The statue of Abraham Lincoln in Manchester, England

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its empire remained officially neutral throughout the American Civil War (1861–65). It legally recognised the status of the Confederacy, but never recognised it as a nation and never signed a treaty or exchanged ambassadors. However, the top British officials debated intervention in the first 18 months. Elite opinion tended to favour the Confederacy, while public opinion tended to favour the United States.

The Confederate States of America came into existence when seven of the 15 slave states protested the election of Republican president Lincoln, because his party had made clear its commitment to the abolition of slavery Slavery was the cornerstone of the South's plantation economy; yet it was repugnant to the moral sensibilities of most people in Britain, which had abolished slavery in its Empire in 1833.

As the battle of Gettysberg raged throughout 1863, the Rochdale (Poor Law) Union minutes recorded 19,374 town folk receiving “outdoor relief” –a quaint reference to the widespread poverty and starvation that was occurring. The police reports for 1864 show that many of the remaining cotton workers were on short time. In those days before the Welfare State, Rochdale, like many other Lancashire Districts, organised its own Cotton Famine Relief Fund.

Instead of siding with the cotton producing Confederate States, many impoverished Lancashire cotton workers expressed support with the Union’s cause and in particular, with support for the abolition of slavery.

In September 1862 US President Lincoln had issued his Proclamation of Emancipation. On New Years Eve 1862, Lancashire cotton workers attended a public meeting at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. A letter was drafted and sent to President Lincoln. An excerpt reads:

The Lincoln Memorial - Washington DC, USA

"...the vast progress which you have made in the short space of twenty months fills us with hope that every stain on your freedom will shortly be removed, and that the erasure of that foul blot on civilisation and Christianity - chattel slavery - during your presidency, will cause the name of Abraham Lincoln to be honoured and revered by posterity. We are certain that such a glorious consummation will cement Great Britain and the United States in close and enduring regards."

This letter travelled from Manchester across the Atlantic and elicited a considered response, drafted by a President at war- all in little over 2 weeks.  Lincoln’s swift reply acknowledged Lancashire’s hardship as a result of the Cotton Famine:

... I know and deeply deplore the sufferings which the working people of Manchester and in all Europe are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this Government which was built on the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of slavery, was unlikely to obtain the favour of Europe.

KK

Through the action of disloyal citizens, the working people of Europe have been subjected to a severe trial for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under the circumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utterances on the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an energetic and re-inspiring assurance of the inherent truth and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and freedom.

I hail this interchange of sentiments, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual.

A monument in Brazenose Street, Lincoln Square, Manchester, commemorates the events and reproduces portions of both documents. The Abraham Lincoln statue by George Grey Barnard, 1919, was formerly located in the gardens at Platt Hall in Rusholme.

The Federal American government sent a gift of food to the people of Lancashire. The first consignment was sent aboard the George Griswold. Other ships were the Hope and Achilles.