Rand Salt Works, Clarke County, Alabama

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Clarke, Alabama, United States
Surnames/tags: Black_Heritage Slavery

Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Location 1.3 Owners 1.4 Slaves 2 Sources

Introduction

Background

Salt was an important commodity for preserving meat and other foods before refrigeration. Prior to the Civil War, most of the salt used by the Confederate states was imported. With that option no longer available, the Southerners had to make use of what few salt options they had available to them. One such was a large salt deposit in Clarke County, Alabama. It was so important that the Confederate Army had two posts there where they prepared the salt for use in army kitchens. The third operation was a series of small civilian operations that prepared or manufactured the salt for their use or for civilian sale. One such operation was Walter R Rand's Salt Works.

It relied on slave labor to cut trees for firewood which was then used to boil the salt out of the dirt. It was a very labor-intensive operation.

Location

This small business operated in Clarke County, Alabama.

Owners

• Walter R Rand

Slaves

For the slaves on this business in 1863, see Slaves of Rand Salt Works^[1][2]

Sources

1. ↑ An Appraisement of all the Personal Estate of W. R. Rand late of the County of Dallas Dec'd. Exhibited to us undersigned appraisers by Sarah C. Rand administrator this the 17th day of November 1864, etc.; Clark County, Alabama Probate Court Records Appraisement & Inventory of the Estate of W.R. Rand, Alabama Probate Court (Clark County). Administrators, guardian bonds, accounts, inventories, executor's, and other records, supplemental inventory of Walter R. Rand. Used from the extract by Karim Aldridge Rand, and is copyrighted by Karim Aldridge Rand https://web.archive.org/web/20150913015806/ http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/dallas/court/wrrand.txt
2. ↑ "United States Civil War Confederate Papers of Citizens or Businesses, 1861-1865", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VW12-5W5 : 5 February 2021), Walter R Rand, 1861-1865.