How British workers helped US president Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery in the U.S.

Abraham Lincoln had asked importers to install a blockade preventing the shipping of slave picked cotton, in his attempts to win the civil war and ultimately abolish the US slave trade.

In a meeting at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1862, in a show of defiance despite potential starvation and destitution, workers agreed to maintain support for Lincoln and the embargo.

The UK result was that the Lancashire workers suffered great personal hardship, with many out of work and unable to feed their families.

In 1863, with the cotton industry crashing down, Lincoln himself penned a letter to the ‘working men of Manchester’, praising what he called ‘sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country’.

US aid ships followed the letter to the shores of the North West, offering relief to starving mill workers in gesture of gratitude.

The US result was that in January 1865 the US Congress officially abolished slavery throughout the United States.

In Lincoln Square, Manchester, England, there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

Beneath it is inscribed a letter to the people of Manchester, commending them for a historic act of solidarity against the slave trade.

Sources:

mancunianmatters.co.uk

and

manchesterhistory.net

and

bbc.co.uk