Tapping the Pines

Tapping the Pines - Cover

The Naval Stores Industry in the American South

by Robert B. Outland III

376 pages / 6.12 x 9.25 inches / 12 halftones, 4 maps, 5 charts

ebook available

History / State & Local History | History / United States - 19th Century | History / United States - 20th Century | History / United States - Southern History

Hardcover / 9780807129814 / December 2004
Paperback / 9780807173886 / February 2021

Winner of the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Award

The extraction of raw turpentine and tar from the southern longleaf pine—along with the manufacture of derivative products such as spirits of turpentine and rosin—constitutes what was once the largest industry in North Carolina and one of the most important in the South: naval stores production. In a pathbreaking study that seamlessly weaves together business, environmental, labor, and social history, Robert B. Outland III offers the first complete account of this sizable though little-understood sector of the southern economy. Outland traces the South’s naval stores industry from its colonial origins to the mid-twentieth century, when it was supplanted by the rising chemicals industry. A horror for workers and a scourge to the Southeast’s pine forests, the methods and consequences of this expansive enterprise remained virtually unchanged for more than two centuries.

With its exacting attention to detail and exhaustive research, Tapping the Pines is an essential volume for anyone interested in the piney woods South.

A farmer in Rich Square, North Carolina, Robert B. Outland III holds a doctorate in history from Louisiana State University.

Praise for Tapping the Pines

“Outland has produced a work that should stand as the reference for naval stores questions for years to come. Well written and extremely well organized, Tapping the Pines contributes much to our understanding of an ever-more-complicated South.”—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

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