Manchester heroes going way back

[Jackson'sArm]

With Manchester so pitiably in the current news, this exchange is especially poignant. Manchester Cathedral had already been the site of a watershed visit by Thomas Clarkson in 1787 which energized the anti-slavery movement all across England. Then in 1863, amid the "Cotton Famine" caused by the Union blockade of Southern ports, mill workers in Manchester risked poverty, starvation and civil unrest by refusing to work any cotton that came from slave hands in America, and sending their powerfully symbolic words of support to Lincoln to prosecute the war that would end slavery.

Lincoln responded with this paean:

"I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country."

http://www.jasonmkelly.com/2014/12/...antislavery-among-manchester-textile-workers/

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

What an interesting piece of history. I had no idea that Manchester played this role in the ACW. Given the poverty and ill health of most mill workers it was a very bold thing to do on their part. Thanks for sharing it with us!

 

[Bruce Vail]

A statue to Lincoln in Manchester UK! Who knew?

 

[Jimklag]

With Manchester so pitiably in the current news, this exchange is especially poignant. Manchester Cathedral had already been the site of a watershed visit by Thomas Clarkson in 1787 which energized the anti-slavery movement all across England. Then in 1863, amid the "Cotton Famine" caused by the Union blockade of Southern ports, mill workers in Manchester risked poverty, starvation and civil unrest by refusing to work any cotton that came from slave hands in America, and sending their powerfully symbolic words of support to Lincoln to prosecute the war that would end slavery.

Lincoln responded with this paean:

"I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country."

http://www.jasonmkelly.com/2014/12/...antislavery-among-manchester-textile-workers/

Very nice story.

 

[KansasFreestater]

Reminds me of the textile workers in London's East End not quite 70 years later who were terribly hurt by Gandhi's Home Rule campaign and its boycott of British-made goods, most especially cotton cloth. But when Gandhi came for negotiations in London in 1931, those unemployed, suffering millworkers gave him a hero's welcome!