Taylor, David A. Ginseng, the Divine Root: The Curious History of the Plant That Captivated the World. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2006. A readable popular history of the ginseng trade from its origins in Chinese medicine through the American frontier era to the present. Excellent on the Canton trade connection and the cultural significance of ginseng in both Asian and Appalachian traditions.

  • Manget, Luke. "Sangin' in the Mountains: The Ginseng Economy of the Southern Appalachians, 1865–1900." Appalachian Journal 40, nos. 1–2 (2012): 28–52. A detailed scholarly article on the post–Civil War ginseng economy, with insights into harvesting practices, trade networks, and the ecological consequences of commercial ginseng digging that apply to the earlier period as well.

  • Goldstein, Jonathan. Philadelphia and the China Trade, 1682–1846: Commercial, Cultural, and Attitudinal Effects. University Park: Penn State University Press, 1978. Documents Philadelphia's role as the primary American hub for the China trade, including the ginseng export business that connected Appalachian mountain diggers to the Canton market.

Livestock Droving

  • Henlein, Paul C. Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 1783–1860. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959. A classic study of the livestock trade in the trans-Appalachian region, with extensive documentation of droving practices, routes, and economics.

  • McDonald, Forrest, and Grady McWhiney. "The Antebellum Southern Herdsman: A Reinterpretation." Journal of Southern History 41, no. 2 (1975): 147–166. An influential (and debated) article arguing that the open-range livestock economy of the southern mountains reflected Celtic pastoral traditions brought by Scotch-Irish settlers. Controversial in its cultural claims but valuable for its documentation of the herding economy.

  • Inscoe, John C. Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989. Though primarily focused on slavery, Inscoe's study contains extensive documentation of the livestock droving trade in western North Carolina, including the Buncombe Turnpike and the connection between mountain livestock production and lowcountry plantation demand.

Salt Production

  • Stealey, John E., III. The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993. The definitive study of the Kanawha Valley salt industry, covering technology, labor (including extensive documentation of enslaved workers), markets, and the industry's role in the regional economy. Essential for understanding the first major industry in what is now West Virginia.

  • Rice, Otis K. The Allegheny Frontier: West Virginia Beginnings, 1730–1830. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1970. A broader history of the West Virginia frontier that includes important material on the salt industry, early settlement patterns, and economic development.

Iron Industry and Industrial Slavery

  • Dew, Charles B. Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. A masterful work of social history that reconstructs daily life at a Virginia iron furnace using detailed business records. Dew's book is the best available study of industrial slavery in Appalachia — meticulously researched, beautifully written, and essential for understanding the human reality behind the iron industry.

  • Lewis, Ronald L. Coal, Iron, and Slaves: Industrial Slavery in Maryland and Virginia, 1715–1865. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979. A broader study of enslaved labor in the extractive industries of the upper South, including iron furnaces, coal mines, and salt works. Lewis documents the scale and significance of industrial slavery in the Appalachian region.

Women's Economic Roles

  • Dunaway, Wilma A. Women, Work, and Family in the Antebellum Mountain South. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. The essential work on women's economic production in the Appalachian frontier period. Dunaway demonstrates that women's labor — in textile production, dairy, food preservation, and subsistence agriculture — was systematically undercounted in the historical record but central to the household economy.

  • Rasmussen, Barbara. Absentee Landowning and Exploitation in West Virginia, 1760–1920. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994. While focused on land ownership patterns, Rasmussen's study includes valuable material on household economic strategies, women's contributions, and the transition from the commons system to private property.

Broader Context

Frontier Economies in Comparative Perspective

  • Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. A useful comparison point for understanding how the Appalachian frontier economy compared to frontier economies in the Midwest. The similarities (mixed economies, ginseng trade, chronic currency shortages) suggest that Appalachian "exceptionalism" is overstated; the differences (extreme topography, more limited agriculture) help define what was genuinely distinctive.

  • Perkins, Elizabeth A. Border Life: Experience and Memory in the Revolutionary Ohio Valley. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. An innovative study of economic and social life on the trans-Appalachian frontier, using oral testimony and material culture to reconstruct the lived experience of frontier households.

The Commons and Enclosure

  • Hahn, Steven. The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850–1890. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Though focused on the Georgia piedmont rather than Appalachia, Hahn's study of the transition from open range to enclosed farming is directly relevant to understanding the commons system's decline in the mountains. His analysis of how enclosure dispossessed small farmers is a classic of Southern social history.

Primary Source Collections

  • Federal Writers' Project. These Are Our Lives (1939) and various state guides. The WPA's oral history collections include accounts from elderly informants who remembered — or whose parents remembered — the frontier-era economy. Available through the Library of Congress American Memory project.

  • Virginia county court records (various counties). Tax lists, estate inventories, and court proceedings from mountain counties contain detailed information about property holdings, livestock, tools, and household goods. Many are available through the Library of Virginia or on microfilm through the LDS Family History Library.

  • Store ledger books (various archives). Surviving country store ledgers — held by archives including the Virginia Historical Society, the West Virginia State Archives, and various university special collections — document the barter and credit economy in extraordinary detail. These are among the most valuable primary sources for this period.

Digital and Online Resources

  • Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC): arc.gov — Historical background materials and data on the Appalachian region.
  • Library of Congress, American Memory Project: memory.loc.gov — Digital collections including WPA oral histories, photographs, and documents from the Appalachian region.
  • West Virginia State Archives: wvculture.org/history — Documents related to the Kanawha Valley salt industry and early West Virginia economic history.
  • Encyclopedia of Virginia (Virginia Humanities): encyclopediavirginia.org — Articles on the iron industry, salt industry, and frontier economy in Virginia's Appalachian region.