Shepherd McKinley presents the first-ever book on the role of phosphates in economic, social, and industrial changes in the South Carolina plantation economy. Fueling the rapid growth of low-country fertilizer companies, phosphate mining provided elite plantation owners a way to stem losses from emancipation. At the same time, mining created an autonomous alternative to sharecropping, enabling freedpeople to extract housing and labor concessions. Using extensive research, McKinley shows how the convergence of the phosphate and fertilizer industries carried long-term impacts for America and the South.

Stinking Stones and Rocks of Gold develops an overarching view of what can be considered one of many key factors in the birth of southern industry. This top-down, bottom-up history (business, labor, social, and economic) analyzes an alternative path for all peoples in the post-emancipation South.