The first written reference
to salt is found in the Book of Job, recorded about 2,250 BC.
There are 31 other references to salt in the Bible, the most
familiar probably being the story of Lot ’s wife who
was turned into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed the angels
and looked back at the wicked city of Sodom.
From ancient times to the present, the importance of salt
to humans and animals has been recognized. Thousands of years
ago, animals created paths to salt licks, and men followed
seeking game and salt. Their trails became roads and beside
the roads; settlements grew. These settlements became cities
and nations.
Ancient Britons carried their crude salt by pack train from
Cheshire to Southern England where they often were forced to
delay their journey until the high tides of the Thames River
subsided. A village known as Westminster grew up there and
Westminster became London.
Salt has greatly influenced the political and economic history
of the world. Every civilization has had its salt lore - fascinating
superstitions and legends that have been handed down, sometimes
reverently and sometimes with tongue-in-cheek. The purifying
quality of salt has made it a part of the rituals in some religious
ceremonies.
“He is not worth his salt”, is a common expression.
It originated in ancient Greece where salt was traded for slaves.
Roman soldiers were paid “salt money”, salarium
argentum, from which we take our English word, “salary”.
The early Greeks worshipped salt no less than the sun, and
had a saying that “no one should trust a man without
first eating a peck of salt with him” (the moral being
that by the time one had shared a peck of salt with another
person, they would no longer be strangers).
The widespread superstition that spilling salt brings bad
luck is believed to have originated with the overturned salt
cellar in front of Judas Iscariot at the Last Supper, an incident
immortalized in Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting.
According to an old Norwegian superstition, a person will
shed as many tears as will be necessary to dissolve the salt
spilled. An old English belief has it that every grain of salt
spilled represents future tears. The Germans believe that whoever
spills salt arouses enmity, because it is thought to be the
direct act of the devil, the peace disturber. The French throw
a little spilled salt behind them in order to hit the devil
in the eye, to temporarily prevent further mischief. In the
United States, some people not only toss a pinch of spilled
salt over the left shoulder, but crawl under the table and
come out the opposite side.
The United States has had its battles over salt. In 1777,
Lord Howe made a successful attempt to capture General Washington's
stock of salt. Many battles and treaties took place before
Western salt licks were free to be used by settlers.
During the War of 1812 with England, it became very difficult
to obtain salt from abroad. Because of this, commercial production
of salt began in Syracuse, New York. During the Civil War,
Syracuse production freed the North of all salt problems, but
by 1863, Southerners could not buy salt at any price. If the
South had been able to protect its salt factories in Virginia
and its salt deposits along the Louisiana gulf coast, the War
between the States might have ended differently.
Transporting salt has always been a problem because it is
bulky and low priced. Syracuse salt was brought to Chicago
by way of the old Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. As early
as 1848, the canal was known as "the ditch that salt built." Today,
Morton has solved many of the transportation problems by having
salt plants located across North America.
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