1841 CONFEDERATE OFFICER & PLANTATION OWNER. On Managing a Plantation and the Economy of Slave Labor

Very rare "Southern Planter" periodical with an important series of lengthy articles on the value and skill of "negro slaves" owned by Confederate soldier and friend of Stonewall Jackson who died at Appomattox. 

Stapleton Crutchfield [1835-1865] was the son of important Confederate plantation owners and Virginia politicians Oscar and Elizabeth Crutchfield, who presumably were the original owners of the present volume. They owned a large plantation in Spotsylvania and Oscar served as the Speaker of the House of Delegates in Virginia from 1852-1861.

When the war began, Stapleton Crutchfield served briefly as temporary superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute before joining the Confederate army. It was only a matter of months before his friend, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, with whom he had taught at VMI, appointed him his chief of artillery. He served under Jackson in all of the Army of Northern Virginia‘s major battles until, on May 2, 1863, he and Jackson were both wounded at Chancellorsville. Jackson died, while Crutchfield recovered, teaching again briefly at VMI before rejoining the army in January 1865 at Chaffin’s Bluff on the James River. Crutchfield was killed at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek during the Appomattox Campaign on April 6, 1865, just three days before Robert E. Lee‘s surrender.

Signed "SCrutchfield" at the head of the title page, subtly shaved.

Botts, C. T. & L. M. Burfoot. The Southern Planter; Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and the Household Arts. January to December, 1841.  Richmond, Virginia. Printed for the Proprietors by P. D. Bernard. 1842. 264pp.

Articles include the Politics of Agriculture; Visit of A. B. Allen to England; How to Prevent Ringing Anvils; Hives for Bees; Methods for Curing Bacon; Effects of Inferior Males on Future Offspring and Breeding; Epidemic among the Cattle of England; Anecdote of Hanging; Fermentation and Foods; Wages of Overseers - Objections to Giving Overseers a Share in the Crops; etc. etc. 

The most important is a series entitled, "Essays on the Economy of Slave Labor." 

Very solid, good minus with some chipping and wear, text block solid, but waved; perhaps dampened at some point.