Abstract:
During the Civil War, North Carolinians found substitutes for items they could no longer buy. North Carolina produced impressive amounts of tobacco and cotton, but beyond those two products, the state relied on imported goods. These goods were cut off during the war by the Union blockade. North Carolinians made do with what they had. Billy Arthur describes some of these efforts such as boiling the dirt from smoke house floors for the salt and carving wooden shoe soles for a leather substitute.