The other day a friend, while introducing the song 'The Alabama', mentioned that while Britain was officialy neutral during the American civil war they did secretly support the Confederacy. This was bourne out somewhat by the story of the Alabama, which I know well anyway, and the fact that the UK had to pay a considerable sum to the US following a decision in Geneva that Britain did indeed play a part in damaging the, now official, US Union. However, I decided to look into it a little and it is far from clear cut. It looks a fascinating subject for a little more reseach and I am going to locate some books to get a better picture.

Couple things I did already know and have found out are that Manchester people did, apparantly, at great hardship to themselves caused by the cotton famine, support Lincolns principles. There is now this statue of Lincoln in Manchester. The other, aand I find a little bizzare, thing is that Lord Palmerston read 'Uncle Tom' three times when trying to decide whetehr to offer arbitration to the divided states!

Anyone have any comments or their own personal reseach to add?

Cheers

DeG