In the decades before the Civil War, the Kanawha Salines had a booming salt industry that created vast wealth, and by 1846 this area led the nation with 3.2 million bushels produced. During the Civil War, salt from the works at Malden was especially important to the Confederacy because it was necessary for preserving meat for the armies. The salt businesses relied on enslaved labor, whether people were owned or leased, and the work was often harsh and dangerous, especially mining coal to boil brine. Enslaved workers toiled at 52 furnaces lining the Kanawha River for ten miles above Charleston, and by 1850, 3,140 enslaved people lived among 12,001 white inhabitants, with more than half of the enslaved population working in salt operations. Many salt-works owners lived in Malden, while others built large estates along the Kanawha River in Charleston to escape the heat and pollution of the furnaces. By 1861, the industry was declining because of salt fields farther west and the westward shift of meatpacking, and the Civil War and a record flood on the Kanawha River hastened its collapse. In 1853, saltmaker Richard Lovell estimated the labor force at his two furnaces in roles ranging from coal diggers and wheelers to kettle tenders, engineers, packers, blacksmiths, and a "negro man sort of manager." After the war, Booker T. Washington came to Malden as a child in 1865, packed salt, mined coal, and worked for the Ruffner family before becoming a prominent educator and leading spokesman for African Americans from 1895 until his death in 1915.