. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. "Sweating out" tar from pine in a turf-covered kiln managing the Rich Lands. James Avirett describes the slave manager as "very little, if any, inferior to any man, white or ; His father consulted with Philip nightly about the plantation's business, and Philip presented a full accounting of the week's progress to his master every Saturday morning. Averitt admits that "without him [my father] would have been sadly at ; Turpentining began every year by burning away t
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. "Sweating out" tar from pine in a turf-covered kiln managing the Rich Lands. James Avirett describes the slave manager as "very little, if any, inferior to any man, white or ; His father consulted with Philip nightly about the plantation's business, and Philip presented a full accounting of the week's progress to his master every Saturday morning. Averitt admits that "without him [my father] would have been sadly at ; Turpentining began every year by burning away the undergrowth in the pine forest to open the woods to slave laborers. In the late fall and winter, 25 to 30 axmen cut "boxes," shallow V- shaped incisions in the bark that exposed the pine sap and directed it down to a single point. There, the workers had hewn a small bowl capable of holding about a quart of raw turpentine. Using long iron blades called roundshaves, axmen kept the sap flowing into those bowls all summer by periodically chipping away dried sap. Slaves next moved with dippers through the pines to collect the turpen- tine out of the boxes and empty it into barrels scattered about the woods. Draymen carried them in mule carts to Catherine's Lake, where a slave named Harry oversaw the distilling, an art every bit as sophisticated as making good bourbon. The success of the naval stores industry relied on slave skills, but Avirett admits that "close surveillance" of the slave workforce was simply impossible. Unlike other Southern plantations, turpentine workers ranged over hundreds of acres of remote woodlands. Working alone or in pairs, they stayed in primitive camps with little oversight during boxing, chipping and collecting. The work was arduous, the heat unbearable, the housing squalid, the insects a scourge. Yet, compared to other slaves, naval stores workers had certain blessings. Since Avirett could not keep an eye on his forest workers, h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
