The American Coal Industry 1790–1902, Volume I

Coal and the New Nation, 1790-1835

Sean Patrick Adams

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781138757646
• eBook ISBN: 9781040251089
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The emergence of coal-based fuel economy over the course of the nineteenth century was one of the most significantfeatures ofAmerica's Industrial Revolution, but the transition from wood to mineral energy sources was a gradual one that transpired over a number of decades. The documents in these volumes recreate the institutional history of the American coal industry in the nineteenth century —providing a first-hand perspective on the developments in regard to political economy, business structure and competition, the rise of formal trade unions, and the creation of a national coal trade. Although the collection strives to be wide-ranging in region and theme, the Pennsylvania anthracite coal trade forms the thematic backbone as it became the most important American mineral resource to see successful development throughout the nineteenth century.Consequently itsaw unprecedented levels of intervention by the federal government. The texts for this collection were selected for their accessibility to modern readers as well as their relationship to a series of common themes across the nineteenth century American coal industry — with headnotes and annotations provided to explain their context and the reasons for their inclusion.In this first volume, covering the period 1790-1835, the selected documents seek to reconcile the optimism surrounding the early American coal industry with the difficulties in actually realising its growth. It presents voices that capture the optimism and frustration of the Rhode Island and Virginia colliers, before focusing on the rise of Pennsylvania's anthracite region — tracing the false-starts and ideological hostility that accompanied the early coal trade.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Contents of the Edition
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• General Introduction
• Bibliography
• Introduction
• Selected Letters from the Papers of Henry Heth, 1800–20
• Selections from the Library of Virginia’s Legislative Petition Files, 1824–36
• Cadwallader D. Colden, Jeremiah F. Randolph and Hector Craig, Observations on the Intended Application of the North-American Coal & Mining Company, to the Legislature of the State of New-York. February, 1814 (1814)
• Rhode Island Coal Company, Observations on the Rhode Island Coal, and Certificates with Regard to its Qualities, Value, and Various Uses (1814)
• [Jacob Cist], Lehigh Coal. Certificates from a Number of Persons, Shewing the Use and Value of the Lehigh Stone Coal. With Some Prefatory Remarks (1815)
• [Cadwalader Evans], Address of the President and Managers of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, to the Stockholders, and to the Publick in General (1817)
• John Grammer, Jr, ‘Account of the Coal Mines in the Vicinity of Richmond, Virginia, Communicated to the Editor in a Letter from Mr. John Grammer, Jun.’, American Journal of Science (1819)
• Lackawaxen Coal Mine and Navigation Company, Address to the Public by the Lackawaxen Coal Mine and Navigation Company, Relative to the Proposed Canalfrom the Hudson to the Head Waters of the Lackawaxan River. Accompanied by Documents (1824) 119
• North American Coal Company, A Brief Sketch of the Property Belonging to the North American Coal Company, with Some General Remarks on the Subject of Coal and Coal Mines (1827)
• Erskine Hazard, History of the Introduction of Anthracite Coal into Philadelphia... and a Letter from Jesse Fell, Esq. of Wilksbarre, on the Discovery and First Use of Anthracite in the Valley of Wyoming (1827)
• The Morris Canal’s War of Words
• ‘A Stockholder of the Morris Canal’, Letter to John Wurtz, Esq. with Case and Opinion ([1831])
• ‘A Stockholder of the Morris Canal’, A Review by a Stockholder of the Morris Canal, of the ‘Views of a Stockholder, in Relation to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company’ (1831)
• George Taylor, Effect of Incorporated Coal Companies upon the Anthracite Coal Trade of Pennsylvania (1833)
• The Anti-Corporate Offensive
• Anon., Facts and Observations Relative to the Incorporation of Coal Companies (1833)
• Josiah White, To the Committee on Corporations of the Senate (1833)
• S. J. Packer, Report of the Committee of the Senate of Pennsylvania, upon the Subject of the Coal Trade (1834), extract
• Anon., Comparative Views of the Most Important Anthracite Collieries in Pennsylvania: Exhibiting their Avenues to Tide Water (1835), extract
• Editorial Notes
• Silent Corrections
• List of Sources