DanielC

Have you read "Bond of Iron"? a scholarly book on the economics and social aspects of a VA ironworks that ran from around the end of the revolutionary war to the Civil War  and as you can tell from the title it goes in depth on the use of slaves in the process. (They were rented as they were considered better than the Irish not the least in that they didn't turn up drunk on Mondays...as I'm of Irish descent I got a kick out of that.)   I wish it had more of the technical aspects covered in depth though.