P.A. Champomier. Statement of the Sugar Crop in Louisiana, of 1861–62. New Orleans, Louisiana: Cook, Young & Co., 1862. Small 8vo. Charts throughout. Original yellow wrappers. First edition.

An interesting agricultural publication issued in the midst of the Civil War. Although cotton was the South’s principal crop and the one most commonly associated with slave labor, sugar was likewise immensely profitable and equally dependent upon enslaved labor.

Writing in both English and French, the author addresses the current state of the crop, acknowledging the disruptions caused by war while obliquely referring to the enslaved workforce on which the industry depended: “As to the crop now under cultivation, I regret to state that the general promise is most unfavorable. As usual a large crop was aimed at, but owing to the numerous disastrous crevasses which have inundated a large portion of many of the most productive Sugar Prishes of the state, and the disasters attending the war, the crop will fall very far short of that of last year, even under the most favorable auspices during the balance of the season. A considerable portion of the Cane-growing country has been disturbed, while some plantations are left almost entirely bare of working hands.” (pp. VII–VIII).

Notably, the work was published in Union-controlled New Orleans, with the introduction dated 18 August 1862, and the text contains no overt expression of sympathy for either side in the ongoing conflict.