Great Britain And The American Civil War

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In this comprehensive examination of British sympathy for the South during and after the American Civil War, Michael J. Turner explores the ideas and activities of A. J. Beresford Hope—one of the leaders of the pro-Confederate lobby in Britain—to provide fresh insight into that seemingly curious allegiance. Hope and his associates cast famed Confederate general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson as the embodiment of southern independence, courage, and honor, elevating him to the status of a hero in Britain. Historians have often noted that economic interest, political attitudes, and concern about Britain’s global reach and geostrategic position led many in the country to embrace the Confederate cause, but they have focused less on the social, cultural, and religious reasons enunciated by Hope and ostensibly represented by Jackson, factors Turner suggests also heightened British affinity for the South. During the war, Hope noticed a tendency among British people to view southerners as heroic warriors in their struggle against the North. He and his pro-southern followers shared and promoted this vision, framing Jackson as the personification of that noble mission and raising the general’s profile in Britain so high that they collected enough funds to construct a memorial to him after his death in 1863. Unveiled twelve years later in Richmond, Virginia, the statue stands today as a remarkable artifact of one of the lesser-known strands of British pro-Confederate ideology. Stonewall Jackson, Beresford Hope, and the Meaning of the American Civil War in Britain serves as the first in-depth analysis of Hope as a leading pro-southern activist and of Jackson’s reputation in Britain during and after the Civil War. It places the conflict in a transnational context that reveals the reasons British citizens formed bonds of solidarity with the southerners whom they perceived shared their social and cultural values.

Those writing for the British press of the mid-Victorian era were masters of the English language, given to tirades of grand oratory. They liked to cover the former colonies, arousing rhetorical fears among Britons over the increasing power of the United States. With the advent of the American Civil War, the British press had the perfect opportunity to practice their peculiar brand of journalism. The South was the home of virtuous aristocrats, and Lincoln had bad taste, bad grammar and the respect of no one. Selections from all of Britain's major Civil War-era newspapers and magazines (along with numerous pamphlets) are presented, with the author's historical and editorial comments. A revealing assessment of British journalistic treatment of the War Between the States is the result. Sections of the book are devoted to the British press' handling of contentious issues between the North and South, specific battles or persons, a detailed profile of The Times of London (including personal correspondence) with examples of the bias in favor of the Confederacy in The Times' reportage, and the portrayal by the press of Lincoln's presidency upon his assassination (suddenly The Times found wisdom and goodness).

To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Diversion Books is publishing pivotal works of the era: stories told by the men and women who led, who fought, and who lived in an America that had come apart at the seams. Readers of Amanda Forman’s seminal work, A World on Fire will become enthralled reading the British take on a war they did not start, but set in motion centuries before in colonizing the New World. This not-often-read take on the war offers new insights and remains a must-have for the Civil War completist.

Divided Hearts explores the passionate political strife that raged in Britain as a result of the American Civil War. Moving beyond Mary Ellison's 1972 landmark regional study of Lancashire cotton workers' reactions, R. J. M. Blackett opens the subject to a new, wider transatlantic context of influence and undertakes a deftly researched and written sociological, intellectual, and political examination of who in Britain supported the Union, who the Confederacy, and why. The American Civil War had a profound effect on Britain's political culture; no other event during that period -- not in Poland, Hungary, Italy, or British colonies -- compared. Blackett argues that the traditional historiographical assessments of British partisanship along class and economic lines must be reevaluated in light of the nature and changing contours of transatlantic abolitionist connections, the ways in which nationalism framed the debate, and the effect that race -- among other issues -- exerted over the British public's perception of conditions in America. Divided Hearts presents a compelling and innovative thesis, one sure to engage scholars in many fields of history.

A tale of intrigue about the attempts of the Confederacy to build a navy in Britain.

When the Confederacy seceded from the Union shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln, they hoped to quickly win their independence in a short war. But they also held what they hoped was an ace up their sleeve; they believed their cotton trade made it paramount for European nations to recognize the Confederacy if not intervene in its favor. Lincoln and the North also was aware of the precarious status with Great Britain, and the relationship was quickly tested by the "Trent Affair", which featured the arrest of Confederate diplomats after Union forces boarded a British ship. During the first half of the Civil War, both sides played a game of cat and mouse hoping to curry favor with Great Britain. Ephraim Douglass Adams (1865-1865) was an American educator who became an associate professor of history around the end of the 20th century. From that position he wrote his two-volume history of Great Britain and the American Civil War, one of the most comprehensive accounts of the relationship between Great Britain and the warring United States and Confederate States respectively.