Actually, Les..before we get too carried away about Manchester..for most of the duration of the Civil War apart from Manchester itself which wasn't as badly hit by the Cotton Famine as the surrounding mill towns there was considerably more support for the South.
For example a pro-Northern delegation in Ashton in 1862 was met with boos and hisses when they asked the assembled crowd to 'put up their hands if they were in favour of slaver' and were told in no uncertain terms that "it's not a question of slavery." At least fourteen pro-confederate meetings were held in the town and five petitions sent to Parliament demanding recognition of the Confederacy.
Three pro-confederate petitions were sent from Oldham and pro-Southern sentiments were strongly expressed in other cotton towns.
To quote from Norman Longmate's 'the Hungry Mills':-
"It was always the middle class which was most sympathetic towards the North and Manchester, although numerically dominated by working-men was essentially a middle class city."